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Country: Germany

Distance:  536 km

Travel time:  6 days

On postcard: Rügen

Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Geography

Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea. The Rügendammbridge which connects the island by road and rail with the city of Stralsund on the mainland crosses over the Strelasund.

Rügen has an area of 926.4 km², or 974 km² if the adjacent small islands are included.^[1] The maximum diameter is 51.4 km from north to south, and 42.8 km from east to west.^[1] Of an overall 574 km-long coastline, 56 km are sandy Baltic Sea beaches, and 2.8 km sandy bodden beaches. The highest elevations are on the Jasmund peninsula: Piekberg (161 m) and Königsstuhl (117 m).

The core landmass, Muttland, is surrounded by several peninsulas. To the north lie the peninsulas of Wittow and Jasmund, connected to each other by the Schaabe landbridge and to Muttland by the Schmale Heide landbridge, a dam at Lietzow and the Wittow Ferry. The northern peninsulas are separated from Muttland by several bodden, the largest of which are Großer Jasmunder Bodden and Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden. Major peninsulas in the south are Zudar and Mönchgut which both face the Bay of Greifswald.

The climate is in the temperate zone. The winters are not particularly cold, with mean temperatures in January and February of 0.0°C.; and summers are cool, with a mean temperature in August of 16.3°C. There is an average rainfall of 520–560 mm and approximately 1800–1870 hours of sunshine annually.

Two German national parks are situated on Rügen: Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park, in the West (also includingHiddensee), and Jasmund National Park, a smaller park including the famous chalk cliffs (Königsstuhl). There is also a nature reserve, theSoutheast Rügen Biosphere Reserve, consisting of the peninsulas in the southeast.

History

In the beginning of the first millennium, the island and the surrounding continental areas were settled by the Rugians after whom the island was named, who might have come from Scandinavia or evolved from autochthonous tribes. In the 7th century, West Slavic R(uj)ani settled Rügen, assimilating the indigenous population which had not migrated southward in the Migration Period. Many traces of their life can be found today. Rügen became a Slavic principality, stretching from the Recknitz to the Ryck River, with the political centre in the ancient town of Charenzaand a religious centre in the fortified temple of Svetovid at Cape Arkona, the northernmost point of Rügen. In 1168 the area was conquered by Denmark and became the Danish Principality of Rugia. The principality underwent Christianisation and German settlement in the course of the Ostsiedlung. The former monarchs became Danish princes of Rügen. In 1325 Rügen was inherited by the Duchy of Pomerania.

Rügen was a part of Swedish Pomerania from 1648 to 1815. Under Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden the town of Gustavia was constructed on the Mönchgut peninsula, but was abandoned during the Napoleonic Wars. Afterwards it became a part of the Prussian Province of Pomerania. In 1816 the first bathing resort was founded at Putbus. Later more resorts were established, and Rügen remained the most famous holiday resort of Germany until World War II. The Nazis added a large resort: Prora, planned by the Strength Through Joy organisation, which aimed to occupy people's free time. However, Prora was never completed.

In 1936 the first bridge connecting Rügen with the mainland was constructed (Rügendamm), replacing the former ferry shuttles. In 2007 a second bridge, Rügenbrücke, was built to replace the first. Rügen was a major summer holiday destination in the German Democratic Republic. Rügen remained a holiday island after German reunification; it has now surpassed Sylt as the most popular German island again.

The title given to the operation commanded by Wolfram von Richthofen, which saw the town of Guernica bombed during the Spanish Civil War, was named after the island. An Abwehr SIGINT Operation during the same conflict was titled Bodden after the strait separating Rügen from the German mainland.

In the aftermath of World War II, East German and Soviet authorities exiled landholders from the mainland to the island.

Tourist resorts

Rügen is one of the most visited holiday destinations in Germany. The first bathing facility on Rügen opened in 1794 at the mineral-rich spring in Sagard. In 1818, Putbus' suburb Lauterbach became Rügen's first seaside resort. In the 1860s Sassnitz became a seaside resort, followed by Binz in the 1880s. During World War II Prora was constructed as a mass tourist resort but it was never finished. Today the most popular seaside resorts are the Schaabe beaches between Altenkirchen and Juliusruh including Drewoldke, Glowe and Breege, and the eastern beaches between Sassnitz and Göhren including Neu Mukran, Prora, Binz, Sellin and Baabe. The latter are accessible via an historicnarrow gauge railway employing steam locomotives, called Rügensche Bäderbahn. Tourist destinations other than seaside resorts include Cape Arkona, the wood-covered Stubbenkammer hills on Jasmund with interesting chalk cliff formations, the wood-covered Granitz hills with the Jagdschloß palace, and the inland places of Bergen auf Rügen, Ralswiek and Gingst.

The island offers a huge variety of different beach and shore areas. Rügen is often visited by windsurfers and kitesurfers and offers more than fifteen different locations for surfing. The most popular locations are Dranske, Rosengarten, Wiek, Suhrendorf and Neu Mukran.