Husum

Theodor Storm, the writer, was born in Husum in 1817 and called it die graue Stadt am Meer, the grey town by the sea, in a poem that has attached itself permanently to the place; his house is a museum and his novella The Rider on the White Horse is set on these dikes. Each spring around four million crocuses flower in the park of the sixteenth-century castle, turning it purple for roughly two weeks in late March or April; the flowers are thought to descend from bulbs planted by monks, and the town holds a festival crowning a Krokusblütenfest queen. The harbour dries at low tide.

History

Husum is first mentioned as Husembro in 1252, and in 1362 the great storm tide known as the Grote Mandrenke flooded the area and carved out the inland harbour, putting the town on the coast for the first time; its people built a marketplace and the town prospered. Between 1372 and 1398 the population grew fast and the villages of Oster-Husum and Wester-Husum were founded, its first church was built in 1431, it received Wisby rights in 1582 and town privileges in 1603 from Duke Alexander, and it suffered badly from the floods of 1634 and 1717 (Wikipedia, Husum).

The main sights

• The crocus bloom - about four million flowers in the castle park each spring.
• The Storm house - the writer's home and museum in the old town.
• The tidal harbour - a working basin that empties at low tide.
• The castle - a sixteenth-century building at the centre of the park.

When to go

Late March and April for the crocuses, which last about two weeks and shift with the season. The rest of the year the town lives up to Storm's description.

Things to know

The bloom is short, weather dependent and heavily visited. Outside it the town is quiet and, as its own poet said, grey. Museums close Mondays.

Nearby

St Peter-Ording lies south; the Halligen are west.

Key facts