Asel, Bringhausen and Berich drowned in the floods of Lake Eder, the "Edersee" in German
Atlantis was in Waldeck, seriously! You don't believe me? Then look at all the pictures which tell the story of a gigantic project of the early 20th century. Eder and Diemel are the two main rivers of Waldeck. The river Eder formerly was a very wild river which often caused very bad floods. Therefore and because more water was needed for the ships on the nearby river Weser it was decided to dam up the river. A nice side effect was the production of electricity. At that time nobody thought of tourism. Today the Edersee is the third biggest artificial lake in Germany and definitely a touristic attraction which made Waldeck a bit famous.
3 villages had to be flooded and 700 people lost their homes and their land. The villages were Asel and Bringhausen, which were reconstructed nearby, and Berich, which couldn't be reconstructed because of the lack of land. So New-Berich moved a lot of kilometers further north.
The "Edersee" today as you can see it on Google Earth
In 1908 the construction began and it lasted until 1914. The construction was 7.5 Mio. Goldmark and costs for constructing new streets and buying properties were 17.5 Mio Goldmark.
Consruction auf the wall coping
All people of Asel gathered to make a last picture before they had to leave their homes; his was about August 1914.
Actually the new lake should be inaugurated on August 15, 1915, by Wilhelm II, the Emperor of Germany, and our dear Prince of Waldeck with his wife Bathildis. But unfortunately two weeks earlier World War I began and no emperor came to the inauguration. It was postponed, but after the war there was no emperor any more. Germany became a republic. But it didn't matter, because the lake worked properly.
Prince Friedrich of Waldeck and Pyrmont and his wife, the Princess Bathildis
Left: Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany; right: Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson
Well, it worked always properly and what happened in 1943 wasn't a mistake in the construction of the dam wall. On May 17, 1942, the British Commander Gibson bombed a hole into the dam wall with a very, very special kind of bomb, which jumped like a stone over the water surface and was stopped by the wall, where it sank and exploded. A gigantic 8 meter high wave drowned all villages between the dam and Kassel, which is 40 kilometers apart. 20,000 people in Kassel had to leave their homes, because their houses were overrun. 47 people, all civilists, women, children and old men, lost their lives. For military purpose this operation was completely senseless. It must have been like it was in New Orleans after Katrina.
Since 1943 the lake works properly again and it is a tourist attraction. Diving, sailing, trekking - you can spend a very nice time here in a beautiful landscape!
Shortly after May 17, 1943: destroyed dam.
But only a short time later the dam was already repaired. Until today you can see where the destruction was.
The dam today. There is still a light mark where there was the hole.
Every year in autumn, when the water level uses to be low, the remains of the three villages Asel, Bringhausen and Berich can be seen and people like to walk along the old paths looking for ruins. But this year the water level is farer down than it was ever before since 1914. Atlantis appears again. Let me guide you on a virtual trip to all the old places, which are still not forgotten. Come with me and look what the villages were like before the flood came and what they are like today, when the water has gone back into the river bed for a few weeks, already prepared for eating them again.
Asel
Asel is in a side valley of the Eder and where there was the former the village there is today a small bay. Asel was a typical Waldecker village with its black and white half timbered houses. Look how beautiful the old village was! Also the church was half timbered. Soldiers blasted all the houses in summer 1914 shortly before the water came. Today you can only see the outlines of the former houses when the water is low in autumn. Also old paths are still there.
Bridge over the Eder near Asel formerly and today.
This bridge is the only one of three Eder bridges which wasn't blasted in 1914. You can still walk on it from time to time when the water is away. And it is amazing how quickly grass and other plants come back when the water is gone only for a short time.
Berich
Teacher Wilhelm Vesper, my great great grandfather, lived there at least from 1845 on with his wife Karoline Doering, who was born in Berich and whose ancestors lived there. Four of Wilhelm's children also were born there. Three of them immigrated in Kansas, Topeka. But this was a bit later in the 1870ies and is a different story. Wilhelm Vesper married his wife in Berich on November 11, 1845. He lived in the school house directly near the church. In 1856 he became teacher in Wethen, so the family moved away from Berich. He never knew what happened to Berich later...
View over the old village Berich
The cloister church of Berich. It was built in the Middle Ages and became a Protestant Church later. In the backgound you can see the river Eder.
And this is the church today, well, the remains of which wasn't moved to Neu-Berich. When the villagers of Berich had to leave their village they couldn't move to a new Berich only a few hundred meters away like the other villagers of Asel or Bringhausen. There was simply not enough land for them. So they got a completely new village some kilometers away near the little town Arolsen. I think that it is a unique fact, I mean,that they took their church with them. There are no remains of the old school house, where Wilhelm lived.
School house near the church, where Wilhelm Vesper and his family lived
The church of Berich formerly and today
Topping-out ceremony for the old new church of Neu-Berich; about 1914
And this is what the church looks like today in Neu-Berich. It is a little shorter than the old church.
Once in a year the people of Neu-Berich take a model of their church round the village. This custom reminds of the move of their church in 1914.
Bericher Hütte
In German "Hütte" means a plant in which ores are melted. So this place was a factory where there was made iron and steel. But it was already out of order for a long time when it was flooded.
The Bericher Hütte formerly and today
The dam model near the Bericher Hütte formerly and today
Near the Bericher Hütte a model was built before the real construction of the dam had begun. It was used for experiments to find out the best way to construct a dam for these gigantic masses of water. The experiments must have worked well, because the dam never showed any mistakes until today.
And this is the cemetery of Berich, which is normally 10 meters below the water surface. They anchored huge plates of concrete to protect every single grave against the flow which might wash bones out of the ground without this measurement.
Bringhausen
The third village is Bringhausen. On the two pictures above you can compare between formerly and today. The bridge was blasted. The hill with bushes on it in the left foreground is the ruin of a castle. But today it is a small island, which is called "Love Island". Guess why...
Two views of the bridge over the Eder near Bringhausen
Love Island, the ruin of an old medevial castle and an old path
From an aeroplane you can still see all the outlines of the houses and the streets and of course: the castle (aka Love Island).
This is what remained from the houses: old cellars, formerly filled with apples and wine, nowadays fish and eels are hiding there.
Until the 1950ies people still brought flowers to the graves when the water was gone for a while.
Good bye Waldecker Atlantis. I can still see my ancestors walking along the old paths. I can still hear children playing in the streets and craftsmen working in the houses. I can still see the farmers working on their fields or resting in the warm sunlight. I can still see these meadows full of colorful flowers and I can feel the warm summer wind playing with the grain... Good bye. In a few weeks all these places will be buried again under a cold, dark and wet flood and fish will be the only inhabitants which populate these places, again wrapped in scary silence.
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