Hiddensee ( German pronunciation: [ˈhɪdn̩zeː] ) is a car-free island in the Baltic Sea , located west of Germany's largest island, Rügen , on the German coast.
156-668: The island has about 1,000 inhabitants. It was a holiday destination for East German tourists during German Democratic Republic (GDR) times, and continues to attract tourists today. It is the location of the University of Greifswald 's ornithological station. Gerhart Hauptmann and Walter Felsenstein are buried there. The name Hedinsey surfaces as early as the Prose Edda and the Gesta Danorum written by Saxo Grammaticus and means "Island of Hedin". The legendary Norwegian king, Hedin,
312-688: A legal fiction , and the Soviet sector of Berlin became fully integrated into the GDR. The deepening Cold War conflict between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union over the unresolved status of West Berlin led to the Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949). The Soviet army initiated the blockade by halting all Allied rail, road, and water traffic to and from West Berlin. The Allies countered
468-745: A critical legitimization tool in the last decades and mixed socialist and traditional elements about equally. At the Yalta Conference during World War II, the Allies , i.e., the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and the Soviet Union (USSR), agreed on dividing a defeated Nazi Germany into occupation zones , and on dividing Berlin, the German capital, among the Allied powers as well. Initially, this meant
624-577: A dune and heath landscape in the central area ( Dünenheide ) and a flat, only few-metres-high southern part, the Gellen . In the northeast are the two three-kilometre-long (1.9 mi) spits of Alter Bessin and Neuer Bessin . The island is bounded by the Schaproder Bodden and Vitter Bodden to the east, the Gellenstrom (the shipping channel to Stralsund) to the south and the open Baltic Sea to
780-500: A few sections of the Berlin Wall were opened, resulting in thousands of East Germans crossing freely into West Berlin and West Germany for the first time in nearly 30 years. Krenz resigned a month later, and the SED opened negotiations with the leaders of the incipient Democratic movement, Neues Forum , to schedule free elections and begin the process of democratization. As part of this process,
936-509: A future, reunited Germany. The GDR ceased to exist when its five states ("Länder") joined the Federal Republic of Germany under Article 23 of the Basic Law , and its capital East Berlin united with West Berlin on 3 October 1990. Several of the GDR's leaders, notably its last communist leader Egon Krenz , were later prosecuted for offenses committed during the GDR era. The official name
1092-621: A labour protest, the action soon included the general populace, and on 17 June similar protests occurred throughout the GDR, with more than a million people striking in some 700 cities and towns. Fearing anti-communist counter-revolution , on 18 June 1953 the government of the GDR enlisted the Soviet Occupation Forces to aid the police in ending the riot; some fifty people were killed and 10,000 were jailed (see Uprising of 1953 in East Germany ). The German war reparations owed to
1248-701: A nature reserve was given to the Dornbusch, the Schwedenhagener Ufer and the Altbessin in 1937. From 1916 to 1921, the photographer Elfriede Reichelt visited the island several times. Between 1922 and 1925, Max Taut built a house on Hiddensee every year. The most famous is the Karusel in Vitte, built in 1922, which the silent film actress Asta Nielsen bought as a residence in 1928 and for which Bruno Taut had designed
1404-537: A picnic near the border at Sopron (near Hungary's border with Austria). The local Sopron organizers knew nothing of possible GDR refugees, but envisaged a local party with Austrian and Hungarian participation. But with the mass exodus at the Pan-European Picnic, the subsequent hesitant behavior of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union broke the dams. Thus
1560-587: A primary goal of ridding East Germany of all traces of Nazism . It is estimated that between 180,000 and 250,000 people were sentenced to imprisonment on political grounds. In the Yalta and Potsdam conferences of 1945, the Allies established their joint military occupation and administration of Germany via the Allied Control Council (ACC), a four-power (US, UK, USSR, France) military government effective until
1716-549: A result, Hiddensee is one of the sunniest places in Germany. One special feature is so-called transperiod wind circulation, when there are weak, offshore wind conditions, and which is caused by the different temperatures over the sea and land. This produces a sea breeze in late morning that abates in the afternoon or evening. The longstanding annual average temperature on the island is 8 °C (46 °F). The average wind speed in Kloster
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#17328760764041872-642: A series of end-moraine systems, notably those in Götaland. During deglaciation, meltwater formed numerous eskers and sandurs . In north-central Småland and southern Östergötland part of the meltwater was routed through a series of canyons. It is speculated that during the Younger Dryas a small glacier readvance in Sweden created a natural lock system that brought freshwater taxa such as Mysis and Salvelinus to lakes like Sommen that were never connected to
2028-518: A short-time curator of the University of Greifswald. The family of Paul Wüstenberg was the tenant of the 239 ha town estate. At the end of the 1930s, bunkers and anti-aircraft weapons were built at Enddorn for air defense during World War II, as well as a jetty at Schwedenhagen for material transport. The bunkers were blown up by the Soviet Army in 1945 (the debris was not removed until the 2000s) and
2184-666: A socialist political constitution establishing its control of the Anti-Fascist National Front of the German Democratic Republic (NF, Nationale Front der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik ), an omnibus alliance of every party and mass organisation in East Germany. The NF was established to stand for election to the Volkskammer ( People's Chamber ), the East German parliament. The first and only president of
2340-535: A time. The linkage constituted a major drainage barrier that formed various large and ephemeral ice-dammed lakes . About 10.1 ka BP the linkage had disappeared and so did the Southern Norway centre of the ice sheet about a thousand years later. The northern centre remained a few hundred years more so that by 9.7 ka BP the eastern Sarek Mountains hosted the last remnant of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet. As
2496-537: A word that was used to refer to places where fish was sold. In Vitte is the parish hall and council administration. In addition there is the ferry landing stage for the goods ferry that brings delivery and waste disposal vehicles from Schaprode on the island of Rügen. Goods are transferred to trailers that are pulled by electric tractors and distributed to the food markets and restaurants on the island. Sometimes smaller goods are still delivered by horse and cart . The heath landscape on Hiddensee, between Vitte and Neuendorf,
2652-610: Is 7 metres per second (16 mph). In comparison to the nearby island of Rügen, the average annual precipitation on Hiddensee is markedly less at 540 millimetres (21 in). In 2008, Hiddensee-Dornbusch was the sunniest place in Germany, as reported by the weather service, Meteomedia , with 2,168 hours of sunshine . The data was gathered by Meteomedia's own weather station ( 54°36′N 13°07′E / 54.60°N 13.12°E / 54.60; 13.12 ( Wetterstation Hiddensee-Bornbusch ) ; 69 m above NN ). The Hiddensee weather station has recorded
2808-488: Is a bilateral Treaty between two States, to which the rules of international law apply and which like any other international treaty possesses validity, it is between two States that are parts of a still existing, albeit incapable of action as not being reorganized, comprehensive State of the Whole of Germany with a single body politic. Travel between the GDR and Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary became visa-free from 1972. From
2964-776: Is already 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) long. Meanwhile, a third Bessin is emerging. Even the southern tip is growing as a so-called windwatt into the Schaproder Bodden . From the highlands in the north to the lowlands in the south, there are the following mountains, gorges and shapes (altitude above sea level in parentheses, rounded): Hiddensee is dominated macro-climatically by the Baltic Sea coastal climate with frequent alternation between maritime and continental influences ( Köppen : Cfb ; Trewartha : Dobk ). Characteristically it has frequent, brisk and changeable winds and long periods of sunshine. This averages 1,850 hours per year. As
3120-546: Is also part of Vitte. In Vitte is the oldest surviving house on the island, the Witch's House ( German : Hexenhaus ), the old summer house for Adolf Reichwein . In addition there is the last tented cinema and the puppet theatre Seebühne Hiddensee . Neuendorf is the southernmost settlement on Hiddensee. The inhabitants of Neuendorf are known by the rest of the island as the Southerners ( German : Die Süder ). Although Neuendorf
3276-414: Is considered unique, the village as a whole is under monument protection. Plogshagen is a foundation from times of colonization by German settlers after the foundation of the monastery. The name is said to be derived from the personal name Plog. Today Plogshagen has largely grown together with Neuendorf. The island of Hiddensee is, from a geological perspective, a very young landscape and was formed during
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#17328760764043432-439: Is only six kilometres (3.7 mi) from Vitte, its inhabitants speak a different dialect. Large parts of Neuendorf resemble a large pasture on which the houses are arranged like a piece of string. There are no paths in places, so that some addresses may only be reached by walking over the grass. Neuendorf has its own harbour. Neuendorf consists of two originally independent villages: the older one, Plogshagen , existed as early as
3588-505: Is possible that while some ice remained east of Sarek Mountains parts of the ice sheet survived temporarily in the high mountains. Remnants east of the Sarek Mountains formed various ephemeral ice-dammed lakes that caused numerous glacial lake outburst floods down the rivers of northernmost Sweden. Isostatic adjustment bought by deglaciation is reflected in the shoreline changes of the Baltic Sea and other nearby bodies of water. In
3744-739: Is the Dornbusch. In Kloster are the Hiddensee Biological Station and the Hiddensee Bird Observatory, both branches of the University of Greifswald , which were both formed out of the Hiddensee Biological Research Institute, founded in 1930. Vitte (pronounced: Fitte ), first mentioned in 1513, is the main settlement and the largest and most central village on the island. The name is a derivation of vit ;
3900-537: Is the largest island within the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park and belongs to the district of Vorpommern-Rügen in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . It lies west of the island of Rügen and is divided into an undulating, over 70-metre-high (230 ft) northern part ( Dornbusch , whose highest point is the Bakenberg at 72 m above sea level (NN) ),
4056-569: Is thought to result in splitting of the Gulf of Bothnia into a southern gulf and a northern lake across Norra Kvarken no earlier than in about 2,000 years. Isostatic rebound exposed a submarine joint valley landscape as Stockholm archipelago . Since deglaciation the rate of post-glacial rebound in the Kandalaksha Gulf has varied. Since the White Sea connected to the world's oceans uplift along
4212-566: The Republikflucht ("desertion from the republic") to West Germany, further weakening the GDR's economy. Western economic opportunities induced a brain drain . In response, the GDR closed the inner German border , and on the night of 12 August 1961, East German soldiers began erecting the Berlin Wall . In 1971, Ulbricht was removed from leadership after Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev supported his ouster; Erich Honecker replaced him. While
4368-740: The Baltic Ice Lake . The survival of these cold-water taxa into the present-day means they are glacial relicts. When ice margin retreat resumed the ice sheet became increasingly concentrated in the Scandinavian Mountains (it had left Russia 10.6 ka BP and Finland 10.1 ka BP). Further retreat of the ice margin led the ice sheet to concentrate in two parts of the Scandinavian Mountains, one part in Southern Norway and another in Northern Sweden and Norway. These two centres were linked for
4524-544: The Biological Station of Hiddensee since 1930 and is used as a doctoral student house. In 1927, a police regulation was issued prohibiting the use of motor vehicles on the island. Only the island doctor and the local police were allowed to use a motorcycle. In the same year the island was connected to the electricity grid and three years later the Biological Research Station was founded by Erich Leick from
4680-705: The East Bloc states. This policy saw the Treaty of Moscow (August 1970), the Treaty of Warsaw (December 1970), the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971), the Transit Agreement (May 1972), and the Basic Treaty (December 1972), which relinquished any separate claims to an exclusive mandate over Germany as a whole and established normal relations between the two Germanies. Both countries were admitted into
4836-551: The German Democratic Republic ( GDR ; Deutsche Demokratische Republik , [ˈdɔʏtʃə demoˈkʁaːtɪʃə ʁepuˈbliːk] , DDR ), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state". The economy of
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4992-571: The Hallstein Doctrine (1955), West Germany did not establish (formal) diplomatic ties with any country – except the Soviets ;– that recognized East German sovereignty. In the early 1970s, the Ostpolitik ("Eastern Policy") of "Change Through Rapprochement" of the pragmatic government of FRG Chancellor Willy Brandt , established normal diplomatic relations with
5148-506: The Hiddensee Bird Observatory [ de ] was established on the island. The population of Hiddensee has shrunk in recent years. While an estimated 1,261 people lived on Hiddensee in 1990, an estimate in 2001 put the number at only 1,173, and in 2011 the census revealed only 995 inhabitants. Since then, the exodus seems to have stopped; the 2021 estimate resulted in 994 inhabitants. More women (52.1%) than men live on
5304-580: The Island Church , intended for the farmers and fishermen of the island, took place in today's Kloster district outside the monastery walls. With the transfer of the baptismal font from the Gellenkirche to the new church, pastoral duties have been carried out from there ever since. The barrel vault, built in around 1781, received a painting with rose decoration by the Berlin painter Nikolaus Niemeier in 1922. In
5460-492: The SED general secretary Walter Ulbricht assumed most executive authority. Socialist leader Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964) became prime minister until his death. The government of East Germany denounced West German failures in accomplishing denazification and renounced ties to the Nazi past, imprisoning many former Nazis and preventing them from holding government positions. The SED set
5616-576: The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the Soviet-controlled zone. However, the SED quickly transformed into a full-fledged Communist party as the more independent-minded Social Democrats were pushed out. The Potsdam Agreement committed the Soviets to support a democratic form of government in Germany, though the Soviets' understanding of democracy was radically different from that of
5772-689: The Soviet-occupied zone , bounded on the east by the Oder-Neiße line . The GDR was dominated by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), a communist party , before being democratized and liberalized in 1989 as a result of the pressure against communist governments brought by the Revolutions of 1989 . This paved the way for East Germany's reunification with the West. Unlike the government of West Germany,
5928-722: The United Nations and the Helsinki Final Act . This assessment of the Basic Treaty was confirmed in a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court in 1973; the German Democratic Republic is in the international-law sense a State and as such a subject of international law. This finding is independent of recognition in international law of the German Democratic Republic by the Federal Republic of Germany. Such recognition has not only never been formally pronounced by
6084-527: The University of Greifswald , which together with an ornithological station became the Biological Research Institute of Hiddensee in 1936. In 1937, work began on the large stone embankment with stone groynes in front of the Hucke. It was planned to protect the entire approximately four-kilometer-long break-off bank of the Dornbusch with a rampart. In addition to protecting the island, the intention
6240-447: The Younger Dryas when the ice sheet stabilized. By this time, most of Götaland , Gotland , all of the Baltic states and the southeastern coast of Finland had been added to the ice-free regions. In Russia, Lake Ladoga , Lake Onega , the bulk of Kola Peninsula and the White Sea were free from ice during the Younger Dryas. Before the Younger Dryas, deglaciation had not been uniform and small ice sheet re-advances had occurred forming
6396-426: The de facto and de jure government, but also the sole de jure legitimate representative of a dormant "Germany as whole". The two Germanies each relinquished any claim to represent the other internationally; which they acknowledged as necessarily implying a mutual recognition of each other as both capable of representing their own populations de jure in participating in international bodies and agreements, such as
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6552-495: The elections of October 1946 . The SED government nationalised infrastructure and industrial plants. In March 1948 the German Economic Commission ( Deutsche Wirtschaftskomission –DWK) under its chairman Heinrich Rau assumed administrative authority in the Soviet occupation zone, thus becoming the predecessor of an East German government. On 7 October 1949 the SED established the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic – GDR), based on
6708-557: The equestrian statue of Frederick the Great was removed from East Berlin. Instead, the SED focused on the progressive heritage of German history, including Thomas Müntzer 's role in the German Peasants' War of 1524–1525 and the role played by the heroes of the class struggle during Prussia's industrialization. Other notable figures and reformers from Prussian history such as Karl Freiherr vom Stein (1757–1831), Karl August von Hardenberg (1750–1822), Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), and Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755–1813) were upheld by
6864-414: The fall of the Berlin Wall and the establishment of a government committed to liberalization. The following year, a free and fair election was held in the country, and international negotiations between the four former Allied countries and the two German states commenced. The negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty , which replaced the Potsdam Agreement on the status and borders of
7020-413: The groundwater recharge zone came above sea level. About 115,000 years ago average temperatures dropped markedly and warmth-loving woodland species were displaced. This significant turning point in average temperatures marked the end of the Eemian interglacial and start of the Weichselian glacial stage. It is divided into three sections, based on the temperature variation: the Weichselian Early Glacial,
7176-440: The monastery was called Kloster Hiddensee for the entire time of its existence. In the fall of 2008, archaeologists excavating under the direction of medieval archaeologist Felix Biermann discovered ten burials on the grounds of the former Cistercian monastery. Nine graves were found north of the monastery church and one in the cloister east of the west wing of the enclosure . Bettina Jungklaus anthropologically examined
7332-445: The national park und is out-of-bounds. On the island are two nature reserves, the Dünenheide auf der Insel Hiddensee Nature Reserve [ de ] between Neuendorf and Vitte and the Dornbusch und Schwedenhagener Ufer Nature Reserve [ de ] in the north. The Naturschutzgesellschaft Hiddensee und Boddenlandschaft maintains a national park house in Vitte, with a permanent exhibition of fauna and flora. In 1936
7488-406: The shock-therapy style of privatization , the artificially high rate of exchange offered for the Ostmark , and the speed with which the entire process was implemented did not leave room for East German enterprises to adapt. There were four periods in East German political history. These included: 1949–1961, which saw the building of socialism; 1961–1970 after the Berlin Wall closed off escape
7644-456: The 'state anti-fascism' of the GDR gave way to the 'state anti-communism' of the FRG. From then on, the dominant interpretation of GDR history, based on the concept of totalitarianism, led to the equivalence of communism and Nazism. Historian Anne-Kathleen Tillack-Graf shows, with the help of the newspaper Neues Deutschland , how the national memorials of Buchenwald , Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück were politically instrumentalised in
7800-423: The 13th century and the actual Neuendorf, which was formed in 1700 by relocation of people from Glambek . Ruins of these settlements are still recognisable today northeast of Neuendorf parish. South of Neuendorf lies the so-called Gellen , an important bird reserve that belongs to conservation zone I of the West Pomeranian Lagoon Area National Park and is thus out-of-bounds to the public. The first settlements on
7956-422: The 1990s, the majority of West German historians described the Normandy landings in June 1944 as an "invasion", exonerated the Wehrmacht of its responsibility for the genocide of the Jews and fabricated the myth of a diplomatic corps that "did not know". On the contrary, Auschwitz was never a taboo in the GDR. The Nazis' crimes were the subject of extensive film, theatre and literary productions. In 1991, 16% of
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#17328760764048112-433: The Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation . It was characterized by a large ice sheet (the Fenno-Scandian ice sheet) that spread out from the Scandinavian Mountains and extended as far as the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein , northern Poland and Northwest Russia . This glaciation is also known as the Weichselian ice age ( German : Weichsel-Eiszeit ), Vistulian glaciation, Weichsel or, less commonly,
8268-433: The Arctic and the North Pacific to flow east of Greenland disrupting the convection of North Atlantic Deep Water . According to this view any closing of the Bering Strait that blockades the entering of North Pacific water to the Arctic Ocean would have been detrimental for the inception of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. Jan Mangerud posits that parts of the Norwegian coast were likely free from glacier ice during most of
8424-455: The Baltic Sea uplift has been greatest at the High Coast in the western Bothnian Sea . Within the High Coast the relict shoreline at 286 m in Skuleberget is at present the highest known point on Earth to have been uplifted by postglacial isostatic rebound. North of the High Coast at Furuögrund off the coast of Skellefteå lies the area with the highest uplift rates at present with values of about 9 mm/yr. Ongoing post-glacial rebound
8580-421: The Baltic Sea was formed during the Littorina Transgression about 7,000 to 2,500 years ago. Around 5,000 years ago, the sea level attained its present level and the Dornbusch and two older island cores became islands. 4,500 years ago the salt water currents from the North Sea were sharply reduced. The Baltic has slowly become less salty since. As a result of coastal erosion (land denudation, drift and deposition)
8736-414: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union , Joseph Stalin , issued a proposal to reunify Germany with a policy of neutrality, with no conditions on economic policies and with guarantees for "the rights of man and basic freedoms, including freedom of speech, press, religious persuasion, political conviction, and assembly" and free activity of democratic parties and organizations. The West demurred; reunification
8892-416: The East German state was defined by two dominant forces – Soviet communism on the one hand, and German traditions filtered through the interwar experiences of German communists on the other. Throughout its existence GDR consistently grappled with the influence of the more prosperous West, against which East Germans continually measured their own nation. The notable transformations instituted by
9048-452: The East of Berlin). Over time, however, the abbreviation "DDR" was also increasingly used colloquially by West Germans and West German media. When used by West Germans, Westdeutschland ( West Germany ) was a term almost always in reference to the geographic region of Western Germany and not to the area within the boundaries of the Federal Republic of Germany. However, this use was not always consistent and West Berliners frequently used
9204-585: The FRG. While in West Germany, a work of memory on the resurgence of Nazism was carried out, this was not the case in the East. Indeed, as Axel Dossmann, professor of history at the University of Jena , notes, "this phenomenon was completely hidden. For the state-SED (the East German communist party), it was impossible to admit the existence of neo-Nazis, since the foundation of the GDR was to be an anti-fascist state. The Stasi kept an eye on them, but they were considered to be outsiders or thick-skinned bullies. These young people grew up hearing double talk. At school, it
9360-415: The Federal Republic of Germany but on the contrary repeatedly explicitly rejected. If the conduct of the Federal Republic of Germany towards the German Democratic Republic is assessed in the light of its détente policy, in particular, the conclusion of the Treaty as de facto recognition, then it can only be understood as de facto recognition of a special kind. The special feature of this Treaty is that while it
9516-417: The Federal Republic of Germany, while East and West Berlin united as a third city-state (in the same manner as Bremen and Hamburg ). On 1 July, a currency union preceded the political union: the "Ostmark" was abolished, and the Western German "Deutsche Mark" became the common currency. Although the Volkskammer 's declaration of accession to the Federal Republic had initiated the process of reunification,
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#17328760764049672-420: The GDR, particularly during the celebrations of the liberation of the concentration camps. Although officially built in opposition to the 'fascist world' in West Germany, in 1954, 32% of public administration employees were former members of the Nazi Party . However, in 1961, the share of former NSDAP members among the senior Interior Ministry administration staff was less than 10% in the GDR, compared to 67% in
9828-431: The GDR. SPDA Vice President Wolfgang Thierse , for his part, complained in Die Welt about the rise of the extreme right in the everyday life of the inhabitants of the former GDR, in particular the terrorist group NSU, with the German journalist Odile Benyahia-Kouider explaining that "it is no coincidence that the neo-Nazi party NPD has experienced a renaissance via the East". The historian Sonia Combe observes that until
9984-404: The German Democratic Republic was Wilhelm Pieck . However, after 1950, political power in East Germany was held by the First Secretary of the SED, Walter Ulbricht . On 16 June 1953, workers constructing the new Stalinallee boulevard in East Berlin according to the GDR's officially promulgated Sixteen Principles of Urban Design , rioted against a 10% production-quota increase. Initially
10140-442: The German labour movement and the victims of the camps, it was "staged, censored, ordered" and, during the 40 years of the regime, was an instrument of legitimisation, repression and maintenance of power. In May 1989, following widespread public anger over the faking of results of local government elections, many GDR citizens applied for exit visas or left the country contrary to GDR laws. The impetus for this exodus of East Germans
10296-414: The Midlandian glaciation and in North America, the Wisconsin glaciation . The Fennoscandian Ice Sheet of the Weichselian glaciation most likely grew out of a mountain glaciation of small ice fields and ice caps in the Scandinavian Mountains . The initial glaciation of the Scandinavian Mountains would have been enabled by moisture coming from the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains high altitude. Perhaps
10452-434: The Nazis consolidated all power and criminalized them, and official East German and Soviet histories portrayed this merger as a voluntary pooling of efforts by the socialist parties and symbolic of the new friendship of German socialists after defeating their common enemy; however, there is much evidence that the merger was more troubled than commonly portrayed, and that the Soviet occupation authorities applied great pressure on
10608-406: The SED as examples and role models. The communist regime of the GDR based its legitimacy on the struggle of anti-fascist militants. A form of resistance "cult" was established in the Buchenwald camp memorial site, with the creation of a museum in 1958, and the annual celebration of the Buchenwald oath taken on 19 April 1945 by the prisoners who pledged to fight for peace and freedom. In the 1990s,
10764-415: The SED did not see its state as the successor to the German Reich (1871–1945) and abolished the goal of unification in the constitution ( 1974 ). The SED-ruled GDR was often described as a Soviet satellite state ; historians described it as an authoritarian regime. Geographically the GDR bordered the Baltic Sea to the north, Poland to the east, Czechoslovakia to the southeast, and West Germany to
10920-477: The SED eliminated the clause in the East German constitution guaranteeing the Communists leadership of the state. The change was approved in the Volkskammer on 1 December 1989 by a vote of 420 to 0. East Germany held its last election in March 1990 . The winner was Alliance for Germany , a coalition headed by the East German branch of West Germany's Christian Democratic Union , which advocated speedy reunification. Negotiations ( 2+4 Talks) were held involving
11076-411: The SPD's eastern branch to merge with the KPD, and the communists, who held a majority, had virtually total control over policy. The SED remained the ruling party for the entire duration of the East German state. It had close ties with the Soviets, which maintained military forces in East Germany until the dissolution of the Soviet regime in 1991 ( Russia continued to maintain forces in the territory of
11232-449: The Soviets administered their zone without regard to the policies implemented in the other zones. The Soviets withdrew from the ACC in 1948; subsequently, as the other three zones were increasingly unified and granted self-government, the Soviet administration instituted a separate socialist government in its zone. Seven years after the Allies' 1945 Potsdam Agreement on common German policies,
11388-510: The Soviets impoverished the Soviet Zone of Occupation and severely weakened the East German economy. In the 1945–46 period the Soviets confiscated and transported to the USSR approximately 33% of the industrial plant and by the early 1950s had extracted some US$ 10 billion in reparations in agricultural and industrial products. The poverty of East Germany, induced or deepened by reparations, provoked
11544-605: The Soviets with the Berlin Airlift (1948–49) of food, fuel, and supplies to West Berlin. On 21 April 1946 the Communist Party of Germany ( Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) and the part of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ( Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – SPD) in the Soviet zone merged to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED – Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands ), which then won
11700-608: The USSR via the Stalin Note (10 March 1952) proposed German reunification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe, which the three Western Allies (the United States, France, the United Kingdom) rejected. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin , a Communist proponent of reunification, died in early March 1953. Similarly, Lavrenty Beria , the First Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR, pursued German reunification, but he
11856-560: The Ulbricht government had experimented with liberal reforms, the Honecker government reversed them. The new government introduced a new East German Constitution which defined the German Democratic Republic as a "republic of workers and peasants". Initially, East Germany claimed an exclusive mandate for all of Germany, a claim supported by most of the Communist bloc. It claimed that West Germany
12012-661: The United Nations on 18 September 1973. This also increased the number of countries recognizing East Germany to 55, including the US, UK and France, though these three still refused to recognize East Berlin as the capital, and insisted on a specific provision in the UN resolution accepting the two Germanies into the UN to that effect. Following the Ostpolitik, the West German view was that East Germany
12168-667: The Weichsel glaciation, Weichselian cold period ( Weichsel-Kaltzeit ), Weichselian glacial ( Weichsel-Glazial ), Weichselian Stage or, rarely, the Weichselian complex ( Weichsel-Komplex ). In Northern Europe it was the youngest of the glacials of the Pleistocene ice age . The preceding warm period in this region was the Eemian interglacial . The last cold period began about 115,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago. Its end corresponds with
12324-776: The Weichselian High Glacial (also Weichselian Pleniglacial ) and the Weichselian Late Glacial. During the Weichselian, there were frequent major variations in climate in the northern hemisphere, the so-called Dansgaard–Oeschger events . The Weichsel Early Glacial (115,000–60,000 BC) is in turn divided into four stages: In the Weichselian High Glacial (57,000 – c. 15,000 BC) the ice sheet advanced into North Germany. In this period, however, several interstadials have been documented. The short "Weichselian Late Glacial" (12,500 – c. 10,000 BC)
12480-576: The Weichselian prior to the Last Glacial Maximum . Between 38 and 28 ka BP there was a relatively warm period in Fennoscandia called the Ålesund interstadial. The interstadial receives its name from the Ålesund municipality in Norway where its existence was first established based on the local fossil record of shells . The growth of the ice sheet to its Last Glacial Maximum extent began after
12636-573: The West more accessible than ever before, 30,000 East Germans made the crossing via Czechoslovakia in the first two days alone. To try to stem the outward flow of the population, the SED proposed a law loosening travel restrictions. When the Volkskammer rejected it on 5 November, the Cabinet and Politburo of the GDR resigned. This left only one avenue open for Krenz and the SED: completely abolishing travel restrictions between East and West. On 9 November 1989,
12792-546: The West. As in other Soviet-bloc countries, non-communist political parties were allowed. Nevertheless, every political party in the GDR was forced to join the National Front of Democratic Germany , a broad coalition of parties and mass political organisations, including: Weichselian glaciation The Weichselian glaciation is the regional name for the Last Glacial Period in the northern parts of Europe . In
12948-500: The act of reunification itself (with its many specific terms, conditions and qualifications, some of which involved amendments to the West German Basic Law) was achieved constitutionally by the subsequent Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990 – that is, through a binding agreement between the former Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic, now recognising each other as separate sovereign states in international law. The treaty
13104-463: The adventurous mooring or disembarking at the level of the ferry island was no longer necessary. From 1892 onwards, steamships operated regularly between Stralsund and Kloster for the first time. From 1905, with the founding of the medical association, the first doctor on Hiddensee received his license. With the almost simultaneous construction of five large hotels in Kloster ( Haus Hitthim in 1909, Zum Klausner in 1911, Wieseneck and Haus am Meer -
13260-754: The barrier of the Eastern Bloc was broken. Tens of thousands of East Germans, alerted by the media, made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or force its border troops to open fire on escapees. The GDR leadership in East Berlin did not dare to completely lock down their own country's borders. The next major turning point in the exodus came on 10 September 1989, when Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn announced that his country would no longer restrict movement from Hungary into Austria. Within two days, 22,000 East Germans crossed into Austria; tens of thousands more did so in
13416-579: The beginning, the newly formed GDR tried to establish its own separate identity. Because of the imperial and military legacy of Prussia , the SED repudiated continuity between Prussia and the GDR. The SED destroyed a number of symbolic relics of the former Prussian aristocracy ; Junker manor-houses were torn down, the Berliner Stadtschloß was razed and the Palace of the Republic was built in its place, and
13572-599: The best modern analogues to this early glaciation are the ice fields of Andean Patagonia . Since the proximity to the temperate North Atlantic typically precludes ice growth in Scandinavia, changes in the North Atlantic are thought to be required for glaciation to develop in Scandinavia. The freezing and glaciation of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago could effect this by causing "relatively fresher" water from
13728-672: The border on the Iron Curtain . In particular, it tested whether Moscow would give the Soviet troops stationed in Hungary the command to intervene. Extensive advertising for the planned picnic was made by the Paneuropean Union through posters and flyers among the GDR holidaymakers in Hungary. The Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union , which was then headed by Karl von Habsburg , distributed thousands of brochures inviting GDR citizens to
13884-417: The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The idea of opening the border at a ceremony came from Otto von Habsburg , who proposed it to Miklós Németh , then Hungarian Prime Minister, who promoted the idea. The patrons of the picnic, Habsburg and Hungarian Minister of State Imre Pozsgay , who did not attend the event, saw the planned event as an opportunity to test Mikhail Gorbachev 's reaction to an opening of
14040-552: The capital. However, the Western Allies disputed this recognition, considering the entire city of Berlin to be occupied territory governed by the Allied Control Council . According to Margarete Feinstein, East Berlin's status as the capital was largely unrecognized by the West and by most Third World countries. In practice, the ACC's authority was rendered moot by the Cold War , East Berlin's status as occupied territory largely became
14196-464: The cliff edges of the Dornbusch recede about 30 centimetres (1 ft) per year. In mid-March 2004 another 10,000 cubic metres (0.35 million cubic feet) collapsed into the sea. Geologically seen the Hiddensee is a region undergoing constant change. The landmasses carried away from its northern tip are washed up again at the southern end and on the east side of the Schaproder Bodden . This has caused
14352-451: The coastal section from Hucke to the museum of local history as well as from there along the coast to Gellen ( Karkensee ). The section of coast in front of Vitte was excluded from this, because the Vitter rejected the government's offered reforestation for the reason that access to the beach for tourists would then be impeded. In 1864 and 1872, the island was hit by severe storm floods . During
14508-462: The color concept of the house. Just near Karusel is another house by Max Taut, Haus Weidermann , built in 1923 for the Berlin merchant Karl Weidermann. In Kloster stand the Haus Pingel , built for the interior designer Walter Pingel in 1924 (significantly altered structurally in the 1960s), and right next to it the house built in 1925 for the Berlin publisher Max Gehlen, which has been on the grounds of
14664-543: The communist regime were particularly evident in the abolition of capitalism, the overhaul of industrial and agricultural sectors, the militarization of society, and the political orientation of both the educational system and the media. On the other hand, the new regime made relatively few changes in the historically independent domains of the sciences, the engineering professions, the Protestant churches, and in many bourgeois lifestyles. Social policy, says Ritter, became
14820-578: The country was centrally planned and state-owned . Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, its economy became the most successful in the Eastern Bloc . Before its establishment, the country's territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces following the Berlin Declaration abolishing German sovereignty in World War II . The Potsdam Agreement established
14976-568: The course of the Reformation , the monastery was dissolved in 1536. During the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648, soldiers burned down the mixed oak forest on the Dornbusch on Wallenstein's orders in 1628, thus depriving the Danes of the opportunity to extract timber. Even in the 21st century, the ash layer from that time can still be seen on the roadsides near the lighthouse a few centimeters below
15132-492: The district of Rügen (until 1939, the district of Rügen). In 1836, Stralsund's Holy Spirit Monastery acquired the island, and the first schools on the island were built in Plogshagen and Kloster in 1837 and 1840, respectively. In the years between 1854 and 1864, a reorganization of the land relations also took place on Hiddensee in the context of the redemption of the real burdens (liberation of farmers). Until 1861, Hiddensee
15288-449: The early 1970s, West Germany maintained that East Germany was an illegally constituted state. It argued that the GDR was a Soviet puppet-state, and frequently referred to it as the "Soviet occupation zone". West Germany's allies shared this position until 1973. East Germany was recognized primarily by socialist countries and by the Arab bloc , along with some "scattered sympathizers". According to
15444-887: The end of the Pleistocene epoch and the start of the Holocene . The German geologist Konrad Keilhack [ de ] (1858–1944) named it using the German name ( Weichsel ) of the Vistula ( Polish : Wisła ) in present-day Poland. In other regions Major Glacial 4 of the Pleistocene is given a local name. In the Alpine region it is the Würm glaciation , in Great Britain the Devensian glaciation , in Ireland
15600-511: The first flood, Hiddensee broke in two due to a complete flooding at the narrowest point of the island, south of Neuendorf, which could only be reversed by extensive reconstruction measures six years later. After the second storm flood, the Hiddensee treasure , a Viking work from the 10th century, is said to have been found. A replica of it can be seen in the Hiddensee Museum of Local History ,
15756-483: The following extreme values: Again and again Hiddensee was hit by storm flood . For example, the island is said to have been separated from the island of Rügen by the All Saints' Flood in 1304, but this has not been proven with certainty. In 1864 and 1865 Hiddensee was breached three times by storm floods between Hohen Dünschen Garn and Peterbergschen Garn, a very shallow and thin area. The 1872 Baltic Sea flood flooded
15912-409: The following weeks. Many other GDR citizens demonstrated against the ruling party , especially in the city of Leipzig . The Leipzig demonstrations became a weekly occurrence, with a turnout of 10,000 people at the first demonstration on 2 October, peaking at an estimated 300,000 by the end of the month. The protests were surpassed in East Berlin, where half a million demonstrators turned out against
16068-447: The formation of three zones of occupation, i.e., American, British, and Soviet. Later, a French zone was carved out of the US and British zones. The ruling communist party, known as the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), formed on 21 April 1946 from the merger between the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The two former parties were notorious rivals when they were active before
16224-542: The formation of two geologically recent spits at the southern end of the Gellen : the Alter Bessin und Neuer Bessin . The Alter Bessin began to appear about 300 to 400 years ago and was already over five kilometres (3 mi) long by the middle of the 19th century. Since then it has barely grown. On the other hand, the Neuer Bessin which appeared in 1900 is growing by 30 to 60 metres (100 to 200 ft) annually and
16380-479: The former Cistercian abbey , which stood from 1296 to 1536 in the vicinity of the present harbour in Kloster. It was dissolved with the Reformation . Today Kloster with its Gerhart Hauptmann Haus, the island church and island cemetery with the graves of Gerhart Hauptmann , Walter Felsenstein and Gret Palucca is the cultural centre of Hiddensee. It lies on the edge of the uplands ( Hochland ), whose highest point
16536-635: The former East Germany until 1994), with the purpose of countering NATO bases in West Germany. As West Germany was reorganized and gained independence from its occupiers (1945–1949), the GDR was established in East Germany in October 1949. The emergence of the two sovereign states solidified the 1945 division of Germany. On 10 March 1952, (in what would become known as the " Stalin Note ") the General Secretary of
16692-495: The fortress Jaromarsburg at Cape Arkona on Rügen , Christianized and brought under Danish feudal dependence. Hiddensee was thus under Danish sovereignty . On 13 April 1296 the prince of Rügen, Wizlaw II , donated the island of Hiddensee, "as it was surrounded by the salt sea", to the Neuenkamp Abbey . There, a Cistercian abbey named Nikolaikamp was founded, named after St. Nicholas as the patron saint of sailors. In fact,
16848-420: The full integration of the German Democratic Republic into the Federal Republic of Germany. Because of the resulting deindustrialization in the former East Germany, the causes of the failure of this integration continue to be debated. Some western commentators claim that the depressed eastern economy is a natural aftereffect of a demonstrably inefficient command economy . But many East German critics contend that
17004-415: The ice sheet retreated to the Scandinavian Mountains this was not a return to its former mountain centred glaciation from which the ice sheet grew out; it was dissimilar in that the ice divide lagged behind as the ice mass concentrated in the west. It is not known if the ice sheet disintegrated into scattered remains before vanishing or if it shrank while maintaining its coherence as a single ice mass. It
17160-558: The ice sheet that was growing in the Barents Sea 24 ka BP ( kiloannī or one thousand years Before Present ) and with the ice sheet of the British Isles at about thousand years later. At this point the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet formed part of a larger Eurasian ice sheet complex—a contiguous glacial ice mass which spanned an area from Ireland to Novaya Zemlya . The central parts of the Weichsel ice sheet had cold-based conditions during
17316-421: The island again near Plogshagen. There is still a threat of the island being divided into a southern and a northern part, which could only be prevented by extensive coastal protection measures so far. Hiddensee is the largest island in the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park and blends an old cultural landscape with the wood pastures of the original dune heathland. The large accumulations of new land in
17472-645: The island took place in the middle and younger Stone Age. After a large part of the Germanic population had left the southern Baltic region in the 6th century AD, the Rani (Slavs) took possession of the island. The Hiddensee treasure , as well as the name of the islet, testify that the area was then in the sphere of influence of the Vikings in the 9th/10th century. In 1168 the Rans were defeated by King Waldemar I of Denmark by conquering
17628-495: The island. Of the 994 inhabitants, 124 are under the age of eighteen. The municipality of Insel Hiddensee ("Island of Hiddensee") has four subdivisions (from north to south): Grieben is the oldest, northernmost and smallest village on Hiddensee and lies on the eastern edge of the uplands of the island. Its name comes from the Slavic grib (for "mushroom"). Grieben has no harbour of its own. The parish of Kloster gets its name from
17784-467: The islands changed to their present shapes over the course of time. For example, the former three island cores were joined to one another by accretion. This process still carried sand away from the north of the Dornbusch. In 2000, 60,000 cubic metres (2.1 million cubic feet) of till twice broke off from the northern tip of the Hiddensee in the area of the Toter Kerl and collapsed into the sea. On average
17940-414: The jetty was developed by VEB Erdöl-Erdgas Grimmen for experimental oil drilling in the 1960s. The pier was subsequently used, from 1974, by a pusher for island supply and demolished in 2010. On 4-5 May 1945 Soviet troops occupied the island. In the same year as in the following year, the Hiddensee estate was divided into 18 new farms as part of the land reform . On 28 July 1946 Gerhart Hauptmann
18096-406: The last ice age about 12,000 years ago. The ice age left behind here a Young Drift landscape . As a result of thawing inland ice, the underlying land rose and the hollows filled with water; the predecessor of what became the Baltic Sea, Ancylus Lake emerged. As a result, only protruding ridges like the Dornbusch remained visible, as islands. The overall shape of the coast in the southern area of
18252-620: The later Vogelwarte - both in 1913, and in the same year the Dornbusch, which had been expanded from an inn to a hotel), the number of tourists increased by leaps and bounds and Kloster became the island's main tourist resort. With the founding of the Hiddensee Nature Conservation Association, the Fährinsel was declared a nature reserve in 1910 and Gellen and Gänsewerder in 1922 by the Prussian government. The status of
18408-450: The levies, drove the people of Hiddensee to 104 days of forced labor annually on his estates and prevented a school for the children. Under him, the free peasants in Grieben became serfs. Even when King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden abolished serfdom in 1806, nothing changed on Hiddensee. From 1815, Hiddensee and Vorpommern belonged to Prussia until the end of World War II and was assigned to
18564-471: The northeast (Alter and Neuer Bessin) and south (at the Gellen) of Hiddensee offer habitats for numerous invertebrates, such as worms and mussels. These in turn provide nourishment for many migrating birds. For example, the area around the island is one of the most important crane roosting areas in Germany. The southern tip of the island is, like the Neuer Bessin was therefore classified as conservation zone I of
18720-455: The official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone (Eastern Zone), Sowjetische Besatzungszone (Soviet Occupation Zone; often abbreviated to SBZ ) and sogenannte DDR or "so-called GDR". The centre of political power in East Berlin was – in the West – referred to as Pankow (the seat of command of the Soviet forces in Germany was in Karlshorst , a district in
18876-623: The original is on display in the Stralsund Museum . In 1874, the district of Hiddensee was formed in the German Empire. In 1875, the painter Gustav Schönleber "discovered" Hiddensee, which was difficult to access. In 1888 the lighthouse on the Dornbusch, the harbor and the sea rescue station were completed in Kloster. In 1887 the bulwark in Kloster was built, and in 1905 and 1907 the steamer landing bridges in Vitte and Neuendorf. From this time on, larger ships could dock directly on Hiddensee and
19032-408: The place became deserted . In the 21st century a field name one kilometer north of Neuendorf reminds of the former place. The village was established around 1700, probably as a replacement for the abandoned village of Glambeck. Here the character of the old fishing village has been preserved the most on the island. Its development structure with houses on a common meadow area without constructed paths
19188-456: The population in West Germany and 6% in East Germany had antisemitic prejudices. In 1994, 40% of West Germans and 22% of East Germans felt that too much emphasis was placed on the genocide of the Jews. Historian Ulrich Pfeil , nevertheless, recalls the fact that anti-fascist commemoration in the GDR had "a hagiographic and indoctrination character". As in the case of the memory of the protagonists of
19344-526: The regime on 4 November. Kurt Masur , conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra , led local negotiations with the government and held town meetings in the concert hall. The demonstrations eventually led Erich Honecker to resign in October; he was replaced by a slightly more moderate communist, Egon Krenz . The massive demonstration in East Berlin on 4 November coincided with Czechoslovakia formally opening its border to West Germany. With
19500-468: The restoration of German sovereignty. In eastern Germany, the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ – Sowjetische Besatzungszone ) comprised the five states ( Länder ) of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern , Brandenburg , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , and Thuringia . Disagreements over the policies to be followed in the occupied zones quickly led to a breakdown in cooperation between the four powers, and
19656-509: The risky crossing into Austria but remained instead in Hungary or claimed asylum in West German embassies in Prague or Budapest . The opening of a border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August 1989 then set in motion a chain reaction leading to the end of the GDR and disintegration of the Eastern Bloc. It was the largest mass escape from East Germany since
19812-401: The skeletons of seven male and two female adults and one young girl. One 20- to 30-year-old male exhibited a healed slash wound to the right frontal bone. There was a joint burial of a 50-60-year-old man with a 14-15-year-old girl, where the man held the youth's left arm with his right hand. The disease burden was strikingly low. Tartar and periodontal disease were found most frequently. Caries
19968-409: The slash-and-burn in 1628 by Wallenstein would have destroyed the forest, as the legend would have it, is unlikely, because already on the map of Rügen by Eilhard Lubin from 1602 no tree symbol is drawn on Hiddensee anymore and the thorn bush is shown as bare hilly land. First in 1861 the Dornbusch between Bakenberg and Hucke was planted with pines, around 1900 also the Dornbusch north of Bakenberg,
20124-501: The southern coast of the gulf has totaled 90 m. In the interval from 9,500–5,000 years ago the uplift rate was of 9–13 mm/ yr . Prior to the Atlantic period the uplift rate had decreased to 5–5.5 mm/yr, to then rise briefly before arriving at the present uplift rate of 4 mm/yr. Emergence above sea level is thought to have resulted in the triggering of a series of landslides in western Sweden as pore pressure increased when
20280-633: The southwest and west. Internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin , known as East Berlin , which was also administered as the country's de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States , United Kingdom , and France known collectively as West Berlin ( de facto part of the FRG). Emigration to the West was a significant problem as many emigrants were well-educated young people; such emigration weakened
20436-410: The state economically. In response, the GDR government fortified its inner German border and later built the Berlin Wall in 1961. Many people attempting to flee were killed by border guards or booby traps such as landmines . In 1989 numerous social, economic, and political forces in the GDR and abroad, one of the most notable being peaceful protests starting in the city of Leipzig , led to
20592-459: The term Westdeutschland to denote the Federal Republic. Before World War II, Ostdeutschland (eastern Germany) was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe ( East Elbia ), as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt . Explaining the internal impact of the GDR government from the perspective of German history in the long term, historian Gerhard A. Ritter (2002) has argued that
20748-479: The three communities on the island merged to form the municipality of Hiddensee. Until before 1939, according to the last officially published Güter-Adressbuch Pommern , the family of Paul Wüstenberg was the tenant of the 239 ha Stadtgutes Kloster Hiddensee . According to genealogical sources of the Deutsches Geschlechterbuch, his family withdrew from the estate already around 1937. He was succeeded by Rüdiger von Hagen , brother of Albrecht von Hagen , who later became
20904-433: The times of maximum extent. This means that in areas like north-east Sweden and northern Finland pre-existing landforms and deposits escaped glacier erosion and are particularly well preserved at present. Also during times of maximum extent the ice sheet terminated to the east in a gently uphill terrain meaning that rivers drained into the glacier front and large proglacial lakes built up. The Last Glacial Maximum extent
21060-411: The turf. In the years from 1648 to 1815, Hiddensee, like the whole of Western Pomerania, was under Swedish administration. From 1754 to 1780, Joachim Ulrich Giese was the owner of the island and began mining clay for the Stralsunder Fayencenmanufaktur he founded. From 1800 to 1836 the island belonged to captain and Knight Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig von Bagewitz (1777–1835) on Ralow . He increased
21216-425: The two German states and the former Allies , which led to agreement on the conditions for German unification. By a two-thirds vote in the Volkskammer on 23 August 1990, the German Democratic Republic declared its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany. The five original East German states that had been abolished in the 1952 redistricting were restored. On 3 October 1990, the five states officially joined
21372-492: The west and north. The following settlements are located on the island: Kloster, Vitte, Neuendorf, Grieben. Grieben is the northernmost place on the island. Its name is derived from the Slavic word for mushroom. Grieben was one of the two settlements on the island that existed in Slavic times before the arrival of the German monks in the 13th century. In the 14th century, eight cottages are documented for Grieben. The number of houses has hardly changed since then. The village
21528-414: The Ålesund interstadial. By circa 26 ka BP, the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet reached the mid-Norwegian continental shelf break. The growth of the ice sheet was accompanied by an eastward migration of the ice divide from the Scandinavian Mountains eastwards into Sweden and the Baltic Sea. As the ice sheets in northern Europe grew prior to the Last Glacial Maximum, the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet coalesced with
21684-410: Was Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic), usually abbreviated to DDR (GDR). Both terms were used in East Germany, with increasing usage of the abbreviated form, especially since East Germany considered West Germans and West Berliners to be foreigners following the promulgation of its second constitution in 1968. West Germans, the western media and statesmen initially avoided
21840-516: Was a de facto government within a single German nation and a de jure state organisation of parts of Germany outside the Federal Republic. The Federal Republic continued to maintain that it could not within its own structures recognize the GDR de jure as a sovereign state under international law; but it fully acknowledged that, within the structures of international law, the GDR was an independent sovereign state. By distinction, West Germany then viewed itself as being within its own boundaries, not only
21996-434: Was a period of stability and consolidation; 1971–1985 was termed the Honecker Era, and saw closer ties with West Germany; and 1985–1990 saw the decline and extinction of East Germany. The ruling political party in East Germany was the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands ( Socialist Unity Party of Germany , SED). It was created in 1946 through the Soviet-directed merger of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and
22152-446: Was an illegally-constituted puppet state of NATO. However, from the 1960s onward, East Germany began recognizing itself as a separate country from West Germany and shared the legacy of the united German state of 1871–1945 . This was formalized in 1974 when the reunification clause was removed from the revised East German constitution. West Germany, in contrast, maintained that it was the only legitimate government of Germany. From 1949 to
22308-409: Was buried in the cemetery in Kloster (Hiddensee Island) . The memorial stone was unveiled exactly five years later, on 28 July 1951. In 1952, the second ferry service between Seehof on Rügen and the ferry island had to be discontinued. East Germany in Europe (dark grey) East Germany ( German : Ostdeutschland , [ˈɔstˌdɔʏtʃlant] ), officially known as
22464-421: Was buried in the island cemetery there. Vitte was first mentioned in a document in 1513. The name comes from Low German and means settlement of herring fishermen. Vitte soon developed into the largest town on the island due to its central location on the narrow island. Along with Grieben, Glambeck was one of the two settlements existing on the island in Slavic times, the name means deep place. Already before 1700
22620-440: Was established around Kloster Hiddensee , founded at the end of the 13th century. At the end of the 19th century, there was only a church, a manor house, a rectory and schoolhouse, and two workers' houses. Only then did the village gradually grow to its present size. A number of artists, writers or even scientists settled in the village or on its outskirts; Kloster has become known as the place of residence of Gerhart Hauptmann , who
22776-545: Was first reached 22 ka BP in the southern boundary of the ice sheet in Denmark, Germany and Western Poland (Sławskie Lake District and Leszczyńskie Lake District). In Eastern Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Pskov Oblast in Russia the ice sheet reached its maximum extent about 19 ka BP. In the remainder of northwestern Russia the largest glacier advance occurred 17 ka BP. As the ice margin started to recede 22–17 ka BP Denmark (except Bornholm ), Germany, Poland and Belarus were ice-free 16 ka BP. The ice margin then retreated until
22932-426: Was forbidden to talk about the Third Reich and, at home, their grandparents told them how, thanks to Hitler , we had the first motorways." On 17 October 1987, thirty or so skinheads violently threw themselves into a crowd of 2,000 people at a rock concert in the Zionskirche without the police intervening. In 1990, the writer Freya Klier received a death threat for writing an essay on antisemitism and xenophobia in
23088-417: Was found on only one set of teeth, which was unusually low for medieval populations. Simultaneously with the construction of the monastery, the Gellenkirche, a small beacon called Luchte, and the first harbor were built on the Gellen in the south of the island in the years 1302 to 1306. The foundations of these structures are located (today) west of the Gellen in the Baltic Sea. In 1332, the consecration of
23244-428: Was not then a priority for the leadership of West Germany, and the NATO powers declined the proposal, asserting that Germany should be able to join NATO and that such a negotiation with the Soviet Union would be seen as a capitulation. In 1949 the Soviets turned control of East Germany over to the SED , headed by Wilhelm Pieck (1876–1960), who became President of the GDR and held the office until his death, while
23400-429: Was removed from power that same year before he could act on the matter. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev , rejected reunification as equivalent to returning East Germany for annexation to the West; hence reunification was off the table until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. East Germany regarded East Berlin as its capital, and the Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern Bloc diplomatically recognized East Berlin as
23556-508: Was supposed to have fought here for a woman or even just for gold. Under Danish rule the name Hedins-Oe ("Hedin's Island") was common. Even in 1880 the island was shown in German maps as Hiddensjö and, in 1929, in German holiday guides as Hiddensöe . Its full Germanization to Hiddensee is thus relatively recent. Hiddensee is about 16.8 kilometres (10.4 mi) long, about 250 metres (270 yd) wide at its narrowest point and about 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) wide at its broadest point. It
23712-408: Was the period of slow warming after the Weichselian High Glacial. It was however again interrupted by some colder episodes. Following the last of these cold periods, the Younger Dryas , the Weichselian Glacial ended with an abrupt climb in temperature around 9,660 ± 40 BC. This was the start of our present interglacial , the Holocene . In addition to the above subdivisions the depositions of
23868-405: Was the removal of the electrified fence along Hungary 's border with Austria on 2 May 1989. Although formally the Hungarian frontier was still closed, many East Germans took the opportunity to enter Hungary via Czechoslovakia , and then make the illegal crossing from Hungary to Austria and to West Germany beyond. By July, 25,000 East Germans had crossed into Hungary; most of them did not attempt
24024-418: Was then voted into effect prior to the agreed date for Unification by both the Volkskammer and the Bundestag by the constitutionally required two-thirds majorities, effecting on the one hand the extinction of the GDR, and on the other the agreed amendments to the Basic Law of the Federal Republic. The great economic and socio-political inequalities between the former Germanies required government subsidies for
24180-401: Was to limit sand drift in order to save the costs of constant dredging at the Gellen channel and in the Stralsund fairway. The outbreak of World War II put an end to the construction work, only four hundred meters were completed and remained so until today. After the construction of the Huckemauer, the beach at Kloster and Vitte deteriorated, suffering from a lack of sand. Between 1937 and 1939,
24336-406: Was virtually treeless for decades, except for the barren willow avenue between the monastery and Grieben and a few pines planted there around 1770, as well as a few trees at Schwedenhagen and Rübenberg. The dense oak tree population on Hiddensee, which still existed in the 13th century, had been almost completely decimated for firewood, house and ship building by the beginning of the 17th century. That
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