Research assistant
Academic Senior Councillor
 | 2024 Publications from the RUNGHOLT project: Geosciences (on medieval overexploitation of peat in the Wadden Sea) Scientific Reports (on the discovery of the church of Rungholt) |
 | Die Nordreportage: Hunters of the lost church (NDR, 29.08.2024) |
 | Further part of Rungholt identified (Joint press release of ALSH, LEIZA, CAU and JGU, 12.06.2024) Researchers identify further parts of Rungholt (Joint press release of ALSH, LEIZA, CAU and JGU, 12.06.2024) |
 | Together with the research team: Hanna Hadler finds sunken city in the Wadden Sea (Landesschau Rheinland-Pfalz – Couch Talks, 18.01.2024) |
 | Archaeology in the sea – On the trail of historical treasures in the mudflats (Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Zeitfragen Feature, 18.01.2024) |
 | Missing since 1362: Church ofa sunken medieval trading place discovered (Joint press release of ALSH, ZBSA, CAU and JGU, 23.05.2023) Lost since 1362: Researchers discover the church of a sunken medieval trading place (Joint press release of ALSH, ZBSA, CAU and JGU, 24.05.2023) |
RUNGHOLT – Combined geophysical, geoarchaeological and archaeological investigations in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) in the environs of the medieval trade center Rungholt
DFG-funded research project in cooperation with Kiel University (CAU), the State Archaeology Department Schleswig-Holstein (ALSH), the Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie (LEIZA-ZBSA) and the ROOTS Cluster of Excellence; funding period: 2020 – 2025
Principal Investigators: H. Hadler (leading), D. Wilken, R. Blankenfeldt, U. Ickerodt, A. Vött
Geoarchaeological investigations of harbors of the 12th and 13th cent. along the Hever Estuary (North Frisia) starting at the trading settlement of Rungholt – RUNGHOLT
Sub-project of the DFG Priority Program 1630 “Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages”; funding period: 2015 – 2020
Principal Investigators: H. Hadler (leading), J. Newig (+2015), A. Vött
Project-related publications
| 2024 | |
 | Hadler, H., Reiß, A., Willershäuser, T., Wilken, D., Blankenfeldt, R., Majchczack, B., Klooß, S., Ickerodt, U. & Vött, A. (2024). Medieval Overexploitation of Peat Triggered Large-Scale Drowning and Permanent Land Loss in Coastal North Frisia (Wadden Sea Region, Germany). Geosciences, 15(1), 1. |
 | Wilken*, D., Hadler*, H., Majchczack, B. S., Blankenfeldt, R., Auge, O., Bäumler, S., Bienen-Scholt, D., Ickerodt, U., Klooß, S., Reiß, A., Willershäuser, T. & Vött, A. (2024). The discovery of the church of Rungholt, a landmark for the drowned medieval landscapes of the Wadden Sea World Heritage. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 15576. *These authors contributed equally. |
| Reiß, A., Hadler, H., Wilken, D., Majchczack, B.S., Blankenfeldt, R., Bäumler, S., Ickerodt, U., Klooß, S., Willershäuser, T., Rabbel, W. & Vött, A. (2024). The Trendermarsch sunken in the Wadden Sea (North Frisia, Germany) – Reconstructing a drowned medieval cultural landscape by geoarchaeological and geophysical investigations. E&G Quaternary Science Journal (accepted). | |
 | Reiß, A., Hadler, H., Wilken, D., Majchczack, B., Blankenfeldt, R., Ickerodt, U., Klooß, S., Rabbel, W., Willershäuser, T. & Vött, A. (2024). Geoarchaeological and geophysical investigations in the tidal flats of the Trendermarsch, Nordstrand (North Frisia, Germany). Journal of Geomorphology. |
| Majchczack, B.S., Blankenfeldt, R., Bienen-Scholt, D., Hadler, H., Jürgens, F., Klooß, S., Reiß, A., Wilken, D., von Carnap-Bornheim, C., Rabbel, W. & Vött, A. (2024). Living on the Halligen tidal islands of North Frisia. Land-use and exploitation of a unique salt marsh landscape in the Middle Ages. In: Nieuwhof, A., Knol, E. & van der Velde, H. (Eds.), Making places, making lives. Landscape and settlement in coastal wetlands. New Studies in Saxon Research 14, Wendeburg, 143-160. | |
| 2023 | |
 | Rabbel, W., Bäumler, S., Benedict, F., Bielikova, A., Dannemann, S., De Smedt, P., et al. (2023). Combining teaching and research: a BIP on geophysical and archaeological prospection of North Frisian medieval settlement patterns. In: Advances in On-and Offshore Archaeological Prospection: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection: 223-227. |
 | Wunderlich, T., Hadler, H., & Blankenfeldt, R. (2023). Advances in On-and Offshore Archaeological Prospection: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Archaeological Prospection. Kiel University Publishing. |
| 2022 | |
 | Hadler, H., Wilken, D., Bäumler, S., Fischer, P., Rabbel, W., Willershäuser, T., … & Vött, A. (2022). The Trendermarsch polder (North Frisia, Germany)-Geophysical and geoarchaeological investigations of an anthropogenic medieval coastal landscape and its vulnerability against natural hazards. Geomorphology, 418, 108461. |
| Wilken D, Hadler H, Wunderlich T, Majchczack B, Schwardt M, Fediuk A, et al. (2022). Lost in the North Sea-Geophysical and geoarchaeological prospection of the Rungholt medieval dyke system (North Frisia, Germany). PLoS ONE 17(4): e0265463. | |
 | Hadler, H., Willershäuser, T., Vött, A. (2022). Islands? No, Halligen! Geographische Rundschau (12) 2022: 8-12. |
| 2021 | |
 | Hadler, H., Vött, A., Willershäuser, T., Wilken, D., Blankenfeldt, R., von Carnap-Bornheim, C., … & Rabbel, W. (2021). Automated facies identification by Direct Push-based sensing methods (CPT, HPT) and multivariate linear discriminant analysis to decipher geomorphological changes and storm surge impact on a medieval coastal landscape. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 46(15): 3228-3251. |
| Majchczack, B., Klooß, S., Hadler, H., Wilken, D. & Blankenfeldt, R. (2021). More than Rungholt. Searching for traces in the North Frisian Wadden Sea. In: Huber F. (Ed.), Time travel under water. Spectacular discoveries between the Baltic Sea and Lake Constance. Theiss, Darmstadt: 116-129. | |
| 2020 | |
 | Hadler, H., Klooß, S., Wilken, D., Majchczack, B., Blankenfeldt, R., Ickerodt, U., von Carnap-Bornheim, C., Rabbel, W. & Vött, A. (2020). Rungholt: Invisible late medieval cultural land of the Edomsharde. Archaeological News from Schleswig-Holstein 26, 128-129. |
 | Röbke, B. R., Oost, A., Bungenstock, F., Fischer, P., Grasmeijer, B., Hadler, H., Obrocki, L., Pagels, J., Willershäuser, T. & Vött, A. (2020). Dyke failures in the Province of Groningen (Netherlands) associated with the 1717 Christmas flood: a reconstruction based on geoscientific field data and numerical simulations. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, 99, e15. |
| 2018 | |
| Hadler, H., Vött, A., Newig, J., Emde, K., Finkler, C., Fischer, P., Willershäuser, T. (2018a). Geoarchaeological evidence of marshland destruction in the area of Rungholt, present-day Wadden Sea around Hallig Südfall (North Frisia, Germany), by the Grote Mandrenke in 1362 AD. Quaternary International 473: 37-54. | |
| Hadler, H., Fediuk, A., Fischer, P., Rabbel, W., Schwardt, M., Wilken, D., Willershäuser, T., Wunderlich, T., Vött, A. (2018b). Drowned by the Grote Mandrenke in 1362 AD – new geo-rchaeological research on the late medieval trading center Rungholt (North Frisia). In: Egberts, L., Schroor, M. (2018). Waddenland Outstanding – History, Landscape and Cultural Heritage of the Wadden Sea Region. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam: 239-252. | |
| Hadler, H., Wilken, D., Willershäuser, T., Schwardt, M., Fediuk, A., Werner, V., Fischer, P., Wunderlich, T., Rabbel, W., Vött, A. (2018c). In the footsteps of Rungholt – Geoarchaeological investigations in the mudflat area around Hallig Südfall (North Frisia). Archaeological News from Schleswig-Holstein (24), 86-99. https://www.wachholtz-verlag.de/ANSH | |
| 2017 | |
| Hadler, H., Vött, A. (2017). The trading center Rungholt and its destruction by the 1st Grote Mandrenke in 1362. Geographische Rundschau 69 (9): 20-25. | |
 | Jöns, H., Hadler, H., Segschneider, S., Vött, A. (2017). Medieval ports in the southern North Sea and Baltic Sea region. Archaeology in Germany (4): 22-25. |
| 2016 | |
| Hadler, H., Vött, A. (2016). The Rungholt tidal flats in the focus of current geoarchaeological research. In: Newig, J., Haupenthal, U. (eds.), 2016. Rungholt – enigmatic and contradictory. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum: 118-120. |
Exhibition “Rungholt – Enigmatic and contradictory”
| May 29, 2016 – January 29, 2017, NordseeMuseum Husum (Nissenhaus) Homepage of the exhibition |
Impressions from the mudflats
“The river port of Ostia” (2013-2015)
Sub-project of the DFG Priority Program 1630 “Ports from the Roman Imperial Period to the Middle Ages”
To the project homepage: SPP 1630 Ports – OSTIA
Project-related publications
| 2020 | |
 | Vött, A., Willershäuser, T., Hadler, H., Obrocki, L., Fischer, P., & Heinzelmann, M. (2020). Geoarchaeological evidence of Ostia’s river harbor operating until the fourth century AD. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 12, 1-26. |
 | Hadler, H., Fischer, P., Obrocki, L., Heinzelmann, M., & Vött, A. (2020). River channel evolution and tsunami impacts recorded in local sedimentary archives-the ‘Fiume Morto’at Ostia Antica (Tiber River, Italy). Sedimentology, 67(3), 1309-1343. |
| 2018 | |
 | Wunderlich, T., Wilken, D., Erkul, E., Rabbel, W., Vött, A., Fischer, P., Hadler, H. & Heinzelmann, M. (2018). The river harbour of Ostia Antica-stratigraphy, extent and harbour infrastructure from combined geophysical measurements and drillings. Quaternary International, 473, 55-65. |
| Wunderlich, T., Fischer, P., Wilken, D., Hadler, H., Erkul, E., Mecking, R., Günther, T., Heinzelmann, M., Vött, A. & Rabbel, W. (2018). Constraining electric resistivity tomography by direct push electric conductivity logs and vibracores: an exemplary study of the Fiume Morto silted riverbed (Ostia Antica, western Italy). Geophysics, 83(3), B87-B103. | |
| 2015 | |
 | Hadler, H., Vött, A., Fischer, P., Ludwig, S., Heinzelmann, M., & Rohn, C. (2015). Temple-complex post-dates tsunami deposits found in the ancient harbor basin of Ostia (Rome, Italy). Journal of Archaeological Science, 61, 78-89. |
For an overview of all publications up to 2018, please click here.
How researchers discovered traces of Rungholt
Report on the Rungholt project
3satNano, 09.07.2024
Archaeologists on the North Sea coast: Secrets in the silt
Print article on the RUNGHOLT project
Der Spiegel, 30.07.2023
Church discovered centuries later in the Wadden Sea
Print article on the church discovery
FAZ, 24.05.2023
TerraX: Unsolved Cases of Archaeology – Lost Worlds
TV report on the RUNGHOLT project, 6:45-12:00 min
ZDF, first broadcast 14.02.2021
NDR NORDSEEREPORT: Nature experiences
Report on the Rungholt project, NDR 2023, from 37 min
Researcher reconstructs the course of the Niedam dyke and harbor sites on the Heverstrom”
Coverage of the 12th Nordstrander Rungholt Days and the awarding of the “Seal of Rungholt”
Husumer Nachrichten, 25.08.2019
Rungholt: The fascination of the sinking
Coverage of the 1st Rungholt Conference
Husumer Nachrichten, 21.08.2019
Mudflats a rewarding field of research
Coverage of the 12th Nordstrander Rungholttage
Husumer Nachrichten, 28.08.2017
Schleswig-Holstein Magazin: Forscher untersuchen Rungholt
Norddeutscher Rundfunk, 8:45-12:20 min, first broadcast 17.09.2016.
Landesschau Rheinland-Pfalz
Süwestdeutscher Rundfunkt, interview with Dr. Hanna Hadler about Rungholt. , 38:00-43:00 min, first broadcast 24.11.2016.
“Researchers in action – on the trail of the Rungholt myth”
Coverage of initial field work in the Rungholt mudflats (2013)
Husumer Nachrichten, 28.08.2013
Awarded by the Rungholtgesellschaft Nordstrand, 2019
 | The honorees and Mayor Ruth Hartwig-Kruse, Momme Elsner, Dr. Hanna Hadler and Cornelia Kost (from left) (Photo: U. Rahn, SHZ) |
 | Since 2012, the Rungholt Society has awarded the “Seal of Rungholt” once a year to people or institutions who have made a significant contribution to researching or preserving the cultural traces of Rungholt. The aim is to promote the preservation of important cultural assets in North Friesland. The prize is modeled on the seal of Edomsharde before the flood of 1362. The replica was created by the artist Claudia Möller. |
Research grant for young female scholars in geography,
awarded by the Hanna Bremer Foundation, 2014
Dissertation prize of the German Working Group for Geomorphology, 2014
Lecture prize of the German Working Group for Geomorphology, 2012
Consultation hours:
By appointment by e-mail
Physical geography/geomorphology
Geoarchaeology
Natural risk research (tsunamis, storm surges)
Coastal geography
Wadden Sea research
Germany: North Sea coast (North and East Frisia, Wadden Sea)
Netherlands: North Sea coast (province of Groningen)
Italy: Ostia (Rome)
Greece: Ionian Islands (Kefalonia), western Peloponnese (Kyllini), Gulf of Corinth (Corinth/Lechaion)
Turkey: Patara (Lycia)
Hadler, H. (2014): “Ancient Greek harbors used as geoarchives for palaeotsunami research. Case studies from Krane (Cefalonia), Lechaion (Gulf of Corinth) and Kyllini (Peloponnese).”
About the dissertation: http://ubm.opus.hbz-nrw.de/volltexte/2014/3678/pdf/doc.pdf
Hadler, H. (2008): “Das Ziegeleiwesen im Raum Kehdingen und Hadeln (Niedersachsen) – Grundlagen, Geschichte und naturräumliche Auswirkungen einer früheren Industrie.” (unpublished)
“Medieval overexploitation as trigger for large-scale drowning and permanent land loss in the Rungholt area (North Frisia, German Wadden Sea)?”
(KielConference, Kiel)
“Bringt dat Watt?”
(Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch, Oldenburg)
“Those who don’t want to dike must give way”
(Heidelberg Geographical Society)
“Lost since 1362 AD”
(Annual conference of the working group ‘Geoarchaeology’, Wilhelmshaven)
“Between medieval land reclamation and storm surges”
(Annual conference of the working group ‘Geography of Seas and Coasts’, Heidelberg)
“Between medieval land reclamation and storm surges – reconstructing man-environment interactions in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia (Germany)”
(Key note for Session 159, INQUA, Rome)
“Moving into the wetlands”
(KielConference, Kiel)
“Heut’ bin ich über Rungholt gefahren”
(6th Rhineland-Palatinate School Geographers’ Day, Mainz)
“Rungholt and the Grote Mandrenke in 1362 AD – Reconstructing a drowned medieval landscape in the present-day Wadden Sea of North Frisia”
(Annual Conference of the German Working Group for Geomorphology, Kiel)
“Geoarchive Wadden Sea – Current and past studies on the landscape history of Rungholt”
(3rd Rungholt Conference, Nordstrand)
“Wadden Sea Geoarchaeology- Reconstructing a drowned coastal landscape around the medieval trading center Rungholt (North Frisia, Germany) by multi-proxy analyses”
(INQUA2019, Dublin)
“Geoarchaeological and geophysical investigations in the Rungholt-Watt (Hallig Südfall, North Frisian Wadden Sea)”
(Seminar Aktuelle Forschungsthemen, Institut für Geophysik, CAU Kiel, together with M. Schwardt)
“Current geoarchaeological research in the Wadden Sea”
(ALSH information event on the preservation and exploration of cultural traces in the North Frisian Wadden Sea, Nordfriesland Museum, Husum)
“The trading settlement Rungholt – In search of a late medieval harbor site in the Wadden Sea of North Frisia (Germany)”
(SPP 1630 International Conference “Harbours in Space and Time”)
“The visible and the invisible: Geophysical, archaeological and geological investigations in Rungholtwatt, North Friesland district”
(Day of Archaeology Schleswig Holstein, Schleswig, together with S. Klooß (ALSH) and D. Wilken (CAU Kiel)
“News from the Rungholt mudflats: Current results of geoarchaeological investigations around Hallig Südfall”
(2nd Rungholt Conference, Nordstrand)
“In search of Rungholt: Geoarchaeology in the Wadden Sea”
(Farewell to the graduates of the Institute of Geography, Mainz)
“Geoarchaeology in the Wadden Sea – In search of the late medieval trading center Rungholt (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany”
(Annual Conference of the Geoarchaeology Working Group, Heidelberg)
“Heut’ bin ich über Rungholt gefahren – In search of medieval cultural remains in the North Frisian Wadden Sea”
(Annual conference of the Arbeitskreis Geographie der Meere und Küsten, Braunschweig, together with J. Kohlus (LKN Schleswig-Holstein))
“Geoarchaeological investigations of 12th and 13th century harbors along the HEver (North Friesland) starting from the trading center Rungholt – First results of current work”
(SPP 1630 Plenary Meeting, Gottorf Castle, Schleswig)
“Geoarchaeological investigations in the vicinity of Hallig Südfall – current results from the RUNGHOLT project”
(1st Rungholt Conference, Nordstrand)
“Drowned by the Grote Mandrenke in 1362 AD – new geoarchaeological research on the late medieval trading center Rungholt (North Frisia)”
(Waddenland – Outstanding, Symposium on the History, Landscape and Cultural Heritage of the Wadden Sea Region, Husum)
“Geomorphological evidence of marshland destruction in North Frisia (German North Sea coast) by the Grote Mandrenke in 1362 AD”
(EX-AQUA 2016 – Palaeohydrological Extreme Events: Evidence and Archives, Padova, Italy)
“Geomorphological evidence of marshland destruction in the area of Rungholt, present-day Wadden Sea around Hallig Südfall (North Frisia, Germany), by the Grote Mandrenke in 1362 AD”
(Annual Conference of the Geomorphology Working Group, Jena)
“The ancient harbor of Kyllini (W-Peloponnese, Greece) as multi-proxy geoarchive for palaeo-tsunami research”
(Conférence MoMArch, Aix-en-Provence, France)
“Geoarchaeological investigations of harbors along the Hever (North Friesland): First results from the Südermarsch near Mildeburg”
(SPP 1630 plenary meeting, Bremerhaven)
“On the geoarchaeological exploration of the former settlement of Rungholt”
(Workshop: The Rungholt Legend, NordseeMuseum Husum)
