Ferry island

Ferry island
Ferry island in the background from a westerly perspective (September 2009)
Waters	Baltic Sea
Geographical location	54 ° 32 '38 "  N , 13 ° 7' 15"  E Coordinates: 54 ° 32 '38 "  N , 13 ° 7' 15"  E
length	1.23 km
width	580 m
surface	37 ha
Highest elevation	2  m
Residents	uninhabited

The ferry island is a German Baltic Sea island , which is off the island of Hiddensee to the east and belongs to the area of ​​the municipality of Insel Hiddensee . It is separated from Hiddensee by the bakery, which is sometimes only 120 meters wide . It forms the western part of the border between the Schaproder Bodden and the Vitter Bodden . The island is 1.23 km long and up to 580 meters wide. Its area is approx. 37  ha .

The ferry traffic between Rügen and Hiddensee used to run via the ferry island . It was discontinued in 1952 after the port of Schaprode was expanded for mail boat traffic . The ferry island is now uninhabited again and closed to visitors. It is a resting place for thousands of birds and a pasture for a flock of heather sheep.

geography

Juniper - a typical plant on the ferry island

The ferry island consists of a fan of several beach walls and sand hooks up to 2 meters high , as well as silted up areas of the Schaproder Bodden. About 12,500 years ago, during the last cold phase of the Ice Age , glacier masses piled up sand and gravel. Receding of the ice which owned Dornbusch on Hiddensee, as well as two of complaints from running westward glacial till thresholds to a broad young moraine landscape on the southern Baltic. A threshold at the level of the island of Ummanz and the Gellen peninsula , another ran between Trent over today's Stolper Haken near Seehof north of Schaprode to the ferry island. After the area around Rügen and Hiddensee was flooded about 3,900 years ago, the terminal moraines mentioned remained as islands. The erosion did not begin until late (2900 years before today) , mainly due to the surf. Numerous hooks and spits formed and Hiddensee got its elongated shape. The till block between Rügen and Fährinsel was removed and must have been breached at some point. When the remaining part of the cliff on the ferry island was removed, sand hooks grew southward on both sides of the northern tip of the island due to the current coming from the northeast. The narrow bays, beach lakes and rows between the hooks were slowly filled with organic material and silted up.

The ferry island is densely overgrown with juniper on the old beach walls . In between, an undergrowth of common heather has developed. In the silted areas, reeds and plants from the salt marshes grow . Seggenried and bog vegetation predominate in the beach lakes . A flint field on the east bank that extends about 150 meters in north-south direction and is up to 20 meters wide is evidence of the former cliff.

A triangular rampart in the southeast, the Schwedenschanze or Alte Schanze , is historically interesting . Here the strait between the Stolper Haken and the ferry island was defended. At that time this was the first sea narrowing coming from the north; the Bug peninsula and the Bessin were not as long as they are today. At the Stolper Haken there is a counterpart to the ski jump on the ferry island.

Promontories on the Fährinsel are no longer recognizable as a headland because silting Mövenort in the central area and the Buschort , the southern tip. In the middle there is an often flooded salt marsh landscape, the Roschen, only 40 cm above the Baltic Sea level .

To the southeast is the island of Bullenriff , which is only 85 by 80 meters , and is sometimes also called Kuhwerder . The name refers to the earlier intensive grazing. Like the Roschen, it is very flat and only covered by vegetation typical of the salt meadows.

Bird life

The ferry island has a high value as a breeding area despite the loss of some breeding birds (including oystercatchers and ruff ) and a decline in the population of still existing species. This is partly due to the access ban, partly due to the special landscape.

Between the junipers nest Shelducks and the red-breasted merganser has one of its most important breeding areas in Hiddenseer room here. On the Rozhen exist breeding colonies of many laughter , storm and Gulls . Also teals breed here. The ruff is a prime example of the extinction of a bird species on Hiddensee. In the 19th century it was found in stable stocks in the salt marshes south of Kloster and on the Ferry Island, but around 1940/1950 it died out as a result of fox and human brood looting. The river and sandwich tern , which sometimes bred to about 1970, are no longer present.

The songbirds include skylark , white wagtail and the red-backed shrike .

During the migration times between March and May and between September and November, Limikolen and duck birds gather in large numbers on the meadows and in the shallow Bodden waters.

Despite the not exactly exposed location, the ferry island was occasionally the abode of various exceptional phenomena. Between June 28 and July 10, 1971, one to four salmon terns were observed, and on May 28, 1985 an adult rose star from Central Asia and Southeast Europe visited the island.

Buildings

At the time of ferry traffic with rowing and sailing boats between Hiddensee and Rügen, an inn and a farmhouse with a stable were built. After the ferry traffic was stopped, the test center of the Central Institute for Microbiology and Experimental Therapy Jena was set up and several laboratory buildings were built. In 1992 the research center was taken over by the University of Greifswald. After that, the trial operation was gradually discontinued or moved to the Biological Institute in Kloster / Hiddensee. In 2013 the last resident of the island died. In the summer of 2013, all the remaining buildings except for a shepherd's tool house were demolished. The ferry island has now been renatured .

supporting documents

Single receipts

1. ↑ Bladder, p. 39
2. ↑ Dittberner, Hoyer: The bird world of the islands of Rügen and Hiddensee - Part I - Nonpasseres. P. 168
3. ↑ Dittberner, Hoyer: The bird world of the islands of Rügen and Hiddensee - Part II - songbirds. P. 137
4. ↑ Biology at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald - A Review of the Years 1946–2005 ( Memento from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.0 MB), page 107; on www.forstbuch.de
5. ↑ NatioNalparkamt Vorpommern National Park Info 22 (PDF; 3.1 MB), page 17; at www.nationalpark-vorpommersche-boddenlandschaft.de

literature

• Günter Möbus : How Hiddensee became an island. Helms Verlag, Schwerin 2001, ISBN 3-931185-87-7 .
• Karin Blase, Bernd Blase: Hiddensee A – Z. Demmler Verlag, 2008 (4th edition), ISBN 3-910150-16-0 .
• Herbert Ewe : Hiddensee. VEB Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1983.
• Arved Jürgensohn: Hiddensee, the Capri of Pomerania. Verlag von Karl Haertel, 1924 (2nd edition). New edition Dresden 2013, ISBN 978-3-86276-091-6 .
• Erich Hoyer: Vogelführer Insel Hiddensee. Publisher u. Naturfotoarchiv, 1996, ISBN 3-929192-12-8 .
• Hartmut Dittberner, Erich Hoyer: The bird world of the islands of Rügen and Hiddensee - Part I - Nonpasseres. Verlag Erich Hoyer, Galenbeck, 1993, ISBN 3-929192-02-0 .
• Hartmut Dittberner, Erich Hoyer: The bird world of the islands of Rügen and Hiddensee - Part II - songbirds. Verlag Erich Hoyer, Galenbeck, 1995, ISBN 3-929192-06-3 .