die nordreportage - The Mönchgut - Rügen's rough paradise - With the Pomeranian shepherd Frank in the biosphere reserve
De griese Schap is called on the peninsula Mönchgut the Rauwollige Pommersche Landschaf. It belongs to the Mönchgut just like a special breed of people: the so-called Poken. They are monosyllabic, straightforward, direct + a bit rough like the wool of the sheep. Frank Westphal, the red-bearded shepherd from Pommernhof in Groß Zicker, is one who belongs here. Even his grandfather and great-grandfather always had Pomeranian sheep. They belonged to every farm. The landscape by the sea has shaped people and animals in the change of seasons, as it were. Thousands of years. The Pomeranian sheep almost became extinct. Rough wool? No one wanted it. After reunification, nature conservation became a guarantee that the sheep breed would live on. Shepherd Frank Westphal tends the meager meadows of the Zickersche Berge with his Pomeranian sheep for the biosphere reserve. No other sheep can cope so well with these meager conditions. And then there is with him the return to what has always had a high value with the ancients: the rough wool! It is gradually gaining importance again in the domestic textile industry because it is a renewable and regional raw material. In the fifth generation, Frank Westphal is now a farmer here, living with his wife and two daughters on the edge of the Zicker hills. In summer a much visited hiking area, in winter lonely + rough. But always fascinating + impressive.
Broadcasting on 07th of March 2023 at 11.30am on NDR/ARD
Music: POPVIRUS Library