Whale (island)

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whale
Whale Island
Whale Island
Waters Wismar Bay , Baltic Sea
Geographical location 53 ° 56 '25 "  N , 11 ° 25' 38"  E Coordinates: 53 ° 56 '25 "  N , 11 ° 25' 38"  E
Whale (island) (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
Whale (island)
length 560 m
width 300 m
surface 8.65 hectares
Residents uninhabited
Map of the Wismar Bay
Map of the Wismar Bay

Walfisch (right), Poel and Wismar Bay

The whale is an uninhabited German island that in the Baltic Sea belonging Wismarbucht is.

It is located between the city of Wismar (about 4.5 km north) and the island of Poel . The very flat island has a maximum size of about 560 × 300 meters and a surface of only 8.65 hectares and is a nature reserve . Above all, it is an important bird sanctuary. The island belongs to the Wendorf district of Wismar.

history

Walfisch fortress in 1682
The Wismar Bay in 1850 with the fortresses Wismar , Poel and Fort Walfisch, west above

The island of Walfisch at the entrance to the inner Wismar Bay was first mentioned in 1271 and was referred to as "Aderholm" or later also as Holm . The island is also given this name in 1542, when it was used for hay extraction. The name whale was first mentioned in 1627.

In the course of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the island was withdrawn from the city by Wallenstein's troops and converted into a fortress by building a bastion . The remains of this ski jump are now in the water. A rectangular and a star-shaped pile setting are clearly visible. The oak posts from the star could be dated to 1644 and thus assigned to a later Swedish expansion phase.

In 1632 the fortress surrendered to the Swedish armed forces, whereupon the city of Wismar also surrendered. After the occupation of Wismar in the Thirty Years War, the Swedes began to expand the Walfisch fortress on the island . It served to secure the access to the port of the newly acquired Wismar property . The fortress is now largely under water, so that the remains can still be found today by means of aerial photography .

In 1675 the fortress fell into Danish hands and was returned to Sweden in 1679. In the years 1682–96 the fortress was expanded with a round tower with space for 24 guns on several floors and a square substructure according to the plans of Erik Dahlberg (see picture from 1682 left).

After the siege of Wismar (1715) in 1717 after the Great Northern War, the fortress Walfisch was razed by the Danes and the Brandenburgers, and the fixed tower on top of it was blown up on February 2, 1718.

Nature reserve

Due to its high ornithological importance, the nature reserve Insel Walfisch was designated on April 20, 1990 . In addition to the island, it comprised the surrounding stony shallow water areas with a total size of 80 hectares. Numerous species of birds breed on the island, including oystercatchers , medium-sized saws , mute swans , greylag goose , black-headed gull , cormorant and eider . These colonies are of seagulls ( Lach- , Storm and Herring ) and the terns ( coastal , river , dwarf and Tern ).

The protected area was established between 2004 and 2006 by the Walfisch e. V., since 2007 the association Langenwerder e. V. instead. He also operates the ornithological station on the island. Birds are regularly ringed . The nature reserve Insel Walfisch is part of the FFH area Wismarbucht, for which specific protective measures were developed in 2006 as part of a management plan.

The state of the area is rated as very good. The island is relatively inaccessible and must not be entered, so that the birds are likely to breed successfully. When the Wismar Bay freezes over, foxes and stone marten occasionally come to the island in winter .

The Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Consumer Protection in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania declared the island and the surrounding water bodies to be a nature reserve with the name “Insel Walfisch” by ordinance of 30 March 2010; the areas are part of the bird sanctuary “Wismarbucht und Salzhaff” and part of the area of ​​community importance “Wismarbucht”. The 84 hectare nature reserve consists of twelve hectares of land and 72 hectares of surrounding water. According to § 3 of the ordinance, it serves "the preservation, care and scientific documentation of a coastal bird island that was originally developed as a beach wall formation, which is strongly anthropogenic influenced by strong upwelling and is subject to increasing changes in expression through natural erosion and landing processes".

literature

  • Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Volume II: The district court districts of Wismar, Grevesmühlen, Rehna, Gadebusch and Schwerin. Schwerin 1898. Reprint Schwerin 1992, ISBN 3-910179-06-1 , p. 23 ff., 226 ff.
  • Lutz Mohr : Islets built and destroyed on the Baltic coast of the GDR . In: Greifswald-Stralsunder Jahrbuch , Volume 11. Böhlau, Weimar 1977, pp. 17–41
  • Lutz Mohr: Between Walfisch and Oie. Islets on the Baltic coast of the GDR . In: Yearbook of shipping . Transpress Verlag, Berlin 1986, pp. 109–117, 17 map ill.
  • Lutz Mohr: The Walfisch Island in the past and present . In: Naturschutz in Mecklenburg , Greifswald / Schwerin, vol. 20 (double issue), no. 1/2/1977, pp. 32–35
  • Gustav Willgeroth : Pictures from Wismar's past . Willgeroth and Menzel publisher 1903
  • Whale Island 140 . In: Ministry of Environment Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Hrsg.): The nature reserves in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Demmler-Verlag, Schwerin 2003, ISBN 3-910150-52-7 , p. 62 f .

Web links

Commons : Whale (island)  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b whale . In: Theodor Westrin (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 11 : Harrisburg – Hypereides . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1909, Sp. 1400 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  2. ^ NSG details in the FFH management plan. P. 20
  3. ↑ Information about the island of Walfisch (Verein Walfisch e.V.) ( Memento from February 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Information about the island of Walfisch (Verein Langenwerder e.V.)
  5. ↑ Bird ringing ( memento from February 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Law and Ordinance Gazette for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 2010, No. 7, p. 202 ff.