Amt Wilstermarsch

Administrative unit in Schleswig-Holstein's fertile marshland, parts of which lie below sea level.

The Amt Wilstermarsch is an administrative district in the western part of Steinburg county in Schleswig-Holstein, encompassing several municipalities across the distinctive marshland along the lower Elbe. Wilster serves as the administrative seat but does not itself belong to the Amt — a legal peculiarity common in Schleswig-Holstein. The Wilstermarsch is one of Germany's most fertile and lowest-lying regions; parts sit below sea level and are protected from flooding by an elaborate drainage system built over centuries. Visitors find a quiet cultural landscape of old dikes, farmsteads, and the characteristic stillness of the North German plain.