It was formed on 1 January 2008 from the former Ämter Schlei, Schwansen and Windeby.
Schlei | Schlei (Amt) |
It starts north of Idstedt flows through Idstedter See and Langsee passes the village Loit and discharges into the Schlei near Füsing.
During Viking times, Hollingstedt served as a transhipment port for a ten mile portage to Hedeby on the Schlei inlet of the Baltic, cutting short a long and perilous circumnavigation of the Jutland Peninsula.
Thus are in Brodersby (beyond the Schlei in Angeln) the remains of a castle and the Margarethenwalls; but in the middle of the 11th century were several very bloody battles with the Wends.
In the Viking period the route Eider - Treene - Rheider Au - Schlei served as a navigation way and/or transport or trade route between places to the north and the Baltic Sea, as commercial centres functioned (see Dorestad, Haithabu).