The Großes Bruch ("Great Marsh") is a 45 kilometres (28 mi) long wetland strip in Germany, stretching from Oschersleben in Saxony-Anhalt in the east to Hornburg, Lower Saxony in the west.

According to a writer of the time: "In order to get to Hamersleben Abbey from the south, one has to use a ferry from the place where, today, the Neudamm is located and the village of Wegersleben (later Neuwegersleben)."

[citation needed] According to legend, during a severe storm in 1130, a ferryman named Eulunardus refused to ferry count palatine Frederick II of Sommerschenburg, who killed him in a fit of violent temper.

Out of remorse, Frederick confessed the murder to Abbot Siegfried of Hamersleben Abbey, gave the monastery a hide of farmland, supported the victim's family with money, and ensured that Bishop Rudolf of Halberstadt could build a dyke in 1137.

The lands again became marshy in the Thirty Years' War, but were recultivated by the order of the "Great Elector" Frederick William of Brandenburg in his capacity as Prince of Halberstadt since 1648.