Fotografie in Malsch; Portraits, mit Motorrad, Murgtal

Stralsund

After the settlement in the course of the German East Settlement on 31 October 1234, Stralsund received the title of

Wizlaw I granted town law based on the Rostock and Lübeck models. The area had been settled by Slavs, which also explains the Slavic part of the name Stral (stral means arrowhead or spearhead, -sund stands for a dividing narrow passage in Germanic languages and here refers to the Strelasund).

Gorch Fock I

Launched on May 3, 1933 at Blohm & Voss Hamburg as a barque with 1330 tons displacement - length 82m - width 12m - draft 5.20m - mast height 42m - sail area 1797m² with 32 sails - largest yard length 24.6m - The ship was bought by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education in 2003 from the current owner, the non-profit association "Tall ship friends eV". The Gorch Fock I was loaded onto a dock ship in Wilhelmshafen and transported to the shipyard in Stralsund.

Stralsund quickly became an important trading town in the Baltic region, mainly thanks to settlers from Westphalia. After the extinction of the Principality of Rügen in 1325, the town belonged to Pomerania-Wolgast. In the 14th century, it was the most important Hanseatic town in the southern Baltic region after Lübeck. Numerous military conflicts with the rulers of Denmark culminated in the Peace of Stralsund in 1370. After the decline of the Hanseatic League, Stralsund's importance declined. However, the town continued to live primarily from long-distance and local trade as well as shipbuilding.

The Oceaneum was inaugurated in 2008; locals call it the "toilet roll" because of its curved shape. Schools of fish, seahorses, anemones, sharks, starfish and jellyfish live in 50 small and large aquariums. High above the harbor there is fresh air, where Humboldt penguins live and breed and can be admired by visitors. Inside, they can also dive into the deep sea with a multivision show.

As early as 1525, the majority of Stralsund's citizens converted to the Protestant faith. The city was thus a pacesetter of the Reformation in northern Germany.

During the Thirty Years' War, Stralsund resisted the siege by Wallenstein's troops with the help of Sweden and Denmark; this was followed by a period of almost 200 years of belonging to the Kingdom of Sweden as part of Swedish Pomerania.

In the Pomeranian campaign of 1715/1716, the fortress of Stralsund was captured by the allied Danes, Prussians and Saxons on December 23, 1715. Stralsund became Danish, but in 1720 it was returned to Sweden in the Peace of Frederiksborg together with Rügen and the Pomeranian mainland north of the Peene.

In 1815, Stralsund became part of Prussia and the seat of a postal administration.

After the First World War, Stralsund experienced a brief period of violent unrest until a bourgeois city government was established in 1919; this was replaced by the National Socialists in 1933. In 1939, 1,287 patients were deported from the Stralsund State Hospital. The deportees became victims of murders in various places, including the Piansnica massacre. On May 1, 1945, Stralsund was occupied by the Red Army; after the Second World War, Stralsund was part of the Soviet occupation zone of Germany in 1945.

During the time of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), numerous prefabricated housing estates were built in the city, but the historic old town center fell into disrepair. The city's economy depended primarily on shipbuilding at the Stralsund People's Shipyard, with ships for the Soviet Union sometimes being completed every 10 days.

The German Foundation for Monument Protection acquired this 700-year-old gem from the extensive community of heirs and restored it at great expense between 1996 and 1999. A film about the restoration is also shown in the museum. The two "Utluchten" house a hat shop and the bookshop with its own publishing house: the "Strandläufer".

The Sandpiper - Publisher

After the political change, Stralsund became a model city for urban development in 1990. This enabled the historic city center and the old town harbor to be renovated.

In the 15th century, the Jews were expelled from Pomerania. In 1757, the Swedish king allowed Jews to settle there again; in 1786 they began building a synagogue, which was consecrated on March 30, 1787. Jewish merchants brought modern trade ideas to the city: on April 15, 1852, the Wertheim brothers set up their "manufactured fashion store" and in 1875 built the first Wertheim department store in Stralsund. Leonhardt Tietz opened a small shop on August 14, 1879, and thus founded the corporation later known as "Kaufhof." While 134 people professed Jewishness in 1933, by 1939 there were only 62. Only two Stralsund Jews who survived the terror of the National Socialists returned to their hometown.

Since 2002, Stralsund's old town, together with that of Wismar, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name Historic Old Towns of Stralsund and Wismar.

The island's name comes from Old Norse and appears as "Heðinsey" in the Prose Edda and as "Hithinsö" in the Gesta Danorum. Both mean something like "Island of Hedin" or "Hedin's Island". The legendary Norwegian king Hedin is said to have fought here for a woman or just for gold. Under Danish rule, "Hedins-Oe" was officially used. Until 1880, the island was still called "Hiddensjö" in German maps, and in 1929 it was still called "Hiddensöe" in German travel guides. The complete Germanization and reinterpretation as "Hiddensee" is therefore relatively recent.

Hiddensee, located west of the island of Rügen, is the largest island within the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park. Its main axis runs north-south. It is about 16.8 kilometers long, about 250 meters at its narrowest point and about 3.7 kilometers wide at its widest point. The island is divided into a hilly northern part (Dornbusch, the highest point is the Bakenberg at 72.7 m above sea level), a dune and heath landscape in the central section (Dünenheide) and a flat southern part, the Gellen, which is only a few meters high. In the northeast are the two three-kilometer-long sand pits Altbessin and Neubessin. (Source partly from Wikipedia)