Osterby

Osterby is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is mostly rural.Location and transportOsterby is located on the Osterbek stream, about 6km west of Eckernförde in the Hüttener Berge hills, south of Hummelfeld, Fleckeby and Windeby and north of Hütten, Damendorf and Groß Wittensee. Bundesstraße 203 from Rendsburg to Eckernförde passes to the southeast and Bundesstraße 76 from Eckernförde to Schleswig to the north.HistoryThe first recorded mention of Osterby is on 7 October 1528 as Osterbuj. It was a Jutish settlement (Danish by) on the eastern edge of a forest that lay between the Eider and the Schlei. In the Middle Ages, the forest and bog land between the two rivers formed a natural barrier between the Danes and the Saxons, until the Saxons advancing from the south mixed with the Jutes around 1550. From an early period, the inhabitants of Osterby cleared forest and bog land to add to their holdings, as shown by old farm names such as Holzkoppel, Haselhorst, Moorwiese and Wolfsbrook.