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Rügen (; : Rȯjana, Rāna; , Ruegen) is 's largest island.

(2025). 9783770160587, DuMont.
It is located off the coast in the and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The "gateway" to Rügen island is the of , where it is linked to the mainland by road and railway via the Rügen Bridge and Causeway, two routes crossing the two-kilometre-wide , a sound of the .

Rügen has a maximum length of (from north to south), a maximum width of in the south and an area of . The coast is characterised by numerous sandy , lagoons () and open bays (Wieke), as well as and . In June 2011, awarded the status of a World Heritage Site to the Jasmund National Park, characterised by vast stands of beeches and chalk cliffs like King's Chair, the main landmark of Rügen island.See inter alia

The island of Rügen is part of the district of Vorpommern-Rügen, with its county seat in .

The towns on Rügen are: Bergen, , and Garz. In addition, there are the Baltic of , , Göhren, and .

Rügen is very popular as a tourist destination because of its resort architecture, the diverse landscape and its long, sandy beaches.


Geology
]]The chalk cliffs of the peninsula belong to the Rügen Chalk unit and were formed during the stage of the , around 70 million years ago.


Geography
The main body of the island, known as , is surrounded by several peninsulas. To the north lie the peninsulas of and , connected to each other by the sandbar and to Muttland by the , an embankment at and the . The northern peninsulas are separated from Muttland by several lagoons or , the largest of which are the Großer Jasmunder Bodden and Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden. Major peninsulas in the south are and Mönchgut which both face the Bay of Greifswald. separates the island from the southern mainland.

Rügen has a total area of , or if the adjacent small islands are included.

(2025). 9783829701716, Mair Dumont Marco Polo.
The maximum diameter is from north to south, and from east to west. Of an overall coastline, are sandy beaches, and sandy beaches. The highest elevations are on the peninsula: () and Königsstuhl ().

The northern part of the Bay of Greifswald, the Rügischer Bodden, is a large bay in the south of Rügen island, with the island of lying just offshore. At the western end of the bay, the peninsula of runs out to the southernmost point of Rügen (), at the eastern end the highly indented peninsula of Mönchgut projects into the sea. This peninsula ends in the east at the cape of near Göhren and in the south at the cape of Südperd by Thiessow. In the west of the peninsula of Mönchgut a narrow, bar, the Reddevitz Höft, separates the two bays of Having and .

In the north-east of the island of Rügen is formed by the peninsula of , which is joined to the heart of the island, , by the bar of between Binz- and Sassnitz-Mukran and by a rail and road embankment at . The Schmale Heide separates the outer bay of from the lagoon of the Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden. On the peninsula of Jasmund are the (), the highest point on Rügen, and the Königsstuhl, a cliff in , which forms the most striking landmark on the island. Another bar, the , links Jasmund to the peninsula of in the north of Rügen. The Schaabe, in turn, separates the outer bay of from the lagoon of the Großer Jasmunder Bodden. The peninsula of Wittow and the long, narrow peninsula of Bug to the west are separated from the main body of Rügen by the , the and the Breeger Bodden. The Wittow peninsula is adjoined in the north by . Just under a kilometre to the northwest, located at 54°41' N, is the northernmost point of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Below this (Gellort) on the shoreline is the Siebenschneidersteinthe fourth largest boulder on Rügen.

The northwestern and western sides of Rügen are also highly indented, but a little flatter. Offshore are the larger islands of and as well as the smaller islands Öhe and . Sand removal and deposition by the Baltic Sea has to be constantly countered by dredging operations to the north and south of Hiddensee, otherwise Hiddensee would merge with Rügen within a few years. Rügen is dotted with many glacial erratic boulders, of which the 22 largest belong to legally-protected (''see also: Erratics on and around Rügen).


Land use
The heartland of Rügen is gently rolling, and the area is characterised primarily by . East of the town of Bergen auf Rügen the land climbs to (at where there is an observation tower) and to in the southeastern hill country of the . The soil on Rügen is very fertile and productive, particularly in Wittow, the breadbasket of the island. There are major cabbage-producing regions.

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


Climate
The climate is in the . According to the Köppen climate classification the northern parts of the island and the coastal regions (apart from those lay adjacent to ) are under the influence of the ( Cfb), meanwhile the remaining majority of the area is dominated by the humid continental climate ( Dfb). The winters are not particularly cold, with mean temperatures in January and February of ; and summers are mild and temperate, with a mean temperature in August of . There is an average rainfall of and approximately 1800–1870 hours of sunshine annually.


Administration
Administratively, Rügen is part of the district Vorpommern-Rügen. Its subdivisions are the Ämter Bergen auf Rügen (municipalities Bergen auf Rügen, , Garz, , , , , , , , and ), West-Rügen (municipalities Altefähr, , , , , Neuenkirchen, , , , Trent and ), Nord-Rügen (municipalities Altenkirchen, , , , , , , Wiek) and Mönchgut-Granitz (municipalities , Göhren, , , , and ) and the Amt-free municipalities of , and . Overall, there are 45 municipalities on Rügen, four of which have town status (Bergen, Garz, Putbus and Sassnitz).
(2025). 9783770160587, DuMont.


History

Pre-history and the Germani
Discoveries in the indicate that there has been settlement here since the . All over Rügen are numerous stone monuments, such as megalithic tombs and altar stones that have survived to the present day. By the 1st century, the inhabitants of Rügen were part of the tribe of , who occupied roughly the region that was later to become Western Pomerania and who gave the island its name. The Rugii may have originated from or evolved from autochthonous tribes. In the , many Rugii moved south and founded an empire in Pannonia.


Slavic Rani
From the 7th century, the West Slavic Rani (or Rujani) built an empire on Rügen and the neighbouring coast between and . It decidedly affected the history of the Baltic Sea area and the surrounding (in the west) and (in the south) occupied mainland for the next few centuries. Many traces of their life can be found today.

The basis of their military strength was a combination of the Ranian navy and a favourable location. Denmark, which was at that time very successful in Great Britain and Scandinavia, was neither able to match its Ranian rivals in the Baltic Sea region nor protect its coastline from Ranian armies until well into the 12th century. Meanwhile, the Ranians built numerous castles and temples in the Barth--Gristow triangle.

The temple hill of , at the northern tip of Rügen and dedicated to the god , was significant well beyond the boundaries of the Ranian empire. After the fall of it became the chief shrine for the pagan northwestern Slavs. The administrative centre of the empire was , possibly on the site of the present-day hillfort known as Garz or Venz. The main trading centre of the empire was at the southernmost point of the Großer Jasmunder Bodden.


Principality under Danish suzerainty
In 1168, the king, Valdemar I, and his army commander and advisor, Bishop Absalon of Roskilde destroyed the Svetovid temple in the hillfort at , ending both the territorial and religious autonomy of the Rani; their former monarchs became Danish princes of Rügen. The Rani prince Jaromar I (died 1218) was a vassal of the Danish king and the island's inhabitants. In 1184, the Pomeranians, whose rule had previously extended as far as the land of Gützkow and to Demmin and thus made them the immediate neighbours of the now Danish Principality of Rugia, were commissioned by their overlord, the Holy Roman Emperor, to seize Rügen for the empire, but were defeated in the Bay of Greifswald.

Under Danish rule the Principality of Rugia changed its character. Danish monasteries were established (e.g. Bergen Abbey in 1193 and , today Eldena Abbey, in 1199). German colonists were introduced into the land and soon they became the largest and most culturally influential group within the population. The Slavic cultural element disappeared, mostly due to the lack of their own Slavic church structures, so that the Rani were absorbed in the period that followed into the now German-influenced people of Rügen. In addition to the colonization of the country and the building of new monasteries and churches, towns were also re-established. In 1234, the Rügen Prince Wizlaw I founded the town of and granted market rights in 1241. The power of the towns grew rapidly, forcing Rügen's rulers to make concessions—for example, the prince's castle at Barth was slighted and Schadegast, the princely "twin" of the municipally-controlled Stralsund, was ousted in favour of the latter.

In 1304 a , known as the All Saints' Flood, devastated the island and flooded the peninsula between Mönchgut and Ruden.


Part of Pomerania
After the death of the last Slav prince of the Wizlawiden ( House of Wizlaw) dynasty, Wizlaw III, in 1325, the principality was acquired by the duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast as a consequence of the 1321 inheritance agreement (Erbverbrüderung), and from 1368/72–1451 was part of the estate of a branch line, the dukes of . This state of affairs, together with the disputes over the Danish throne that occurred at that time, led to the Rügen wars of succession. After they had played out, the former principality went in 1354 to Pomerania-Wolgast and thus became part of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1478, Pomerania-Wolgast and Pomerania-Stettin were united and, 170 years later, the combined state went to Sweden in 1648 as a result of the Treaty of Westphalia (see Swedish Pomerania). Rügen was part of Swedish Pomerania from 1648 to 1815. The largest landowners, owning at least one-fifth of the island until 1945, was the House of Putbus, which was an offshoot of the earlier ruling princes of the Wizlawid dynasty. In 1727, they were created counts of Holy Roman Empire and 1731 counts in Sweden, ultimately Swedish princes in 1807.

Under Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden the town of Gustavia was constructed on the Mönchgut peninsula, but was abandoned during the . In the years 1678 and 1715, Rügen was briefly wrested from the Swedes by the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William and by the King in Prussia, Frederick William I. For example, a Brandenburg-Danish army landed on the island as part of the invasion of Rügen in 1678. After the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1679 the island passed from Danish to Swedish ownership again. At the time of , Rügen was held by the from 1807 to 1813. In the Treaty of Kiel of 1814, it was transferred initially from Sweden to Denmark and then fell to , along with New Western Pomerania (Neuvorpommern), thanks to the Vienna Convention of 1815. In 1818, the island became part of the administrative district of Stralsund and thus belonged to the Prussian Province of Pomerania. Wilhelm Malte I (1783–1854), 1st prince of Putbus, was the last Governor of Swedish Pomerania and the first under Prussian rule.

In 1816, the first bathing resort was founded at . Later more resorts were established, and Rügen remained the most popular holiday resort of Germany until World War II.


German Empire
Rügen was a popular destination for exile of Catholic priests and clergy during between 1875 and 1879.


Nazi era
The Nazis added a large resort: , 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.

The operation commanded by Wolfram von Richthofen that bombed the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, was named after the island. An signals intelligence operation during the same conflict was titled Operation 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.Exorcising Hitler, The Occupation and Denazifcation of Germany, by Frederick Taylor, Bloomsbury Press


GDR era
After the Second World War, Rügen became part of the state of Mecklenburg within the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In 1952, the island became part of the .

The island was the focal point of Project Rose ( Action Rose) by the GDR government designed to nationalise hotels, taxis and service companies on 10 February 1953. The occasion was supposed to have been a visit by to the island of Rügen, during which he had been annoyed by the many surviving private hotels and guest houses. Many of the hotel owners were convicted by under the pretext of having been engaged in or as agents working for the West. Their property was then confiscated and they were sent to prison. Many of the owners and small businessmen were incarcerated in Bützow prison. The hotels were supposed to have been expropriated by the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB). In fact, they were used as accommodation for the barracks-based "people's police" (Kasernierte Volkspolizei or CPI). As a result of the confiscation of hotels, tourism on Rügen in 1953 came almost to a complete standstill for a time.

In the following nearly four decades, the island became one of the main tourist areas in the GDR. The FDGB played a dominant role in tourist accommodation. In 1963 the FDGB had 7,519 holiday places, the Reisebüro der DDR 2,906 places and a further 5,025 were available for businesses and organisations. In addition, there were 12,245 places for children in summer camps and another 20,800 places for campers. The plots were located mainly near the beaches.Dr. Rudolf Petzold, 1964, Die Bäderküste Rügens, Veb Brockhaus Verlag,Leipzig, page 5 Increased holiday capacity was not however generated until the 1970s and 1980s.


Reunited Germany
In 1990, Rügen became part of the new state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and, together with the neighbouring islands of and , formed the district of Rügen. Since the 2011 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern district reforms, Rügen has been part of Vorpommern-Rügen.

In 2007, a second bridge, the Rügen Bridge (Rügenbrücke), was built to replace the first one built in 1936.

Rügen has now surpassed as the most popular German island again.


Tourist resorts
Rügen is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Germany. The island receives about one quarter of all overnight stays in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Most visitors come to Rügen between April and October, the peak season being from June to August, but its quiet atmosphere in winter is also appreciated.

The first bathing facility on Rügen opened in 1794 at the mineral-rich spring in .

(2025). 9783770160587, DuMont.
In 1818, the village of Lauterbach became Rügen's first seaside resort.
(2025). 9783406523663, C.H.Beck.
In the 1860s became a seaside resort, followed by in the 1880s. During World War II was constructed as a mass tourist resort but it was never finished. Today the most popular seaside resorts are the beaches between Altenkirchen and including Drewoldke, and , and the eastern beaches between and Göhren including , , , and . The latter are accessible via an historic narrow-gauge railway employing steam locomotives, called the Rügensche Bäderbahn. Tourist destinations, other than seaside resorts, include , the wood-covered hills on with interesting chalk cliff formations, the wood-covered hills with their Jagdschloß or hunting lodge, the buildings of and the inland villages of Bergen auf Rügen, and .

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 , Rosengarten, Wiek, Suhrendorf and .

On the peninsula of Jasmund is the Jasmund National Park, which consists of the beech forest of , including the chalk cliffs of Rügen. On the Königsstuhl itself is the Königsstuhl National Park Centre, which has a multivision cinema and audio-guide exhibitions with information about the national park in several languages.


Transport

Rail
The network consists of the electrified stretch of the Stralsund (Rügendamm)-Bergen-Sassnitz line (timetable route (KBS) 195), Lietzow-Binz (KBS 197), the non-electrified routes Bergen-Putbus-Lauterbach Mole of the PRESS (KBS 198) and the narrow-gauge stretch () of the Rügen Resort Railway (Rasender Roland): Lauterbach Mole-Putbus-Binz-Sellin-Göhren (KBS 199).

In addition to regional trains, there are also Intercity services from Binz via Bergen and Stralsund to , , , and the . Night train services to , Basle and the Ruhr area were deleted from the timetable on 9 December 2007, despite massive protests from the local hotel industry.


Bus
The bus service on Rügen is operated by the Rügener Personennahverkehr. Since 1996 it has been continuously expanded, and has developed an integral clock-face schedule. There is a service between all major towns and municipalities on the island at least every two hours, sometimes more frequently during peak season. Throughout the year, buses now run at least every hour on the routes between Sassnitz-Binz-Bergen, Schaprode–Bergen–Klein Zicker, Bergen/Sassnitz-Altenkirchen-Wiek- and the Altenkirchen- near Cape Arkona. In addition, the bus service is well-linked with the railway, especially in Bergen, but also at other railway stations.


Road
Until October 2007, individual traffic from the mainland to the island of Rügen was mainly routed along the two-lane Rügendamm causeway, running between and Altefähr over the sound of .

The cornerstone for a second crossing over the Strelasund was laid on 31 August 2004. This bridge, the Rügen Bridge, running parallel to the Rügendamm, has a length of about and a vertical clearance for ships of , and was on opened on 20 October 2007. In order to relieve the town of Stralsund, a has been built in the last few years, coming from the southwest. The B 96 federal road between Stralsund and is also connected via an access road to the A 20 motorway. The B 96 runs from Stralsund via Bergen to Sassnitz. Here a new route with bypasses is planned (the "New B 96").

The main tourist attractions of Cape Arkona, the Königsstuhl and the Granitz hunting lodge are, however, car-free in order to protect the countryside, as is the island of Hiddensee which belongs to Vorpommern-Rügen district. All these destinations can be reached using public transport, without needing a car.


Cycling
Rügen has a signposted network of cycle paths. The condition and signing of this network varies considerably from one place to another, from very good in the seaside resorts to poor in the area between Garz and Zudar. There is a circular cycle path around the whole island. During the summer season there is the option on some routes to carry bicycles on the buses. This is always possible on the railways.


Ship
Two car ferries belonging to the Weiße Flotte operate every half-an-hour between the Zudar peninsula on Rügen and Stahlbrode on the mainland, halfway between Stralsund and Greifswald.

Another Weiße Flotte car ferry, the runs from the heartland of Rügen ( Muttland) to Wittow.

A ferry sails from ferry port in Mukran to the Danish island of , to Swedish , to Klaipėda (formerly Memel) in , to (formerly Pillau) and to .

The island of , which also belongs to the county of Vorpommern-Rügen, is connected by a regular ferry service from Schaprode to Rügen, and is increasingly integrated into the clock-schedule timetable on the main island. In addition, there is a regular ship service from Stralsund, Wiek and to Hiddensee. Tourist services include ferry connections from Lauterbach to Gager, and between Sassnitz, Binz, Sellin and Göhren. There are also round-trips mainly from Sassnitz, but also from , to the Königsstuhl. Pleasure steamers also ply between the resorts and Peenemünde on Usedom, where there is a connection to the Usedom Railway (UBB).


Ferries
is the international ferry terminal on Rügen, with ferry services to Sassnitz-Mukran is the largest railway ferry terminal in and the only one in Europe where different tracks allow switching from to .

Local passenger ferries connect the of , , and Göhren with the adjacent islands of , and . Passenger and car ferries connect Rügen's centre of , to both in Rügen's north via the and to the mainland via the Glewitz Ferry (Glewitzer Fähre) between Stahlbrode near and on Rügen's peninsula.


Aviation
Rügen Airport is located about from Bergen. After the , the first sightseeing flights over the island were offered on the former agricultural airfield. In May 1993, the first tarmac runway was inaugurated. Since then, charter flights to Berlin, Hamburg and other cities in Europe have been available.

The Baltic Sea Airport Stralsund also offers flights to and from the region of Western Pomerania. The larger Rostock–Laage Airport offers regular international destinations.


Notable people
Significant Rüganer:
  • Preben von Ahnen (1606–1675) a German-born Norwegian civil servant and landowner.
  • Count Baltzar Bogislaus von Platen (1766–1829) a Swedish naval officer and statesman.
  • Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769–1860), German writer and deputy.
  • Wilhelm Malte I Prince of Putbus (1783–1854), under his rule there was much construction work in the style
  • (1802–1880) a philosopher and political writer.
  • (1812–1885) a Protestant theologian.
  • (1829–1894), one of the greatest surgeons of the 19th century.
  • Berthold Delbrück (1842–1922), German linguist
  • (1847–1927) a sculptor who spent much of her career in Britain.
  • Hans Delbrück (1848–1929), German historian and politician.
  • Franziska Tiburtius (1843–1927), German doctor and campaigner for women's studies
  • (1894–1939), German naval officer and captain of the Armoured Cruiser Admiral Graf Spee
  • (born 1941), East German bobsledder, Olympic and World Champion
  • Christian Schwochow (born 1978) a German film director. Christian Schwochow, IMDb Database .


Individuals associated with the island
  • Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince Wahlstatt (1742–1819), Prussian Field Marshal, spent his youth on the Venz estate.
  • Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840), painter, stayed several times on visits by relatives of Pomerania and was inspired mainly by the chalk cliffs
  • Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten (1758–1818), theologian, pastor, professor and poet, pastor of the parish Altenkirchen at Rügen
  • Joachim Nicolas Eggert (1779–1813), composer and musical director, member of the Royal Swedish Musical Academy
  • Maximilian Kaller (1880–1947), Bishop of Warmia in Prussia, began his first pastorate as mission pastor of St. Boniface parish at Rügen
  • (born 1954), German Chancellor (CDU), represented the constituency of Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I between 1990 and 2021; she therefore represented the island of Rügen in the .


See also


External links

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