Greifswalder Oie

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Greifswalder Oie
"Greifswalder Oie" lighthouse
"Greifswalder Oie" lighthouse
Waters Southern Baltic Sea
Geographical location 54 ° 15 ′  N , 13 ° 55 ′  E Coordinates: 54 ° 15 ′  N , 13 ° 55 ′  E
Greifswalder Oie (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
Greifswalder Oie
length 1.55 km
width 570 m
surface 54 hadep1
Highest elevation 19  m
Residents 1

The Greifswalder Oie (spoken like the diphthong oi [ ɔi̯ ], Low German for "(small) island") is an island in the southern Baltic Sea , which belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The approximately 54  hectare island lies on the threshold of the Greifswald Bodden to the open Baltic Sea. The lighthouse on it bears the same name.

Administratively, Greifswalder Oie belongs to the municipality of Kröslin . The island is often referred to as the "Heligoland of the Baltic Sea" because it is further away from the mainland than other German Baltic Sea islands . The island itself and the surrounding waters up to a depth of two meters are nature reserves .

Geography and geology

Greifswalder Oie is around 1,550 meters long, a maximum of 570 meters wide and a maximum of 19 meters high in the cliff on the east side. It is located about twelve kilometers off the island of Usedom and legally belongs to the municipality of Kröslin on the mainland. The island is bordered all around by cliffs .

The island was formed during the last ice age, the Vistula glaciation , through multiple glacial deposits from Scandinavia . A total of three different phases of deposition can be detected on the Oie, so that rocks from different parts of Scandinavia can be found on the island. These include guide debris such as Åland-Rapakivi granite from the Åland islands around 750 kilometers away and Öje granite from the border area between Sweden and Norway. When the glaciers melted around 14,500 years ago, the Oie was preserved as an island on the eastern protrusion of the Boddenrandschwelle , the remainder of a terminal moraine ridge . The northern part of the island was originally affected by the erosion of the sediments that were deposited in the southern part of the island. This can be seen particularly well in the port of refuge: there is a beach made of sand from the cliff. In order to prevent the erosion, an almost two kilometer long protective wall was built on the west and north coast between 1891 and 1913.

Flora and fauna

Semi-open areas grazed by sheep (2016)

In the northeast of the island there is an approximately six hectare mixed deciduous forest with maple trees , ash trees , oaks , hornbeams , red beeches and elms . The trees were used for forestry for many centuries and sometimes show bizarre growth forms. After the island was no longer used for agriculture in the 1950s, ash trees spread, especially in the area between the old forest and the lighthouse, as their shoots were not eaten by the Shetland ponies then on the island .

The former occurrence of the male orchid expired in 2019.

Ponies graze between the meadow chervil (2004)

The overgrown remnants of the orchards that were laid out behind the lighthouse and the former seaman's home are striking.

The cliff and beach vegetation essentially consist of low-growing bushes, wild fruit trees and individual shrubs. On the beach you can find additional beach thistles , sea kale , beach rye , salt Asters , Salzmiere , beach-Saltwort and coltsfoot .

The ornithological importance of the Oie lies primarily in its role as an important resting area for migratory birds . An average of 220 species are detected annually. In autumn and spring, thousands of birds use the island as a landmark and resting place. European robins , golden chickens , warblers, thrushes and finches are particularly common . In summer, several hundred Baltic and Scandinavian mute swans use the area around the island as a quiet place for their large pinnate moults . Numerous arctic ducks can be encountered in winter, including a. Scoter , velvet , long-tailed and scallop ducks .

The island is also used as a breeding ground by around 45 species of birds every year, and a significant proportion of the breeding population of the eider duck in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is found here . In addition, the island's typical breeding birds are river martins , house martins , herring gulls and various warbler species . In the last few years only a few pairs of green warblers , carminnoses , dwarf flycatchers and sparrowhawks breed only irregularly .

The island is home to only a few species of mammals. These include several hundred dormice , which were illegally released in the mid-1990s, otters and numerous bat species. Gray seals have resettled around the island in recent years , which were considered to be extinct in the southern Baltic Sea for over a hundred years. Up to 190 individuals of this species can now be observed, especially in spring. Seals and ringed seals also appear very rarely . The stone martens and foxes that used to immigrate via the frozen Baltic Sea were hunted to protect the rare breeding bird species and eventually exterminated.

Due to the remote location of the island, reptile and amphibian species are also rare. Detected were: Waldeidechse , Ringelnatter , blindworm , adders , pond and newts , green frogs of the genus Rana .

In insects, species from the orders of skin, reticulated and twig winged, beetles, butterflies , dragonflies , grasshoppers , beaked bugs and flies have been detected.

The occurrence of the river wolf spider is remarkable , which is particularly protected according to Appendix 1 of the Federal Species Protection Ordinance and lives in the beach areas.

climate

The island's climate is maritime, characterized by the influence of the Baltic Sea and the great distance to the mainland. Due to this location hardly any clouds form, which leads to little precipitation and many hours of sunshine (regularly over 2000 per year).

history

Map section from 1631 shows Ruden , Greifswalder Oie, Wolgast and Usedom

The area around Greifswalder Oie is believed to be one of the places associated with the naval battle of Svold on September 9, 1000. The island of Greifswalder Oie was first mentioned in a document in 1282 as "Swante Wostroe" (holy island), in 1292 as "Swante Wuzterhusen" and only in 1556 as a name-like "Öhe". The current name of the island comes from its former owner, the city of Greifswald, since 1608 . This acquired the island in 1291 from the city of Wolgast , which had to sell the gift of the Pomeranian Prince Bogislaw IV (1282) for lack of money. The Greifswalders sent their breeding horses to summer pasture on the island. In 1527 the councilor Henning Oldhaver leased the island and used it as a fishing base. The island was uninhabited at the time; there was only one chapel for fishermen, which collapsed at the end of the 16th century. In the middle of the 17th century, the city of Greifswald leased the Oie to the Swedish Field Marshal Carl Gustav Wrangel for 1000 Reichstaler . In 1670 the horses were brought back to the mainland and game was released. The aim was to develop the island into a hunting ground. However, this plan was abandoned at the end of the 17th century when the game population died out. This is the first time that farmers have settled on the island. They lived from agriculture and animal husbandry, but also had to feed a Danish troop of around 300 soldiers during the Northern War (1700–1721) . The island's logging was then devastated and the cattle sheds and storerooms emptied. In 1749 the city released the Oie again and the tenant buildings became the property of the farmers.

Only around 1850 was the Oie permanently settled by three tenant families. In addition to fishing, they also ran a modest agriculture here. From 1853 to 1855 a lighthouse was built on the island under the direction of the architect Hermann Kirchhoff . In 1865 the island had 41 inhabitants. A fishing port was built between 1873 and 1877, but it soon became too small and led to friction among the fishermen. Therefore, a seaman's home was built in 1889, which also accommodated fishermen in distress. After a collapse in 1960, the building was demolished. In 1883 Greifswald sold the island to the Prussian state because the operation of the lighthouse and the rescue station was too much of a financial burden. Since June 1877 the Oie was used for tourism. The steamship "Otto" from Wolgast brought day guests to the island for the first time. In the following years excursion boats brought more and more bathers to Greifswalder Oie. After the First World War , only one lessee, Fritz Halliger's family, ran agriculture on the island. They grew wheat, rye, clover, beets and potatoes. In connection with some orchards, self-sufficiency was possible. In 1928 Halliger expanded his Inselhof property into a guesthouse with a restaurant for visitors to the island . Numerous celebrities, e.g. B. Asta Nielsen and Thomas Mann , visited the Oie. In 1932 the island was the backdrop for the film " FP1 does not answer " with Hans Albers in the lead role.

Missile control bunker of the Wehrmacht from 1939

The military use of the island by the Wehrmacht began with the establishment of the Peenemünde Army Research Center . Personnel from the Army Research Institute quartered on the island, which was declared a restricted military area; a status it was to retain for over 60 years with a break in the 1950s. The Halliger family had to leave Greifswalder Oie in 1937 and moved to the Stubbenkammer on Rügen . From 1937 to 1945, numerous rocket launches were carried out on Greifswalder Oie. In 1937 the A3 failed to take off and the A5 rockets were launched between 1938 and 1942 . 28 A4 rockets were also launched by Greifswalder Oie between 1943 and 1945 at steep take-offs in order to investigate their behavior when they entered the atmosphere, a phase in which the missiles frequently broke (see also: List of those in Peenemünde and on the Greifswalder The A4 rocket launched ). The ruins of the large lead bunker from the period between 1937 and 1945 could still be viewed in 2009.

After the end of the Second World War , the Red Army dismantled and blown up a large part of the facilities. The island was then open to the public again until 1957.

The DGzRS building

During the GDR era, around 25 to 30 men from the border security units of the 6th Coastal Border Brigade were stationed on Greifswalder Oie . The Inselhof served at that time the officer of the unit as a service and accommodation building. In addition to the naval forces, units of the air force were temporarily stationed on the island, which monitored the airspace with radar systems. The remains of the military installations still shape the image of the island. The VEB Research Center for Beekeeping operated a licensing station for queen breeding on the island .

After German reunification , the People's Navy , now part of the Bundeswehr , left the island and the restricted area was lifted. The partly neglected buildings were exposed to the use of uninvited pleasure boat tourists, which led to further building damage. In 1993 the Jordsand Association opened its station and restored the Inselhof for its needs; in 2018 the house will be used by the DGzRS . The lighthouse was also completely overhauled from 1994. The remaining ruins were mostly torn down.

Nature reserve

"Walter Banzhaf" biological station

The island has been a nature reserve since February 20, 1995 and is looked after by the Jordsand Association. The total nature reserve area is 218 hectares. The protection purposes include the preservation of the geological features of the island and the Oier Reef: In front of the cliff on the south edge, there are various geological blocks of rock and species-rich beach vegetation. Guests can find out more about the nature conservation activities of the association in the information center Biological Station Walter Banzhaf .

The association has been running a registration station since August 1st, 1993 in cooperation with the Hiddensee ringing center . Around 20,000 birds are ringed each year. The island is thus integrated into a chain of further stations that observe migratory birds for research purposes from Scandinavia to West Africa .

The island's vegetation, which is dominated by grass and shrubs, should be preserved for nature conservation reasons, so that there is a variety of habitats for the most species-rich fauna and flora possible. For this reason, rough-wooled Pomeranian sheep graze the paddocks of the island as part of a biotope management . This extensive land use prevents the open land from becoming overgrown and creates a vegetation structure that offers resting and breeding birds advantageous conditions.

Other uses

Bee mating station

Bee registration point on Greifswalder Oie

There is a bee mating station on the island . This is administered, supervised and used for the breeding of Carnica bees (Carinthian bees) by the State Association of Beekeepers Mecklenburg-Vorpommern eV (LIMV). In addition to the Carnica, the Oie is also used to breed Buckfast bees by the state association of Buckfastimker Mecklenburg-Vorpommern eV. This happens alternately, so that there is no mixing of races. For both associations there is the possibility of breeding queens under controlled conditions. Since both the queen and the drones can sometimes cover large distances to mate , a place is required for breeding that is difficult to reach by undesired drones. These prerequisites are met on the Oie, as well as in the other bee mating sites on the island of Hiddensee and on the Ruden . The aim of breeding is to increase the gentleness and the honey yield. Furthermore, the tendency to swarm should be reduced and the resistance to diseases increased.

Sea rescue station

The rescue cruiser Berthold Beitz of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS) is stationed in the island's protective harbor .

Accessibility and tourism

The MS Seeadler makes trips to Greifswalder Oie

The Greifswalder Oie is called by an excursion steamer from Peenemünde and Freest . However, as a nature reserve, the Oie has limited public access. A maximum of 50 people per day are allowed to enter the island. Private boat traffic and swimming are not permitted and there are no dining facilities there. The island can be hiked from the harbor to the lighthouse at the northern tip via a signposted path.

lighthouse

The easternmost German lighthouse Greifswalder Oie is located at the transition to the open sea area of ​​the Baltic Sea. The foundation stone was laid on August 24, 1853 by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia . The 38.6 meter high octagonal tower, which is a listed building in the 21st century , was officially put into operation on October 1, 1855. He is in 2018 with 26 nautical miles (about 50 kilometers) scope of the brightest lighthouse Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and has a left-handed look with a flash-recurrence of 3.8 seconds. The height of the fire is 48.5 meters above sea level.

In the early years the light was generated with rapeseed oil , from 1885 petroleum lamps were used for it. In the years 1911–1914 a renovation took place in which a new lantern house was built by the Pintsch company from Berlin with a diameter of 4.5 meters. A Fresnel lens from the company Weule from Goslar with a focal length of 900 millimeters and a height of 2.8 meters was installed in the enlarged lantern house . From 1938 electric headlight lamps with a voltage of 110 V and an output of 2000 watts were used for light signaling. In 1978 the lighthouse was switched to remote monitoring, so that the last beacon operator left the tower, ending the 120-year history of the beacon keepers on the island. In 1994 another refurbishment took place in which discharge lamps were installed (400 V at 2000 watts). Since the spring of 2007, the building has been open daily to a limited number of tourists in summer.

The structure is depicted on a 45-cent postage stamp in the series Lighthouses , which was issued by Deutsche Post AG on July 8, 2004 . Already on May 7th 1974 there was a similar postage stamp from the Deutsche Post of the GDR for 40 pfennigs in the series lighthouses, Leit-, Leucht- und Molenfeuer .

and display information about the image
Panorama picture of the Greifswalder Oie

literature

  • Joachim Blüthgen : Greifswalder Oie und Ruden, in: Supplement No. 248 to Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen , Gotha 1952.
  • Steffen Brümmer: Between sheep and seals. The Greifswalder Oie is a unique nature reserve. In: Ostsee-Zeitung , Greifswalder Zeitung, vol. 65, No. 213 of September 12, 2017, p. 12, 2 figs.
  • Axel Dietrich: The Greifswalder Oie - The Heligoland of the Baltic Sea: History of an island , Peenemünde 1993.
  • Lutz Mohr : Between Ryck and Ruden ... Bodden islands as reflected in history . Neue Greifswald Museumshefte (NGM), Issue No. 3, Greifswald 1978, pp. 50–59.
  • Lutz Mohr: Between Walfisch and Oie. Islets on the Baltic coast of the GDR . In: Yearbook of shipping . Berlin: Transpress Verlag 1986, pp. 109–117, 17 map images.
  • Manfred Niemeyer: East Western Pomerania. Collection of sources and literature on place names. Vol. 2: Mainland. (= Greifswald contributions to toponymy. Vol. 2), Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, Institute for Slavic Studies, Greifswald 2001, ISBN 3-86006-149-6 . P. 99
  • Jörg Tamm: Ostseeinsel Greifswalder Oie - Greifswald's small island and its lighthouse shown on historical postcards and postcards , Steffen Verlag 2007.

Web links

Commons : Greifswalder Oie  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: The beggar on the island of Oie - Pomeranian legend.  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guido Verse: Sedimentation and palaeogeographical development of the Greifswalder Bodden and the sea area of ​​the Greifswalder Oie (southern Baltic Sea) since the Vistula Late Glacial . (Dissertation), University of Greifswald 2001, p. 12 ( digitized introduction , PDF 345 kB)
  2. ↑ Notice in the biological station Walter-Banzaf: A brief geological history of the island , inspection on August 14, 2011.
  3. ↑ Notice in the biological station Walter-Banzaf: Island today - The world of plants , inspection on August 14, 2011.
  4. ↑ Joachim Blüthgen: Greifswalder Oie and Ruden, in: Supplement No. 248 to Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen , Gotha 1952, p. 2.
  5. ↑ Notice in the biological station Walter-Banzaf: First mentions of the island , inspection on August 14, 2011.
  6. ↑ Notice in the biological station Walter-Banzaf: Agriculture and cattle breeding - Life on the Oie in the 18th and 19th centuries . Century , inspection on August 14, 2011.
  7. ^ Uwe Kieling: Berlin building officials and state architects in the 19th century . Kulturbund der DDR, Berlin 1986, p. 51 .
  8. ↑ notice in the Biological Station Walter Banzaf: Fishing & Sailors' Home , inspection on August 14, 2011th
  9. ↑ a b c Notice at the lighthouse on Greifswalder Oie, inspection on August 14, 2011.
  10. ↑ a b Notice in the biological station Walter-Banzaf: The life of the islanders at the beginning of the 20th century , inspection on August 14, 2011.
  11. ↑ Axel Dietrich: The Greifswalder Oie - The Helgoland of the Baltic Sea: History of an island, Peenemünde 1993
  12. ↑ Notice in the biological station Walter-Banzaf: The Oie as a military restricted area , inspection on August 14, 2011.
  13. ↑ Nature reserve ordinance "Greifswalder Oie" , of February 20, 1995.
  14. ^ Station: Greifswalder Oie. Retrieved on March 14, 2020 (German).
  15. ↑ Technical data for the Greifswalder Oie lighthouse on the entrance ticket to the tower.