Everything about Heligoland totally explained
Heligoland (;
Helgolandic:
deät Lun) is a small
German archipelago in the
North Sea.
Formerly
Danish and
British possessions, the islands (population 1,650) are located in the
Heligoland Bight (part of the
German Bight) in the southeastern corner of the North Sea. They are the only German islands not in the immediate vicinity of the mainland and are approximately two hours' sailing time from
Cuxhaven at the mouth of the
River Elbe.
In addition to
German, the local population, who are ethnic
Frisians, speak the
Heligolandic dialect of the
North Frisian language called
Halunder. Heligoland was formerly called
Heyligeland, or "holy land," possibly due to the island's long association with the god
Forseti.
Geography
Heligoland is located 70
km (44
miles) from the German coastline and consists of two islands: the populated triangular 1
km² (0.4
sq mi) main island (
Hauptinsel) to the west and the
Düne ("dune," Heligolandic:
de Halem) to the east. While the former is what the place name "Heligoland" normally is used to refer to, the latter is somewhat smaller (0.7 km²), lower, surrounded by sand beaches and not permanently inhabited.
The main island is commonly divided into the
Unterland ("Lower Land," Heligolandic:
deät Deelerlun) at sea level (to the right on the photograph, where the harbour is), the
Oberland ("Upper Land," Heligolandic:
deät Boperlun) consisting of the plateau visible in the photographs and the
Mittelland ("Middle Land") between them on one side of the island; the latter came into being in the course of the "Big Bang" (see below).
The main island also features small beaches in the north and the south and drops to the sea 50
metres (about 160
feet) in the north, west and southwest. In the latter, the ground continues to drop underwater to a depth of 56 metres below sea level. Northwest of the island proper Heligoland's famous landmark is found: The
Lange Anna ("Long Anna" or "Tall Anna") which is a free standing rock column (or
stack), 47 metres high and weighing about 25,000 tons.
The two islands were connected until 1720, when the natural connection was destroyed by a
storm flood. The highest point is on the main island, reaching 61 meters (about 200 feet) above
sea level.
Although culturally closer to
North Frisia in the German district of
Nordfriesland, the two islands are part of the district of
Pinneberg in the state of
Schleswig-Holstein. The main island has a good harbour and is frequented mostly by sailing
yachts.
Climate
Heligoland sports a very healthy
offshore climate, being almost free of pollen and thus ideal for
allergics. Since there's no land mass in the vicinity that could cool down too much in the winter time, it hardly gets colder than -5
°C (23
°F) in any year. At times, winter temperatures can be higher than in Hamburg by up to 10 °C (18 °F) because cold winds from Russia are weakened. While spring tends to be comparatively cool, autumn on Heligoland is often longer and warmer than on the mainland and statistically, the climate generally is sunnier.
Due to the mild climate, figs have been grown on the island since the 1920s - there still is an old mulberry tree in the Upper Town.
Geology
The island of Heligoland is a geological oddity; the presence of the main island's characteristic red
sedimentary rock in the middle of the
German Bight is unusual. It is the only such formation of cliffs along the continental coast of the North Sea. The formation itself is from the early
Eocene geologic age. It is younger than and layered on top of a much thicker bedrock of white
chalk, the very same which is well known to form the
white cliffs of Dover in England, and cliffs of Danish and German islands in the
Baltic Sea. In fact, a small chalk rock close to Heligoland, called the
whitte klippe (white cliff) is known to have existed within sight of the island to the west till the early 18th century, when storm floods finally
eroded it to below sea level.
Heligoland's rock is significantly harder than the postglacial sediments and sands forming the islands and coastlines to the east of the island. This is why the core of the island, which a thousand years ago was still surrounded by a large, low-lying marshland and
sand dunes separated from coast in the east only by narrow channels, has remained to this day, although the onset of the North Sea has long eroded away all of its surroundings. A small piece of Heligoland's sand dunes remains — the sand isle just across the harbour called Düne (Dune), which today holds Heligoland's
airstrip.
Flag
The Heligoland flag is very similar to its
Coat of arms. A tricolour flag with three horizontal bars, from top to bottom:
Green,
Red and
White. Each of the colours has its symbolic meaning. Green symbolises the
land, red symbolises the
edge (the red cliffs of Heligoland) and white symbolises the
sand. This in
German is the motto of Heligoland:
Grün ist das Land,
rot ist die Kant',
weiß ist der Sand,
das sind die Farben von Helgoland.
In English,
"Green is the Land, Red is the Brim, White is the Sand, These are the Colors Of Heligoland"
In the original
Low German it says,
“Green is dat Land, roat is de Kant, witt est de Sunn, dat sünd de Farven van't Hilligelunn.“
History
Flint tools have been recovered from the bottom of the sea surrounding Heligoland. On the Oberland prehistoric
burial mounds were visible until the late 19th century and excavations showed skeletons and artefacts. Moreover, prehistoric copper plates have been found under water near the island; those plates were almost certainly made on the Oberland (see Alex Ritsema,
Heligoland, Past and Present, 2007, pp.21-23).
In 697,
Radbod, the last
Frisian king, retreated to the then-single island after his defeat by the
Franks - so it's written in the
Life of Willebrord by
Alcuin. By 1231, the island was listed as the property of the Danish king
Valdemar II.
Traditional economic activities included fishing, hunting birds and seals,
wrecking and - very important for many overseas powers - piloting overseas ships into the harbours of
Hanseatic League cities such as
Bremen and
Hamburg. Moreover, in some periods Heligoland was an excellent base point for huge
herring catches. As a result, until 1714 ownership switched several times between
Denmark and the Duchy of
Schleswig, with one period of control by Hamburg. In August 1714, it was captured by Denmark, and it remained Danish until 1807.
In 1807, Heligoland was seized by the
British during the
Napoleonic Wars. It became a centre of smuggling and espionage against Napoleon. Thousands of Germans fled to Britain and to the
King's German Legion via Heligoland. In 1826, Heligoland became an official marine spa and soon it became a popular tourist resort for upper-class people. The island also attracted artists and writers, especially from Germany and even Austria who enjoyed the freedom of the benignly ruled (British) island, for example
Heinrich Heine and
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben. It was a refuge for revolutionaries of the 1830 and
1848 German revolutions.
Britain gave up the islands to Germany in 1890 (by virtue of the
Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty) and also gave up its interests in
Madagascar to the French, in return for those countries surrendering their claims to the
African island of
Zanzibar (now a part of
Tanzania), largely so the British could intervene there to suppress the
slave trade. A "
grandfathering"/optant approach prevented the Heligolanders (as they were named in the British measures) from forfeiting advantages because of this imposed change of status.
Under the
German Empire, the islands became a major naval base, and during the
First World War the civilian population was evacuated to the mainland. The first naval engagement of the war, the
Battle of Heligoland Bight, was fought nearby in the first month of the war. The islanders returned in 1918, but during the
Nazi era the naval base was reactivated.
Lager Helgoland, the
Nazi labour camp on
Alderney, was named after the island.
Werner Heisenberg first formulated the
equation underlying his
picture of
Quantum mechanics while on Heligoland in the
1920s.
During
World War II the civilian population remained on the main island and were protected from Allied bombing in rock shelters, with most of the 128 people killed being anti-aircraft crews.
From 1945 to 1952 the uninhabited islands were used as a bombing range. On
18 April,
1947, the Royal Navy detonated 6,800 tonnes of explosives ("Big Bang" or "British Bang"), creating
the biggest non-nuclear single detonation in history.
While aiming at the fortifications, the island's total destruction would have been accepted. The blow shook the main island several miles down to its base, changing its shape (the Mittelland was created).
In 1952 the islands were restored to the German authorities, who had to clear a huge amount of undetonated ammunition, landscape the main island, and rebuild the houses before it could be resettled.
Heligoland is now a holiday resort and enjoys a
tax-exempt status, as it's part of the EU but
excluded from the
EU VAT area and customs union, and consequently, much of the economy is founded on sales of
cigarettes,
alcoholic beverages and
perfumes to
tourists who visit the islands.
Also, there's a
search and rescue (SAR) base of the
German Navy on Heligoland (German SAR #10).
Road restrictions
There are very few cars on Heligoland. There is a special section (§50) in the German
traffic laws (
Straßenverkehrsordnung [StVO]) disallowing the use of
automobiles and
bicycles on the island. No other region in Germany has any exceptions to the general laws in the StVO, (
The section in German
) though other North Sea islands, such as
Baltrum have also banned public use of cars and bicycles.
The area received its first police car on
17 January 2006. Until then, the island's policemen moved around on foot and by bicycle. The car is needed occasionally to transport heavy materials.
Heligoland in popular culture
Further Information
Get more info on 'Heligoland'.
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