Hiddensee

Hiddensee () is a mostly car-free island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Germany's largest island, Rügen, on the German coast.

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.

Name 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, 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.

Geography

Hiddensee is about long, about wide at its narrowest point and about wide at its broadest point. It 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 northern part (Dornbusch, whose highest point is the Bakenberg at ), 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 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 the west and north.

Settlements The following settlements are located on the island: Kloster, Vitte, Neuendorf, Grieben.

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.Arnold Gustavs: Die Insel Hiddensee. Ein Heimatbuch. Carl Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1953, pp. 37–39.

Kloster The village 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.Arnold Gustavs: Die Insel Hiddensee. Ein Heimatbuch. Carl Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1953, p. 81. 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 was buried in the island cemetery there.

Vitte 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.

Glambeck (deserted village) 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 the place became deserted. In the 21st century a field name one kilometer north of Neuendorf reminds of the former place.

Neuendorf 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 is considered unique, the village as a whole is under monument protection.

Plogshagen 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.

Geology Overview

The island of Hiddensee is, from a geological perspective, a very young landscape and was formed during 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 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) 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, 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 the cliff edges of the Dornbusch recede about per year. In mid-March 2004 another 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 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 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 annually and is already long. Meanwhile, a third Bessin is emerging. Even the southern tip is growing as a so-called windwatt into the Schaproder Bodden.

Hills, ravines and other natural forms 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):Infotafeln auf der Insel im Nordbereich, an verschiedenen Stellen. + Toter Kerl Bessin End thorn (5 m) Swantiberg (65 m) Honey ground Spring bog Ellersegen [natural monument] Vorlege Tiddenufer Rabenberg (32 m) Bakenberg (73 m); highest elevation Signalmasthuk/Fledermaushuk Swantewitschlucht Tietenufer Rennbaumhuk Klausnerbrüche Klausnerhuk Rübenberg (27 m) [Natural monument] Hexenberg Ziegelort Schafort Hucke Harter Ort Möwenort Langeort Hassenort Poggenort Fischerhaken Klimphoresbucht Gellen

Climate

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 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 . The average wind speed in Kloster is . In comparison to the nearby island of Rügen, the average annual precipitation on Hiddensee is markedly less at .

In 2008, Hiddensee-Dornbusch was the sunniest place in Germany, as reported by the weather service, Meteomedia, with 2,168 hours of sunshine.Sonnenschein. Rügen hält die Spitze. In: Südkurier on 3 January 2009. The data was gathered by Meteomedia's own weather station (; ).

The Hiddensee weather station has recorded the following extreme values: Its highest temperature was on 10 July 2010. Its lowest temperature was on 17 February 1940. Its greatest annual precipitation was in 1960. Its least annual precipitation was in 1971. The longest annual sunshine was 1952.2 hours in 1975. The shortest annual sunshine was 1478.3 hours in 1978.

Storm flood Again and again Hiddensee has been 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 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.

Flora and fauna

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 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 the national park und is out-of-bounds. On the island are two nature reserves, the between Neuendorf and Vitte and the 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 the was established on the island.

Population development The population of Hiddensee has been in long-term decline. While an estimated 1,261 people lived on the island in 1990, by 2001 the number had fallen to 1,173, and the 2011 census recorded 995 inhabitants. The 2022 census showed a further drop to 942. As of 31 December 2024, the municipality had 913 inhabitants (480 women, 433 men), of whom 112 were under eighteen and 312 over sixty-five. The average age was 51.5 years, well above the national average.Citypopulation.de, source: Statistisches Bundesamt / Statistische Landesämter, retrieved 9 April 2026.

Subdivisions The municipality of Insel Hiddensee ("Island of Hiddensee") has four subdivisions (from north to south):

Grieben 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.

Kloster

The parish of Kloster gets its name from 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 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