Husum

 

(hū'zʊm) , city (1994 pop. 21,280), Schleswig-Holstein, NW Germany, a port on the North Sea. It is a fishing center and major cattle market. First mentioned in the 13th cent., Husum was chartered at the beginning of the 17th cent. and soon became a prosperous commercial city, but it later declined. Many fine patrician houses remain. The 19th-century poet and novelist Theodor Storm was born in Husum and is buried there.