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Theme Week East Frisian Islands – Baltrum and Norderney

Thursday, 5 February 2015 - 07:27 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post BALTRUM
Baltrum is a barrier island off the coast of East Frisia and is a municipality in the district of Aurich, Lower Saxony. It is located in-between the chain of the seven inhabited East Frisian Islands. Baltrum is the smallest island in this chain by area and inhabitans.

Although Baltrum became a seaside resort in 1876, the tourism grew very slowly. Since 1966 Baltrum has been a seaside health resort approved by the state of Germany. Two hotels were opened in the end of the 19th century, Hotel Küper in 1892 and Hotel zur Post in 1895. Before the World War II broke out 5,000 to 6,000 people visited Baltrum annually. In 1960 nearly 17,000 tourists showed up and since the 1970s there are over 30,000 people making holidays every year during the peak season. Besides the approximately 500 inhabitants about 3,000 guest are constantly living on the island during the peak seasons exhausting the acceptance capacity of the two small villages. In comparison to the other East Frisian islands the inhabitants of Baltrum supported the tourism latish.

There are several points of interests on the island. Among others there are

• Old church of the island: In 1826 the church was built as Lutheran church, later used as Catholic church, afterwards as a morgue. In present days it is only used for marriage ceremonies, baptisms and cultural events.
• Great Lutheran church of the island: This church was built in the years of 1929–30. Both naves were attached in 1959, the tower was elevated in 1964–65.
• Saint Nicholas church: The foundation block of the Catholic church was laid on Saint Nicholas Day in 1956 and consecrated on Ascension Day in 1957. The church has a closed building used during the winter (winter church) and a thatching roofed building used in the summer season (summer church). The winter church has seats for 50 people and the summer church can receive up to 300 people. The constructor of the church was the architect Heinrich Feldwisch-Drentrup from Osnabrück, the glass windows were created by Margarete Franke.
• Historical palisade for protection: The palisade for protection (German: Historisches Pfahlschutzwerk) is located at the southwestern side. It was positioned in the 1880s and renewed in 1930–31. Nowadays it is only a section of the original palisade in-between the tiny harbor and the western end. It is heritage-protected and due to extensive restoration works in 2008 repaired at the western side.
• Museum of local history in the old custom house: The museum was opened in the old custom house by the associaton of local history of Baltrum on May 24, 2007. The exhibition covers the local and the natural history.
• National park museum: Founded in 1987 in the former shed of the shipping company Baltrum Linie and focuses on the tides.

Read more on Island Administration Baltrum and Wikipedia Baltrum.

NORDERNEY
The island is 14 km long and about 2.5 km wide, having a total area of about 26.3 square kilometres (10.2 sq mi) and is therefore Germany’s tenth largest island. Norderney’s population amounts to about 6,200 people. In 1946 Norderney gained municipal status and belongs to the Aurich “Kreis” (county). On the northern side of the island lies a 14 km long sandy beach. The neighbouring island to the east is Baltrum, which lies about 800m (half a mile) away. To the west is the island of Juist, about 3 km away. The entire eastern half of Norderney belongs to the Wadden Sea National Park of Lower Saxony. Access to the park is restricted, as it is subdivided in zones of different accessibility for the protection of the wildlife. The status as a National Park also affects all kinds of traffic on the island, while especially car traffic is subject to strict regulations.

Of the seven East Frisian islands, Norderney is the youngest. The island has only existed in its present form since the middle of the 16th century, being the eastern remnant of the larger island Buise. The larger island of Buise was split into two parts during the Grote Mandrenke flood of 1362, the eastern half at first being called Ostrende. What was left of Buise shrunk in size over the years and finally disappeared into the North Sea during the St. Peter’s Flood of 1651. Ostrende, on the other hand, grew in size, and is noted in a 1550 census as “Norder neys Oog” (Northern New Island), and having a church and 18 houses. The inhabitants at this time worked principally as fishermen. In the second half of the 18th century the sea trade industry grew in importance. Next to fishing, tourism became important to the island economy. In 1797, Norderney became the first German resort on the North Sea.

Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks.

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