Rundling
A Rundling is a form of circular village, now found only in Northern Germany, typical of settlements in the Germanic-Slav contact zone in the Early Medieval period.
Nineteen of these villages were put forward as an ensemble for consideration as a possible World Heritage Site, but the decision in December 2023 [[Elbe-Jeetzel Zeitung 4.12.2023 See published article https://rundlingsverein.de/]] was negative and there are no plans for resubmitting.
Pal.germ.164) of 1300, shows the relationship between the nobility (in green), the local landlords (with a straw hat) and the farmers, who clear the undergrowth of bush, and build the villages on greenfield sites.
Of the 324 named settlements in today's Lüchow-Dannenberg, over 200 are or were once Rundlinge, and virtually none have been swallowed up by the encroachment of towns, or have been amalgamated into larger villages, although since the reforms of 1972, most have lost their political separateness.
Prior to 1972 each village had its own separate political status, which led to there being 230 entities, Gemeinden, in what was then and still is one of the most sparsely settled areas of modern Germany, East or West.
Although very many Rundlinge of today have retained their separateness, many have expanded during the last century and have modern houses added, typically in one direction away from the original round.
{Wolfgang Meibeyer: Rundlinge und andere Dörfer im Wendland, Weddel, 2005, ISBN 3-9810610-0-4} Although the Rundling shape and the Rundling farmhouse architecture are two separate developments, with several hundred years between them, and which therefore need to be kept separate in our minds, it is the interplay between the two which makes the Wendland Rundlinge of today so attractive to the visitor.
The design of the house put the main open fire in the middle at the back of the barn area, the smoke disappearing through small apertures in the front facade.
The hall house was an invention of the North German plains, and did not exist to the south of a line from Dortmund to Brunswick to Wittenberg to Stettin.
This meant that only about one tenth of its entire width crossed the strip of land running north to south that was part of the 12th century Wendenkreuzzug, which created the Rundling form.
The oldest form, which would also have the lowest roof, was called a Zweiständerhaus because the whole construction rested on two rows of pillars (front to back) carrying beams across the centre.
{Dr Dirk Wübbenhorst: Page 221 "Hauslandschaften in Lüchow-Dannenberg" Hannoversches Wendland Band 20, HALD Wolfgang Jurries, Luchow 2023 ISSN 0931-6051} Why only Wendland should retain the Rundling form, plus the Low German Hall House, is not immediately clear, but will have more to do with the relative wealth of the cities to the north, which would have swallowed up the "primitive" Rundlinge and its "primitive" rural architecture over the centuries.
They had therefore issued a decree in the early 18th century forbidding the building of traditional hall houses, and requiring farmers to separate out the functions of cooking and storage.
This seems to have led to different solutions in Prussia from those traditional to the wider area, favouring Querdielenhäuser or transverse farmhouses, with the barn entrance to the side.
In the Altmark they also had the tradition of putting gatehouses across the fronts of their farmsteads, thus blocking the view of the large barn doors from the centre of the village green.
Wendland has always somehow been passed by, right from the times of the early Christianisation, and even today it has no motorways, virtually no railways, very little industry, very little employment and a shrinking population.
If it is known for anything today, it is known for its decades-long fight against the deposit of radioactive waste in Gorleben, a site chosen by the politicians of a generation ago precisely because so few people live there.
[citation needed] From the 1880s onwards began a time of greater prosperity in Germany, and this was reflected in Wendland too with the arrival of some industry.
A few large brick buildings typical of the time called the Gründerzeit were built in the modern style, and were often faced sideways to the village green, but these were the exceptions.
Briefly in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Wendland became home to very many refugees from the east, but the increasing pull of the industrialised parts of the new Federal Germany led to many moving on.
Firstly the rural isolation of the Rundling villages was not affected negatively by industry or motorways, and secondly Wendland became a second home for a large number of West Berliners, who were anxious about their position, surrounded as they were on all sides by an unfriendly state.
This trend was noticed with alarm by many lovers of the old hall houses in their picturesque circular villages, and the Rundlingsverein was brought into existence in 1969 to educate the population to the potential loss of a heritage that had become unique not only in Germany but in the whole of Europe.
In Hanoverian Wendland alone there are over 200 which were clearly still Rundlinge at the time of the Verkopplungskarten (a type of enclosure map, marking the ownership of land and property) in the early parts of the 19th century.
The Rundlingsverein, which has long supported the preservation of these unique villages for posterity, put its weight behind the unsuccessful bid from the Samtgemeinde for UNESCO recognition.
[8] English: Considered the last 93 Rundlinge in Wendland The 93 villages are as follows: Banzau, Bausen*, Beesem, Belau, Belitz, Beseland, Beutow, Bischof, Breese im Bruche, Breustian, Bückau, Bussau*, Dambeck, Diahren*, Dolgow*, Dünsche, Gistenbeck, Gollau, Göttien, Grabau, Granstedt*, Groß Gaddau, Groß Sachau, Großwitzeetze, Gühlitz*, Guhreitzen, Gümse, Güstritz*, Jabel*, Jameln, Jeetzel, Jiggel, Karmitz, Karwitz, Klautze, Klein Breese, Klein Heide, Klein Witzeetze, Klennow*, Köhlen*, Kremlin*, Kriwitz, Krummasel, Kukate, Künsche, Küsten, Lensian*, Loge, Lübeln*, Luckau, Lütenthien, Mammoißel*, Marleben, Marlin, Metzingen, Meuchefitz, Mützen, Nienbergen, Nienwedel, Pannecke, Penkefitz, Platenlaase, Predöhlsau, Prezier, Prießeck*, Püggen*, Puttball, Ranzau, Reddebeitz, Reetze, Rehbeck, Saaße, Saggrian, Salderatzen, Satemin*, Schlanze, Schmarsau (Dannenberg), Schmarsau (Lemgow), Schreyahn*, Seerau in der Lucie, Solkau, Spithal, Tarmitz, Thunpadel, Thurau, Tobringen, Tolstefanz, Trabuhn, Tramm, Vasenthien, Wöhningen, Zadrau, Zeetze.
