Rügen - Germany’s most beautiful island

          
With 926m² , Rügen is Germany’s largest island and probably even the most beautiful one. The island belongs to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and is located east of the pomeranian Baltic coast. From north to south Rügen is 52 km long, from west to east 41km wide. Altogether, Rügen’s coast is 574km long. Numerous bays, peninsulas, spits of land, lakes, Bodden and offshore islands are characteristic for Rügen.
Wittow peninsula with Cape Arkona and Bug peninsula in Wittow’s west are the most northern part of Rügen. The Schaabe connects Wittow’s south with Jasmund peninsula, a forest area that has a  approximate size of 3000 ha. The narrow spit parts Tromper Wieck from Jasmund Bodden. Den nördlichsten Teil von Rügen bildet die
Rügen’s and Jasmund’s landmark is the Königsstuhl (king’s chair), a chalk cliff that is 118m high. Its name could come from a stop the Swedish King Karl XII. had to make when he was leading a naval battle against the Danish. According to a legend, the one who could climb the cliff the fastest and who sat down on a chair on top of the cliff would become the new king.
Rügen’s picturesque alleys and woods, romantic fishing villages, lovely beaches and bizarre cliffs inspired famous artists such as Caspar David Friedrich, Johannes Brahms, and Theodor Fontane to create some of their most important works.

Located in the northwestern part of Rügen are the islands Hiddensee, Ummanz, Öhe, Liebitz, and Heuwiese. Rügen’s sister island Hiddensee has a distinctive landscape and its villages Grieben, Kloster, Vitte, and Neuendorf offer a variety of sights such as the Gerhard-Hauptmann-Museum and  the lighthouse Dornbusch in Kloster.
On Rügen’s east coast, there are famous seaside resorts like Binz, Sellin, Göhren, and Baabe. Here you can see many architectural examples from the zenith of the seaside resorts in the 19th and early 20th century. That was the time when resorts were only accessible for the nobility.

The Rügische Bodden and Vilm island are part of the bisophere reserve Southeast-Rügen and characterize the landscape of Rügen’s south. Lake Neuensien, lake Sellin, and lake Wreechen also belong to the biosphere reserve. Zudar peninsula is located at the reserve’s south; west to it you can find Mönchgut peninsula. Here, some of the spits like Kleine Zicker and Große Zicker fade into the Bodden.