Witzeeze

Witzeeze is a municipality in the district of Herzogtum Lauenburg in Schleswig-Holstein on the Elbe-Lübeck Canal.

The village originally developed in the former Saxon-Slavic border area along the Delvenau, about 500 meters east of today's village center. Here, the Limes Saxoniae separated the settlement area of the Holsten from that of the Abodrite sub-tribe of the Polaben. Archaeological finds testify to a Slavic settlement. After the establishment of the County of Ratzeburg in 1143, the village was first mentioned in the Ratzeburg tithe register of 1230, then still as Wutsetse. The name is of Slavic origin and means “the cut down place,” “the barricade,” pointing to the construction of a terrain barrier by cutting trees at a height of one to two meters and subsequently planting thorny vines, creating an impenetrable obstacle in the German-Slavic border area.

Wikipedia