Wandsbek (quarter) - History

History

Wandsbek was once part of the county Stormarn. It's villages were first mentioned in the middle of the 13th century. The name Wandsbek, Wandsbeck or (older) Wantesbeke derives from old Low Saxon ("Low German") for "border river" and the river Wandse was a natural territorial border.

An old Danish phrase for stating that something is a fraud / unreliable is to claim that "det gælder ad Wandsbek til" (i.e. "this is valid in Wandsbeck."). Wandsbek was one of the three locations in the Danish monarchy where the first lottery drew its numbers, and this expression dates from the early years of this lottery's life where a number of people tried to claim prizes in Copenhagen with tickets from Wandsbeck. Since each of the three towns drew its own set of numbers, a ticket from one town was worthless in the two others.

Until 1864, Wandsbek was a part of the Duchy of Holstein and under the rule of the King of Denmark. Afterwards, it became part of the Prussian province Schleswig-Holstein.

In 1937, the still Prussian city of Wandsbek joined the city of Hamburg through the Greater Hamburg Act.

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