Cultural-historical society Baltrum

I know a little village in the world,

so beautiful, fine and small

There I like it best

winter, spring, summer, fall.

They are a joyful sight,

these 12 houses that the village counts

Don't you know the houses then

That are hidden with dunes all around?

Privet, lilacs, ivy, wine,

They all spread a weak scent

And wind around the windows

A starling calls around the bend.

The little room inside, just look,

It is full of homely sense.

No trace of pride and arrogance,

Just home with lots of ambience.

A corner here, a cupboard there.

filled with ancestral thingies

different pots and cans and even shells

would that painting be from overseas?

A house such kind is like a secret

Cosy, sweet and everything it will take

No sense of threat or fear it spreads

on that my reputation I'll stake.

Hear, whispering voices, sometimes

of ancestors' being, in the night

All things appear to be alive

in the flickering candle light

He carried full of love and care

them over here, piece by piece

And brought them his beloved

once over the big, big seas!

Now he dreams on the sea

his long, long last dream

and then at the hour of midnight or so

he ascends out of white steam.

He hurries to his house, so fine and small

Where his grandchildren sleep, peacefully, all

And in the silver-coloured rays of the moon

He blesses them, quietly but standing tall.

They all sleep and smile in their dream

as if they feel they have new powers.

The sea roars, it seems to say:

"Continue sleeping, for some more hours."

I rest on the bottom of the sea

and quietly stand guard

I'm with you all, day and night

When life is easy, when it's hard.

You, little Ostdorf of mine on Baltrum,

you, magic place on Baltrum's beach

there on the green edge of the dunes

you're my diamond, all day and each.

Free translation of a poem by M. Stephan

This beautiful photograph comes out of a photo album from Baltrum that dates to the beginning of the 20th century. Left, above the housewife, hangs a so-called "Buddelei" (hanging cupboard for displaying small things). Right of the "Buddelei" you can see an East Friesian "Halbkastenuhr" (a hanging clock of which one half consists of wood). On the right behind the stove the wall is tiled with authentic Delft tiles and above the stove you can see a so-called "Schößsteinkleid", which means that the chimney pipe is covered. The window left of the stove is a sliding window.

The photo is from the 1920s. The island photographer, who shot this photo is Tjarko Reemt Onnen Albers; without his work we would not have had that many photos from this time.

Great love for the small island of Baltrum

In memory