DITHMARSCHEN or DITMARSH (in the oldest form of the name Thiatmaresgaho, Dietmar's Gau), a territory between the Eider, the Elbe and the North sea, forming the western part of the old duchy of Holstein. It contains about 55osq.m., half of which consists of good pasture land, preserved from inroads of the sea by banks and dams, the other half being mostly waste. The district was subjugated and Christianized by Charlemagne, and ranked as a separate Gau, probably included in the countship of Stade. Ultimately the archbishops of Bremen claimed suprem acy over the land; but the inhabitants, who had developed and consolidated a systematic organism for self-government, made obstinate resistance, and rather attached themselves to the bishop of Schleswig. Ditmarsh continued part of the Danish dominions till the disastrous battle of Bornhoved in 1227, when its former independence was regained. The claims of the archbishop of Bremen were now so far recognized that he exercised the royal rights of Heerbann and Blutbann, and was represented first by a single advocatus, or Vogt, and afterwards by one for each of the five Doffts, or marks, into which the land was divided after the establishment of Meldorf. The community was governed by a Landrath of 48 elective consuls, being 1 2 from each of the four marks. In 1319 and 14o4 the inhabitants defeated the invasions of the Holstein nobles; and though in 1474 the land was nom inally incorporated with the duchy by the emperor Frederick III., the attempt of the Danish king Hans and the duke of Got torp to enforce the decree in 15oo resulted only in their complete rout in the marshes of the Dussend-Diiwels-Warf. During the early part of the following century Ditmarsh was the scene of violent religious conflict; and, thus weakened, it was obliged in 1559 to submit to partition among its three conquerors—King Frederick II. of Denmark and Dukes John and Adolphus. A new division took place on Duke John's death in 158i, by which Fred erick obtained South Ditmarsh, with its chief town of Meldorf, and Adolphus obtained North Ditmarsh, with its chief town of Heide; and this arrangement continued till 1773, when all the Gottorp possessions were incorporated with the Danish Crown. See Dahlmann's edition of Neocorus, Chronik von Dithmarschen (Kiel, 1827), and Geschichte Diinemarks (184o-44) ; Michelsen, Ur kundenbuch zur Geschichte des Landes Dithmarschen (1834), Samm lung altdithmarscher Rechtsquellen (1842), and Dithmarschen im Verhiiltniss zum bremischen Erzstift; Kolster, Geschichte Dith marschens, nach F. R. Dahlmanns V orlesungen (1873).