Abstract
The North Frisian Islands in general, and the island of Amrum in particular, have aroused the interest of historians and regional researchers due to their special living conditions – amidst the Wadden Sea, influenced by the tides. However, this usually referred to special aspects of island life and island history (for example: whaling or the emergence of the seaside resort) and emerged mostly outside recent historical discourses. It was Martin Rheinheimer himself who in recent years has presented a series of archivally founded and advanced studies on the island’s history and culture on the island of Amrum. With the voluminous book that has now been published, a ‘total histoire’ is provided for a period that was of particular economic and social importance for this ‘maritime community’.
Firstly, Martin Rheinheimer explains his methodological-conceptual approaches in the context of an interdisciplinary understanding of regional history, which turns away from a purely immanent perspective. Regarding supra-regional and international contexts and networks, the study is based, among others, on the concepts of the French ‘Annales’ School (Fernand Braudel et al.) and the Göttingen School of Micro History Research. In the second chapter the island of Amrum is presented in the context of its natural space as well as its political-territorial affiliation, aspects of language and culture as well as the structures of employment. From the point of view of larger cities, Amrum was – at least during the investigation period – ‘on the verge of civilisation’ (p. 92). Seafaring, fishing and agriculture were among the main sources of income. It becomes clear that high proportion of Amrum men at least temporarily practiced maritime professions. Although this is comparable to other North Frisian Islands, it is well above the proportions in larger coastal cities on the North Sea and Baltic Sea. If one looks at the relationships of the Amrum sailors in regional and supra-regional context, whaling and merchant navy were both options, and offered the opportunity to progress as far as commander of a whaling ship. In another chapter Martin Rheinheimer reflected the demographic consequences of a maritime society in seasonally adjusted marriages and birth cycles. Frequent deaths at sea meant that more women than men lived on the island. If Amrumer worked as captains or commanders, they recruited their teams from their own island. Supra-regional networks linked to the four major northern European port cities of Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Altona and Hamburg expanded maritime employment opportunities. In addition, opportunities for gainful employment and advancement were characterised by social background and marriage relationships. This makes it clear that the personal connections and networks on the islands also played an important role for households, incomes and economic forms. Martin Rheinheimer exemplifies the role of the so-called godparents here. Like these, individual actors, who are distinguished by their function and their economic success, have a special influence on the island society as well as the social mobility. Around the middle of the 19th century the epoch of the ‘maritime community’ ends. After that, emigration, and above all the emergence of tourism (starting around 1890), provided new employment opportunities for a now rapidly changing island population.
In his results, Martin Rheinheimer shows that the maritime society unfolding between 1700 and 1860 interacted with the agrarian society: ‘In general, it becomes clear,’ he writes in the chapter on ‘Property and Capital,’ ‘that the Amrumer Maritime Society … ultimately only built a superstructure over a traditional agricultural society. The sailors continued to think in agrarian dimensions. Former sailors returned to the island, living on a combination of agriculture, local natural resources, and interest’ (p. 347).
From the perspective of a maritime history, the work based on a rich source base of different archives proves to be extremely productive. It shows how a maritime society – organised here as a microcosm in superordinate contexts – organises and structures itself. Seafaring (whaling, commercial and coastal shipping) provided an opportunity to overcome Amrum’s very limited agricultural potential and poor fishing. For at least certain periods, seafaring brought relative wealth to the island, albeit depending on general political, social and economic conditions. Of special interest for the maritime history are the links between local and national navigation as well as personal networks, which opened up maritime career opportunities and led to the fact that often several Amrumers were hired together on the same ship. Almost incidentally and well illustrated, the work offers a list of the types of ships on which the sailors were travelling. According to the author’s tenth chapter, seafaring is mythically exaggerated in the maritime grave culture of the island, which experienced an almost incomparable flowering with its numerous, mostly relatively detailed depictions of seafaring epochs (and today is considered a tourist attraction).
All in all, Martin Rheinheimer’s work offers a dazzlingly informed study based on numerous, lengthy source studies and preparatory work, which presents a comprehensive spectrum of the social, economic, cultural and everyday history of the island of Amrum. Among the many strengths of the work is the integration of the presentation of the ‘longue durée’ of development and social and economic cross-sectional analyses. In doing so, different epochs emerge than were conceived by classical (regional) historiography. Of course, as a recipient one is occasionally confused by the flood of detailed information and factories. But the overall clearly structured presentation and last but not least the summaries appended to each chapter facilitate the orientation. Here, however, a subject index would also have been helpful.
The value of the present volume is enhanced by excellent illustrations. In addition to many historical maps and representations, there are numerous photos and graphics specially created by the author. The appendix includes – in addition to bibliography and source list – a register of Amrum captains for the period from the mid-eighteenth century to 1860 and a place and persons register.