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Satellite Image of Hiddensee
Lighthouse at the Dornbusch
Hiddensee (
ˈhɪdənzeː (help·info)) is a carfree island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Rügen on the German coast.
The island, located 54°33' north longitude 13°07' east, has about 1,300 inhabitants. It was a popular vacation destination for East Germany and continues to attract tourists today with its natural beauty. It is the location of the University of Greifswald's ornithological station. Gerhart Hauptmann and Walter Felsenstein are buried there.
Hiddensee is depicted in a painting of the same name by the German Expressionist artist, Walter Grammatté. It is currently being displayed in the Brücke Museum in Berlin.
An urban legend during the GDR days has it that, in order to escape the hardships of communist rule, the workers and farmers of Hiddensee wrote a letter to Stalin requesting to be annexed by Sweden (Hiddensee belonged to Swedish Pommerania 1648-1815). Of course there was no truth to the legend, but it reflects the typical humor of people in the GDR.
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