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community that lived from seafaring. These characteristics
are particularly evident in marriage behaviour, and the
article thus focuses on this. Marriages and births in the
maritime society of Amrum followed the particular
structures determined by seafaring. There was a substantial
surplus of women, and the men were at sea for a large part
of the year. There was a high level of mobility and mortality
among the men. This was less so for the women. The
marriage opportunities for women were consequently not
as good as those for men, meaning that there were a number
of women who never married. Opportunities to remarry
were also worse for widows than for widowers. Widowed
men could quickly find a new wife. As long as shipping
was seasonal in the months from March to September, the
men’s absence clearly affected marriage dates and births.
This changed in the course of the nineteenth century, when
seafaring declined and its structures changed. By 1800, the
numbers of both illegitimate and prenuptial births as well
as prenuptial conceptions increased significantly. In fact the
latter were the rule in the nineteenth century. Even though
prenuptial sexual relations came to be the norm, there was
evidently strong social pressure to marry when the woman
became pregnant. If the man was absent at sea, the couple
would be married after his return. The number of unmarried
mothers who did not marry the father of the child remained
low compared to other regions despite the fact that the
sailors could relatively easily escape marriage, and although
one might expect a higher illegitimacy rate because of the
substantial surplus of women. The article finally shows that
the demographic trends changed when seafaring declined
and tourism became more significant as a main occupation
in the late nineteenth century.
Noter
1. Sml. Martin Rheinheimer: Der Kojenmann. Mensch und
Meer im Wattenmeer 1860-1900, Neumünster 2007, p. 21-
26; Martin Rheinheimer: Eine maritime Gesellschaft im
Wandel. Amrum im 19. Jahrhundert, Zeitschrift der Gesell-
schaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte 132 (2007),
p. 86-97. – Tak til Anna Lund Jepsen for oversættelsen!
2. Sml. Georg Quedens: Das Seebad Amrum, Amrum 1990;
Friedrich Remde: Amrum. Ein Beitrag zur Genese und
Struktur einer Inselsiedlung, Diss. Münster 1972, p. 113-
135; Rheinheimer, Kojenmann, p. 247-249.
3. Flere tal og statistikker findes i: Martin Rheinheimer:
Geburten in einer maritimen Gesellschaft: Amrum 1694-
1918, Rundbrief des Arbeitskreises für Wirtschafts- und
Sozialgeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins 103 (2010), p. 14-
20; Martin Rheinheimer: Seefahrt und Bevölkerung auf
Amrum 1694-1918, Rundbrief des Arbeitskreises für Wirt-
schafts- und Sozialgeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins 105
(2011), p. 38-53; Martin Rheinheimer: Heirat und Ferti-
lität auf Amrum 1700-1900, Rundbrief des Arbeitskreises
für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins
106 (2011), p. 47-63; Martin Rheinheimer: Ehe und Wit-
wenschaft auf Amrum 1700-1900, Rundbrief des Arbeits-
kreises für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Schleswig-
Holsteins 107 (2012), p. 38-56.
4. Vedrørende ægteskabsforhold generelt sml. Rolf Gehr-
mann (Hrsg.): Determinanten und Muster des Heiratsver-
haltens in Europa in der Neuzeit: Ausgewählte Fallstudien
= Historical Social Research 28 (2003) 3; Jacques Dupâ-
quier o. a. (ed.): Marriage and Remarriage in Populations
of the Past, London o. a. 1981; Christophe Duhamelle &
Jürgen Schlumbohm (Hrsg.): Eheschließungen im Europa
des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Muster und Strategien, Göt-
tingen 2003.
5. Om familierekonstruktion som metode sml. Arthur E. Im-
hof: Einführung in die Historische Demographie, München
1977, S. 101-106; Louis Henry & Alain Blum: Techniques
d’analyse en démographie historique, 2. opl., Paris 1988, p.
65ff.
6. Rigsarkivet, København: Folketælling 1787, 1801, 1834,
1860: Ribe Amt, Amrum St. Clemens.
7. Martin Rheinheimer: Geschlechterreihen der Insel Am-
rum 1694-1918 (Quellen zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialge-
schichte Schleswig-Holsteins 8), Amrum 2010.
8. Jeg følger stort set inddelingen i Rolf Gehrmann: Leezen
1720-1870. Ein historisch-demographischer Beitrag zur So-
zialgeschichte des ländlichen Schleswig-Holstein (Studien
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