Detours | The Wendland Region
Traditional Villages and the Spirit of Resistance

The Wendland region in the German state of Lower Saxony is a great place for fans of the Middle Ages, as many of the villages here are still arranged in just the same way they were in the twelfth century. But what does that mean? Above all, that they are round.

By Sarah Klein

While other regions, cities and villages offer little in the way of mediaeval remains – perhaps just a statue or building here and there – you can visit more than 100 villages in the Wendland whose structure has hardly changed at all since the twelfth century.

The Wendland’s Rundling villages are a form of settlement in which farmhouses are arranged in circles and radiate out from a village green like the spokes of a wheel. The inner circle encompasses four or five farmhouses, while as many as 20 make up the outer circles. Most of them are traditional half-timbered buildings decorated with artistic murals and old wooden beams bearing inscriptions. One particular feature is known as the Wendenknüppel – an ornate timber beam at the gable that was believed in bygone days to protect the house and its inhabitants.

These days, many of the old farmsteads are listed buildings and an important part of Wendland cultural heritage. Only very few are still used as farms, however. Instead, many artists have moved into the historical buildings. If you are interested in learning more about the special way in which the Rundling villages are designed, you should definitely pay a visit to the Rundlingsmuseum Wendlandhof Lübeln. And it’s also well worth visiting the Wendland to experience a very special natural spectacle: when the heather blooms in the late summer, the entire landscape is immersed in a vibrant purple.

The Wendland region is also well known in Germany for a rather different reason: in the 1970s, a movement evolved to oppose the nuclear waste final storage facility that was planned in Gorleben. Farmers and anti-nuclear activists joined forces to protest in their tens of thousands against the repository. In 1980, for example, 5,000 activists occupied an area of woodland around a drilling site and promptly declared it to be the “Free Republic of the Wendland”. Though the protest camp was disbanded after just a month, the activists did at least partly achieve their goal: though Gorleben is still home to an interim storage facility for radioactive waste, the plans for a deep final repository were abandoned.

From traditional Rundling villages to an Anti-Nuclear Power Republic – so much history for such a tranquil stretch of countryside.While other regions, cities and villages offer little in the way of mediaeval remains – perhaps just a statue or building here and there – you can visit more than 100 villages in the Wendland whose structure has hardly changed at all since the twelfth century.

The Wendland’s Rundling villages are a form of settlement in which farmhouses are arranged in circles and radiate out from a village green like the spokes of a wheel. The inner circle encompasses four or five farmhouses, while as many as 20 make up the outer circles. Most of them are traditional half-timbered buildings decorated with artistic murals and old wooden beams bearing inscriptions. One particular feature is known as the Wendenknüppel – an ornate timber beam at the gable that was believed in bygone days to protect the house and its inhabitants.

These days, many of the old farmsteads are listed buildings and an important part of Wendland cultural heritage. Only very few are still used as farms, however. Instead, many artists have moved into the historical buildings. If you are interested in learning more about the special way in which the Rundling villages are designed, you should definitely pay a visit to the Rundlingsmuseum Wendlandhof Lübeln. And it’s also well worth visiting the Wendland to experience a very special natural spectacle: when the heather blooms in the late summer, the entire landscape is immersed in a vibrant purple.

The Wendland region is also well known in Germany for a rather different reason: in the 1970s, a movement evolved to oppose the nuclear waste final storage facility that was planned in Gorleben. Farmers and anti-nuclear activists joined forces to protest in their tens of thousands against the repository. In 1980, for example, 5,000 activists occupied an area of woodland around a drilling site and promptly declared it to be the “Free Republic of the Wendland”. Though the protest camp was disbanded after just a month, the activists did at least partly achieve their goal: though Gorleben is still home to an interim storage facility for radioactive waste, the plans for a deep final repository were abandoned.

From traditional Rundling villages to an Anti-Nuclear Power Republic – so much history for such a tranquil stretch of countryside.