Qualla: Börger https://qualla.com/borger en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:34 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/m/k/borger-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Börger https://qualla.com/borger Börger: Introduction https://qualla.com/borger/ Photo credit Billy Hathorn at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Linguists believe the name Burgiri, recorded in 854, translates as high birch. The first 18 farms gathered around that tree, or that grove, and the village called Borger took shape on the sand of the Northern Hummling. For most of the next thousand years its residents would not have enough to eat. Each spring the men walked west across the border into the Netherlands to dig other people's peat for wages until the home crops were ready, and even that was not enough. Eventually many of them stopped coming back and crossed the Atlantic instead.

Read more: Börger on Qualla

Image: Billy Hathorn at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/m/k/borger-wp/u1mk-b-rger-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Börger: Four Tribes Before a Name https://qualla.com/borger/ Photo credit Lüko Willms, CC BY-SA 3.0. The archaeological record on the Northern Hummling reaches back about four thousand years. Stone tombs called Grosssteingraber and burial mound fields called Hugelgrabfelder still scatter the landscape, the work of people whose names no document preserved. Around the time of Chri...

Read more: Börger on Qualla

Image: Lüko Willms | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/m/k/borger-wp/u1mk-b-rger-four-tribes-before-a-name.mp3 0:06 2 full Börger: Founding in 854 https://qualla.com/borger/ Photo credit Lüko Willms, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first written mention of Borger appeared in 854, in a document associated with the era of Charlemagne - Karl der Grosse to German speakers. The village name was spelled Burgiri then. By 879 the spelling had drifted to Burgium. By 1160 a document referred to it as Burgeren. In...

Read more: Börger on Qualla

Image: Lüko Willms | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/m/k/borger-wp/u1mk-b-rger-founding-in-854.mp3 0:06 3 full Börger: Subjects of Nobody, Then Subjects of Bishops https://qualla.com/borger/ Photo credit Lüko Willms, CC BY-SA 3.0. The medieval Hummling was scarcely populated, heavily forested, and effectively beyond the reach of any single ruler. The people who lived there never fully accepted the nobility's claim on them, partly because that nobility could not actually defend them. Pillaging from the Dutc...

Read more: Börger on Qualla

Image: Lüko Willms | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/m/k/borger-wp/u1mk-b-rger-subjects-of-nobody-then-subjects-of-bishops.mp3 0:06 4 full Börger: Thirty Years, Then the Plague https://qualla.com/borger/ Photo credit Lüko Willms, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1647, during the Thirty Years' War, pillaging soldiers burned Wahn, Lorup, and six other villages along the Ems. The people of Borger hid in the swamps. Local tradition holds that one resident, Albert Dillen, was abducted by the soldiers and released only after he paid a ranso...

Read more: Börger on Qualla

Image: Lüko Willms | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/m/k/borger-wp/u1mk-b-rger-thirty-years-then-the-plague.mp3 0:06 5 full Börger: Hunger Sent Them West, Then West Again https://qualla.com/borger/ Photo credit Lüko Willms, CC BY-SA 3.0. Most of Borger's land was sand and swamp, useless for farming without fertilizer. The population survived on what little crop the suitable patches produced, supplemented by cattle and beekeeping. Between 1840 and 1880 came years of severe starvation. The poorest farmers and hired...

Read more: Börger on Qualla

Image: Lüko Willms | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/m/k/borger-wp/u1mk-b-rger-hunger-sent-them-west-then-west-again.mp3 0:06 6 full Börger: The Song From Borgermoor https://qualla.com/borger/ Photo credit Lüko Willms, CC BY-SA 3.0. Borgermoor acquired a name far beyond its small size. It was the site of one of the first Nazi concentration camps, established for political prisoners in the early 1930s. Among the prisoners, the song known as Die Moorsoldaten - the Peat Bog Soldiers - was composed. The lyrics d...

Read more: Börger on Qualla

Image: Lüko Willms | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/m/k/borger-wp/u1mk-b-rger-the-song-from-borgermoor.mp3 0:06 7 full