Langeneß is one of ten low-lying patches of regularly flooded land that lies in the Wadden Sea, the largest unbroken tidal mud flats system in the world. Nestled along the northwestern part of the North Sea just off the Northern German coast, these patches are not islands, which are often protected by dykes, but Halligen – land that is regularly flooded by seawater, sometimes up to forty times a year. All of the flora, fauna, and people on the Halligen live with and through the water as it ebbs, flows, and floods. When storm tides come, the water often covers everything except the small, human-built mounds called Warften, which peek out of the salty sea like small green specks dotted with clusters of thatched houses. All life is built around and in negotiation with water. It might even be a mistake to differentiate between land and water at all on the Halligen, where life is lived amphibiously on salty, marshy soil.

Water is rhythmically pulled by the moon as it rotates around the earth. The moon´s pull on the water depends on the lunar calendar; its pull is the strongest and the tides highest when the moon is full. The sun as well as the power and direction of the winds and air pressure also impact the height of the tides.  At times when the sun and the moon are fully aligned, the lunar and solar tides reinforce each other, causing more extreme tides than usual. The people living on Langeneß therefore have as intimate a relation with the moon, the sun, the winds, and the air as they do with water. The landing page of the Langeneß website is a good example of this, as it contains all of that information, down to the minute (6:26 as we write this piece!) during which the high tides are projected to arrive. How could it be any different in a place where movement from one Hallig to the next, and from the Halligen to the mainland via an almost two-hour ferry ride, is determined by the rhythm, strength, and depth of the water? How could it be any different when people regularly experience “Land unter” – literally land under?