Putbus is a town on the southeastern coast of the island of Rügen, in the county of Vorpommern-Rügen in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, close to the Baltic Sea. The town has 4,741 inhabitants and is a significant tourist destination with numerous seaside resorts. It is the oldest resort on the island and has been formally recognised by the state as a resort town since 1997.
Putbus was founded in 1810 by Prince Wilhelm Malte zu Putbus as his town of residence and had it built in the Classicist style, so that the town formed a harmonious union with the park and palace (Schloss). Malte also introduced sea bathing to Germany at Lauterbach which is about 2 km from Putbus. The nickname of Putbus as the “White Town” (Weiße Stadt) comes from its white-painted houses, but it is also referred to as Rosenstadt (“Rose Town“) due to the many rose bushes in front of individual buildings. The name Putbus is derived from the Slavic epod boz and means “behind the elder bush”.
The town of Putbus lies eight kilometres from Bergen auf Rügen and is located within the Southeast Rügen Biosphere Reserve. The terrain around Putbus is undulating and the coastline of the Rügischer Bodden, on which it lies, is characterized by an alternation of flat stretches of shore with steep banks. The cove of the Wreecher See makes a deep inroad into the coastline. The subdistrict of Lauterbach, with its approximately 500 inhabitants, has a fishing and sailing harbour. Near the forest of Goor, Prince Malte built the first seaside resort on the island. The island of Vilm in the Bay of Greifswald, 2.5 kilometres from Rügen, also belongs to Putbus.
After the political Wende in 1991 the historic town centre with its Circus, market place (Marktplatz) and town hall, orangery and royal stables, now a theatre, were thoroughly renovated as part of the urban development and heritage conservation projects in the town. Today, Putbus presents an unusual, uniform white appearance. The town is also notable for the small theatre and the Crown Prince’s residence (now a tourist office and museum). The town is connected to the rest of Rügen by the narrow gauge steam railway known as Rasender Roland and by good roads and cycle tracks.
