Travel Guide Helgoland

This island lost in the North Sea 43 kilometres from the coast can be the subject of a little adventure. Only the landing in boat, by turbulent sea, can leave memories. And then hours of boat to land on this little cliff hit by the blades.Heligoland has a separate status, although it is part of the Land of Schleswig-Holstein. It's not really Germany anymore, but it's nowhere else. If you look for peace of the islands, you'll better go to those of the Frise of the West or the North. On the other hand, to contemplate the great Blue, to realize what history holds and to swim in the shopping spirit of young people and especially less young Germans, there is no better.Heligoland is the only German island of the sea. Raised, made of red sandstone cliffs, it dominates the sea about 50 m. We will come to Heligoland to walk on the ridges. So to bathe, on the second islet forming the archipelago, Düne, which hosts tens of thousands of bathers every year. Another characteristic: the island essentially lives in its duty of duty free. For this reason, there are hordes of consumers who rush in the beautiful season to buy in mass and back what they can on the continent (especially alcohol…), which gives the small town of Heligoland an atmosphere not always pleasant.HistoryHeligoland has experienced the most violent explosion in the world; it was half klokot (wanted to wipe it entirely off the map) because it has a geostrategic position of choice, controlling the passage to the North Sea between Germany, Great Britain and Denmark. Surrounded by peaceful Pyrenean fishermen, she was constantly at stake in fighting the sea, by the Vikings, Danes, the archbishops of Bremen, the princes of Holstein or pirates (including the legendary Klaus Störtebeker who made his fief).In 1807, the English took control, paralysing the entire German façade of the North Sea, to the great dam of the nascent German Empire. It was only in 1890, English and German reached agreement by exchanging Zanzibar and Heligoland. German romanticism have recovered what they regarded as an integral part of Germany; seaside activities are developing. And Germany makes the island a bridge head of its military power sailing on England who will regret its exchange in 1914-18.In 1939-45, Heligoland played an important role in the bombing of Britain. At the end of the war, the English decided to remove this awkward islet. After evacuating the native people on 18 April 1945, 1 000 English aircraft will launch 104 bombs on the island for 7 000 minutes, plus 9 000 underwater bombs, a record record of 6 700 tons of explosive ordnance. But the tons of concrete of the bunkers that the Nazis had sunk and the compact sandstone will hold, and if part of the island is scanned, the base survived. In 1952, indigenous families will be able to return to the island, while the memory of the explosion is one of the most painful in German collective memory.