Heiligendamm

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Coordinates: 54 ° 9 '  N , 11 ° 51'  E

Map: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
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Heiligendamm​
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Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Panoramic view of the Kurhaus , 2007

Heiligendamm ( Low German Hilligendamm ) is a district of Bad Doberan on the Baltic Sea coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the Mecklenburg Bay . Heiligendamm is the oldest seaside resort in Germany and continental Europe , and was founded in 1793. The place is also called the "White City by the Sea" because of the row of white houses near the beach that are visible from the sea. In 2004 Heiligendamm was recognized as a seaside spa . The G8 summit in Heiligendamm in June 2007 made the place internationally known.

The seaside resort as a district has around 300 inhabitants, the city of Bad Doberan had a total of 11,607 inhabitants at the end of 2013.

Heiligendamm is connected to the Baltic Sea Cycle Route and the European EuroVelo route EV 10.

history

Grand Hotel, pearl necklace (promenade villas) and beach

The place name Heiligendamm comes from the so-called Holy Dam , a 3–5 m high, 30 m wide and 4 km long natural elevation on the Baltic Sea consisting of smooth, loosely lying and peculiarly colored and formed pebbles. According to a legend, the monks in Doberan prayed during a storm surge and then the Holy Dam was built.

In the Middle Ages , the Conventer See was still an open sea bay. In fact, the Holy Dam in its present form was created during a storm surge in the early 15th century. Contrary to some representations, however, the Conventer See was not the outlet of a tributary of the Warnow that developed near Schwaan .

founding

Memorial stone: " Friedrich Franz I founded Germany's first seaside resort here - 1793"
View around 1841

The actual impetus for founding the first German seaside resort was provided by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg , then professor of mathematics and physics, when he asked in the Göttingen annual calendar for 1793 in an article about the benefits of bathing in sea water: "Why does Germany still have no seaside resort? " Completely in contrast to the proverbial Mecklenburg reaction time, the decision was made on July 22nd, 1793 to build a seaside resort at the "Holy Dam". After reading this article by Lichtenberg, the personal physician of the Mecklenburg Duke, Dr. Samuel Gottlieb Vogel , his master on this founding step. Dr. Vogel had three things in mind: through his work at the nearby University of Rostock, he probably knew the climatic advantages of this place and, secondly, he had the health of his duke in his sights, which was not so good due to the way of life of his patient and he was one Scientist focused on health issues. So he was given the job of drawing up the necessary plans, which he was able to present in August. He was modeled on the seaside resorts in southern England and Bad Pyrmont in Germany . As early as September 9, 1793, the duke and some chamberlains are said to have entered the waters of the Baltic Sea for the first time, near the Holy Dam. His personal physician Dr. Vogel was not involved in this procedure. Because he was already on a study trip at that time, together with the construction manager Johann Christoph Heinrich von Seydewitz , in order to get an idea of ​​existing bathing facilities in other bathing resorts, including Bad Pyrmont. On the way back they stopped at Lichtenberg in Göttingen to get information from him about the English seaside resorts. The first bathhouse was then put into operation at Heiligen Damm on September 21 of the same year. The first bathing season of 1794 was opened by the Duke himself as the first bathing guest with his court. To finance it, he sold 1,000 men to the King of Orange for his army.

Vogel wanted to use the "undoubtedly beneficial effect of bathing in lake water in many weaknesses and ailments of the body". This should now also be possible in Heiligendamm. Today a memorial stone in the village commemorates the founder of the Baltic Sea resort. For the next 80 years, Heiligendamm and all its facilities remained part of the grand ducal domanium and were directly under the supervision of the grand ducal authorities. The reception of the bathers and the restoration were left to a tenant; the prices were prescribed for him in the lease contract . The “upper management of the whole establishment, as well as everything that affects bathing matters in Doberan”, was the responsibility of the “Grand Ducal Bathing Intendant”. Hermann von Suckow held this position for almost two decades .

Between 1793 and 1870, Johann Christoph Heinrich von Seydewitz , Carl Theodor Severin , Georg Adolph Demmler and other Mecklenburg master builders created an impressive, classical work of art made up of lodging, bathing and social houses. This later earned the place the nickname “White City by the Sea” and established its reputation as the most beautiful seaside resort in Germany. The inscription “Heic te laetitia invitat post balnea sanum” (“Here you receive joy, you rise well from the bath”) on the gable of the spa house built by master builder Severin between 1814 and 1816 became the motto for life in the elegant bathing resort of Heiligendamm.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the bath was strongly influenced by the European nobility, but now more by prominent families. There is no evidence in the guest book that Friedrich Schiller , Marcel Proust or Franz Kafka were on vacation in Heiligendamm. In contrast, Rainer Maria Rilke was among the guests.

The rumor that the Russian Tsar was on leave here is false. It is possible that the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna Romanova was visiting; even that is unconfirmed.

Empire, Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism

Large panorama view of Heiligendamm. Woodcut, 1887

In 1872 a joint stock company owned by Rittmeister Otto Baron von Kahlden bought the facility for 500,000  thalers , who became the sole owner in 1885. Around 1910 his son Rudolf sold the company to Walter John, the nephew of the bestselling author E. Marlitt (1825–1887). He led the seaside resort into bankruptcy and finally into a foreclosure sale . Three creditors from Hamburg and a wholesaler from Leipzig offered 1.5 million marks and founded Ostseebad Heiligendamm GmbH . During the First World War , this GmbH, which was gradually in debt, gradually came into the possession of the Louis Wolff banking house . In 1924, the banker Oskar Adolf Baron von Rosenberg took over all shares in the GmbH and saved it. In 1939 the bath was confiscated for army purposes and used as a reserve hospital . 1941 paid the German Reich to the Dresdner Bank , which in the course of a creeping linearization had taken control of the Heiligendamm GmbH, 1.7 million Reichsmarks for all properties . It was not until 2007 that the background to the creeping Aryanization that took place during the Nazi era became known again, according to which the Nazis had gradually deprived the banker Baron von Rosenberg and his descendants of their possession of Heiligendamm, which is why the Jewish Claims Conference decided to investigate the "Heiligendamm incident". has accepted. If successful, potential Rosenberg heirs could claim damages from the federal government. The market value of Heiligendamm was estimated at 500 million Deutschmarks, compared to a purchase price for the Fundus Group of only 18 million DM.

In 1888 a Catholic Herz-Jesu chapel was consecrated in the forest near Heiligendamm, thanks to the Chamberlain von Suckow's initiative towards the Grand Duke. In 1904 an Evangelical forest church was inaugurated . In the years after the Second World War, the forest churches were looted and showed clear signs of deterioration in the following decades.

Even after the November Revolution, the ducal family stayed in the somewhat secluded Demmlersche Alexandrinen Cottage as a summer residence , which was only expropriated in 1945 and made public property in 1947.

In 1941 the German Reich bought the seaside resort as a bankruptcy property. The Navy taught on 1 July 1943 in the villas, the Navy War College Heiligendamm, a branch of the Naval War College Mürwik . Preparatory courses for attending the Naval School in Flensburg - Mürwik were held at the Heiligendamm Naval School . The 5th and 6th courses could be completed by April 11, 1945. In the turmoil of the Second World War , the school commander, the sea captain Hans Bartel, dissolved the Heiligendamm Naval School. From the remainder of the school, trainers, NCOs and officers, the "Einsatzgruppe Kpt.zS (Ing) Bartel" was formed on April 18, 1945, which was intended to defend Rostock and Wismar with bazookas. But instead, Captain Bartel sailed from Wismar with the special command on a freighter to Kappeln , a place thirty kilometers away from the special area Mürwik , where the last Reich government under Karl Dönitz settled in the last days of the war .

GDR times and United Germany

The "Hohenzollern Castle"
Aerial view of the Kurhaus and the surrounding buildings on the beach (today Grand Hotel Heiligendamm)
View from the pier on Heiligendamm

After the Second World War , Heiligendamm was owned by the government of the GDR . Since 1949 interior architects, furniture designers, product designers, graphic designers and jewelry designers have been trained there at the Technical College for Applied Arts (FAK). Around 1,500 students had completed the school in Heiligendamm by summer 2000. Since the winter semester 2000/2001, the department of design / interior architecture of the University of Applied Sciences for Technology, Economics and Design in Wismar has been located on the campus of the University of Wismar .

In the GDR, the building of the Wismar-Heiligendamm School of Applied Arts housed the children's camps of the GDR Ministry of Culture (MfK) during the summer semester break. Children from Berlin as well as Sorbian (via Domowina ) and Czechoslovakian children ( Ministry of Culture of the ČSSR) recovered in Heiligendamm for three weeks each . The last two rounds took place in the summer of 1990.

In 1996, the Entwicklungsgesellschaft Entwicklungs Company Heiligendamm (ECH) - a company belonging to the Fundus Group - acquired the historic town center for 18 million D-Marks, which had been advertised for sale since 1992 by the Federal Property Administration on behalf of the Federal Government, the new owner . Under project developer Anno August Jagdfeld from Aachen , five of the historic buildings were restored and expanded into the 5-star-plus hotel complex Kempinski Grand Hotel Heiligendamm , which opened in spring 2003. On July 13, 2006, US President George W. Bush stayed in Heiligendamm after visiting Stralsund .

The G8 summit took place in Heiligendamm from June 6th to 8th, 2007 . For this purpose, around 13 kilometers of barriers were built that reached far into the Baltic Sea. These barriers were removed after the summit. The historic Villa Perle was also demolished for the summit.

The development of Heiligendamm in the years before 2009 led to different opinions among hotel operators, residents, guests and local politicians. The renovation has stalled due to the different opinions and requests for improvement by the contractual partners. In February 2009, the Kempinski Group left the project and stopped operating the hotel. Since then, the hotel has been run by the owners themselves. The termination was marked by numerous public mutual accusations. At the end of February 2012, the "Grand Hotel Heiligendamm GmbH & Co. KG" filed for bankruptcy at the Aachen district court.

In the summer of 2010, the Heiligendamm development company began to rebuild the former Villa Perle lodging house. A total of seven listed villas of the so-called pearl chain are to be restored or historically faithfully reproduced for around 70 million euros. The project is to be financed through the sale of holiday apartments that are to be installed in the villas.

After the bankruptcy of the Grand Hotel Heiligendamm in February 2012, it was acquired in July 2013 by the Hanoverian tax advisor Paul Morzynski, who wants to continue the hotel business and carefully convert and expand the hotel.

Attractions

The classicistic town center is worth seeing. Access to parts of the site that are used, among other things, for hotel operations or privately owned, are restricted by fences.

The narrow-gauge Bäderbahn Molli runs through Heiligendamm from Kühlungsborn to Bad Doberan . The line between Bad Doberan and Heiligendamm was built in 1886. The Evangelical Forest Church was renovated after the political change, the Catholic Herz-Jesu-Kapelle is in 2010 externally and internally still in an unrenovated condition. In 2001 the church stalls were stolen. Heiligendamm also has a pier that leads 200 meters to the Baltic Sea.

  • Molli narrow-gauge railway in Heiligendamm station

  • Villa facades on the beach promenade, so-called pearl necklace (2007)

  • Reconstructed Villa Perle in 2013 (after demolition in 2007 for the G8 summit )

  • Alexandrine Cottage

  • Evangelical forest church from 1904

  • Catholic forest chapel from 1888

  • The bathing beach

Personalities

literature

  • Friedrich Compart: History of the Doberan Monastery . Rostock 1872, Godewind, Börgerende-Rethwisch 2004 (reprint), ISBN 978-3-938347-07-2 .
  • Hans-Jürgen Herbst: The journey of a healthy person to the seaside resorts of Swinoujscie, Putbus and Doberan . Godewind, Wismar 1823, 2005 (new edition), ISBN 978-3-938347-73-7 .
  • Heinrich Hesse: The history of Doberan-Heiligendamm . Godewind Verlag , Wismar 1838, 2004 (revision, new edition), ISBN 978-3-938347-09-6 .
  • Adolf Nizze: Doberan-Heiligendamm. History of the first German seaside resort . Godewind Verlag, Wismar 1823, 2004 (revised edition), ISBN 978-3-938347-23-2 .
  • Peter Schubert: The delicate history of Heiligendamm - who owns the famous bath on the Baltic Sea? In: Welt am Sonntag. June 3, 2007.
  • Hans Thielcke: The buildings of the seaside resort Doberan - Heiligendamm around 1800 and your master builder Severin . Godewind, Wismar 1917, 2004 (reprint). ISBN 978-3-938347-90-4
  • Samuel G. Vogel: General bathing rules for use by bathers in general and especially those who make use of the seaside resort in Doberan . Godewind, Börgerende-Rethwisch 1817, 2004 (revised edition), ISBN 978-3-938347-88-1 .
  • Gerhard Ringeling : Bad Doberan with its Ostseebad Heiligendamm , 1936
  • Thomas Grundner, Joachim Skerl: Heiligendamm , Hinstorff Verlag

Trivia

Heiligendamm and the Grand Hotel are always filming locations for film projects.

In 2009, the episode Alles Böse for the wedding anniversary , the well-known ARD television series Murder in the best company , was filmed in the Grand Hotel and the Evangelical Church in Heiligendamm .

2020 Heiligendamm: Between luxury and construction . NDR - die Nordstory, broadcast on August 14, 2020.

Web links

Commons : Heiligendamm  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Heiligendamm  - Travel Guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Data and facts: City of Bad Doberan ( Memento from May 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 29, 2014
  2. ↑ State Statistical Office MV - population development of the districts and municipalities 2013 (XLS file) (population figures in update of the 2011 census)
  3. ^ Tourismusverband Mecklenburg-Vorpommern eV: Baltic Sea Cycle Route . In: Tourismusverband Mecklenburg-Vorpommern eV ( auf-nach-mv.de [accessed on May 12, 2017]).
  4. ↑ Doberan . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 5, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 16.
  5. ↑ Eugen Geinitz: The Conventer See near Doberan. Rostock, Leopold, 1898. p. 8
  6. ^ Sven Wichert: The Doberan Cistercian Monastery in the Middle Ages. Lukas Verlag, 2000, p. 22, ISBN 978-3-931836-34-4
  7. ↑ Eugen Geinitz: The Conventer See near Doberan. Rostock, Leopold, 1898. p. 5.
  8. ↑ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Why does Germany not yet have a public seaside resort? in: Göttingen annual calendar 1793, Verlag Johann Christian Dietrich, Göttingen 1792
  9. ^ Friedrich Rochow, Klaus Havemann, Bad Doberan - Heiligendamm, Droste Verlag 1993
  10. ↑ Till Briegleb: Quite ruinous in mare No. 98, p. 88f
  11. ↑ After A. Kortüm: The Doberaner Seebad The holy dam, its curmeans and their use. Stiller, Rostock 1858 ( digitized version ), p. 134
  12. ↑ welt.de: One last time luxury in the Grand Hotel Heiligendamm
  13. ↑ Till Briegleb: Pretty ruinous . In: mare No. 98, p. 87
  14. ↑ a b Peter Schubert: The tricky history of Heiligendamm.
  15. ^ Ostsee-Zeitung : Traumhaftes Hotelwar Marineschule , 5./6. May 2007; accessed on: October 17, 2019
  16. ^ Kappeln in the turmoil of the capitulation in May 1945 , accessed on October 17, 2017
  17. ↑ cf. Hohenzollern Castle , Baden-Wuerttemberg
  18. ↑ Andreas Frost: Heiligendamm is fenced in ( Memento from November 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Der Tagesspiegel . October 16, 2006.
  19. ^ Daniel Schulz: Three-day fence on the Baltic Sea beach . In: taz . February 6, 2007.
  20. ↑ Unbroken interest in Heiligendamm: - ( Memento of September 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Stams .
  21. ↑ Grand Hotel Heiligendamm is insolvent , t-online.de by dapd and AFP, February 28, 2012, accessed at 7:56 p.m.
  22. ^ Newsletter IZ aktuell of the Immobilien Zeitung from July 5, 2010
  23. ↑ Luxury hostel: Tax advisor buys Grand Hotel Heiligendamm. In: Spiegel Online . August 1, 2013, accessed August 1, 2013 .
  24. ↑ Ostsee-Zeitung:  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ostsee-zeitung.de