Vierlande
Vierlande is the name given to a roughly 77-square kilometre region in the Hamburg district of Bergedorf which has a population of 18,419  and comprises four quarters of the city. Its name goes back to the year 1556 and refers to the four church parishes of Curslack, Kirchwerder, Neuengamme and Altengamme which are identical with their modern-day quarters. Geography. The Vierlande consists of former river islands in the "urstromtal" of the Elbe. History. The populace of Vierlande were free farmers, but sovereignty over the whole region frequently changed hands. From the 12th century it belonged to the  dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg who, due to a shortage of money, enfeoffed it to the Hanseactic cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, and, in 1401, repossessed it without returning the pledge money. The Vierlande - Bergedorf and Riepenburg - was, however, reconquered by the two cities in 1420 and, as a result of the Treaty of Perleberg managed jointly for a long time until in 1868, it was taken over by Hamburg. Part of Kirchwerder remained, however, an exclave of the Prussian county of Harburg until the enactment of the Greater Hamburg Act in 1938. Altengamme is first mentioned in the records in  1188; Neuengamme ("New Island") and Kirchwerder in 1212, and Curslack in 1217. Dyke construction. The first dykes were constructed in the 12th century as part of land reclamation. Museums. The Rieckhaus is built in the style of a Fachhallenhaus and is an open-air museum in Curslack. It is part of the Bergedorf Museum Landscape, which also manages the regional museum, the "Museum for Bergedorf and the Vierlande" in Bergedorf Castle.