Green Track - Heads will roll… and Long Live the Rails

The Water Rail The Water Rail has survived. It belongs to the Rallidaes and it resembles the Common Moorhen (also known as the swamp chicken) though it has a long red beak and is somewhat smaller. The Water Rai is timid and lives a hidden life among the reeds. You’ll rarely see it but often hear it. It sounds a bit like pulling a pigs’ tail – listen – it might be here.

The Public Bath House Here, where the Galgenstrømmen (Gallowstream) meets the Vidå – one side leads you out of town, while the other side leads you towards the town – one of the city’s many public baths was located. The men’s part of the public bath faced one way while the women’s part faced the other. In the late 1950s it was replaced by an open air swimming pool. Today the city sports center is situated here. The Galgenstrømmen and the Dike nearby The name is an old toponym referring to the fact that once the gallows and the site of executions was here, right where the streams went by. In Tønder there were two sites of executions – one just 500m from here. You could be sentenced to death in many ways and the hangman had a large repertoire including “the wheel and spear”, dismemberment, drowning, shooting, burning or decapitation with either a sword or an axe. Through the 1700s it became a custom to send the severed heads to the university in Kiel for further examination. The office of executioner in Tønder was abolished in 1847.