The outer edges of the Teufelsmoor were first settled in the 17th and 18th centuries. Around 1750 the colonisation of the entire moor began, led by the moor's
commissioner, Jürgen Christian Findorff. The settlers were simple
farmhands and
maids from the surrounding area, who were attracted by the prospect of having their own property and being freed from taxes and military service. Until well into the 20th century the living conditions in these
moor colonies were anything other than quaint or attractive. An impression of the very poor circumstances is given by the Low Saxon saying
"Den Eersten sien Dood, den Tweeten sien Noot, den Drüdden sien Broot" (translates as something like "The first gets death, the second gets misery, the third gets bread."). Life expectancy in the dark, damp bog dwellings was short and the moor's soils were unsuited to farming. An extensive network of drainage channels was created, the main drainage ditches being built to act simultaneously as canals for boats. At that time massive inroads were made into the environment and millions of cubic metres of
peat were cut. The peat was sold for heating fuel and shipped to
Bremen using
peat barges, such as those built in the yard in Schlussdorf. The embankments running alongside these canals were used by
burlaks to haul the barges and also opened up the long-street villages (
Straßendorf) following the practice in the
fen (
Fehn) regions. From the embankments the narrow and very long strips of land (
Hufen) that ran out into the
moor were farmed. Even today these patterns of settlement (of the
linear village or
Reihendorf) can be seen in many parts of the area around the villages of
Grasberg and
Worpswede. By harvesting the layers of peat and draining the land the climatic conditions of the entire area were changed considerably. By the end of the 19th century the keeping of
dairy cattle had spread to the area. In Bremen the use of peat for heating was banned because on many winters days the air pollution it caused had become unbearable. Coal, with its greater energy density, superseded peat. Right into the 1980s and 1990s, however, there was continued destruction of the moor. Major 'melioration' measures such as draining, deep ploughing (
Tiefumbruch) and river regulation were supposed to increase the productivity of agriculture and even enabled arable farming.
Intensive farming methods were used to grow
maize as an animal feedstuff. These measures had been supported since the middle of the 20th century by various national and European subsidy programmes. This went so far that ditches dried out in summer, heath fires broke out and, during sustained periods of drought, the land was artificially watered. In the 1990s a major rethink began. By leaving the land to regenerate and by reflooding it, attempts have been made to preserve the original landscape, although the moor in its original state no longer exists. Even those bogs that are still intact - like the Günnemoor - continue to be denuded by industrial peat cutting. Remnants (of peat mounds not peat cuttings) are still visible in the landscape, but their renaturalisation is difficult due to their elevation. The dry conditions encourage the mineralisation of the peat layers and enable woods to develop. In the meantime many small temporary structures have appeared on these areas. == Situation today ==