Rundlinge Dörfer

One of the unique features of this part of Germany, the Wendland, is the large number of Rundlinge Dörfer, round villages. They are small villages that are basically built in a circle around a central community area. I'd call it a "square", except it's circular! Typically, the houses have large double doors facing into the centre of the village, which open into the barn. Further back is the human habitation, which faces outwards. No-one really knows why these villages were built in this formation, but they are really lovely. They date from the late 1600s to the late 1800s, and are currently under consideration by UNESCO for World Heritage listing.

Rundlinge are really difficult to photograph. Only aerial shots do them justice.

The closest Rundling to Proitzer Mühle is Göhr, 2km away. It's very small and an incomplete Rundling. There are only three or four houses, and they make a semi-circle.

House 1 on left, house 2 behind spruce, house 3 down drive on right, house 4 visible

Further afield, Satemin is a nice village. It's pretty close to a full circle. The main road does a 90 degree turn through the middle of the village, and the houses on that quarter are newer and in a straight line rather than conforming to the circular.

No fences between houses is generally the case in Rundlinge Dörfer

Lots of grass as the houses curve around

Schreyahn is another example of a complete Rundling. Smaller than Satemin, its shape is more regular. In some Rundlinge, several houses are set back from the others, but in Schreyahn, most are at the same level.

Everything radiates from the centre

You can see the grassed community area quite clearly in this shot

The houses are lovely.  Note the stork's nest on the left

Luckau has a special meaning for me. There is a lovely children’s book which I have translated here, about a stork who was born in a Rundlingdorf. He falls off the nest and ends up living with a small herd of calves until he learns to fly. It’s written and illustrated by a local author (the same one who wrote Der Zwergenstein) and contains several local references. There are some liberties taken with the geography, but Heike tells me the village is Luckau. When we visited Luckau, there were four chicks on the nest.

In the book, the stork's nest is on a house.  In the real world, it's on a pole

Four well-grown youngsters

It was a pretty hot day. No shade on a stork's nest