Binz / Northern Shores

The island of Rügen is one of Germany’s most popular holiday destinations. People come here throughout the year, though most prefer to visit in the summer months. A few prefer to come in fall or even winter, to enjoy the quiet solitude.

Already in 1794, the first bathing facility opened in Sagard, and in 1818, the Putbus village of Lauterbach became Rügen’s first seaside resort. After that, Sassnitz became its second resort, followed by Binz as the third. 

Binz, established in 1885, is perhaps the most traditional of all the island’s resort towns, with many buildings remaining intact since the heydays around the turn of the last century. The beautiful white villas, with their traditional glass verandas, in verdant gardens and close to the sandy beach, full of colourful chairs, add to the historic atmosphere of the town.

Today, Binz is the largest resort on the island, offering relaxing beach life as well as the possibility to stroll in its residential areas or along the beach promenade, more than four kilometres long, enjoying the scenery while forgetting about the outside world and even time itself. 

The Kurplatz is the focal point of the pier, with numerous benches, cafés and a great view of the wide bay. It is almost completely the same as it looked more than 100 years ago.

On the beach, a short walk from the pier, stands the strange-looking Müther-Turm. The tower was erected as a rescue tower in 1962, and is made of ferro-cement. The futuristic tower, often likened with a UFO, has no regular use today, but is often rented out to weddings, parties, and conferences.

Not far from Binz lies another monument of the past, the Seebad Prora, built in the 1930s to become the world’s largest holiday resort. Here, Adolf Hitler planned for the workers that helped build the Third Reich. His ambition was that they would find a place relax and enjoy the fresh seaside air.

The eight identical blocks were (for obvious reasons) never completed, and during the World War II it was used to house people seeking shelter from nearby Hamburg, almost destroyed by the bombings. It was sealed off until 1991, but successively, some of the buildings have been renovated into apartments and today it even houses a luxury resort.

Rügen Beyond Binz

In 1818, Caspar David Friedrich was at the pinnacle of his artistic career. As Germany’s most renowned romantic painter, he had become an international celebrity and his paintings were highly sought after. In January, he had married his fiancée Christiane Caroline Bommer, and for their honeymoon, they travelled to the German coast, off the Baltic Sea.

One day, they made an excursion together with Friedrich’s brother to Stubbenkammer by Jasmund, on Rügen. Here, Friedrich became so inspired that he would create what would become known as his master piece and one of the most famous German paintings of all time.

“Kreidelfelsen auf Rügen” (in English: “Chalk Cliffs on Rügen”) depicts a small group, two men and one woman, gazing at the view of the sea, as it appears between the white cliffs. Out to the sea, there are two tiny sailboats, often interpreted as symbols of the soul, resting in eternity (represented by the sea). The painting intertwines life and death, depicting them as two sides of the same coin. Thanks to Friedrich’s already elevated artistic status, the dramatic white cliffs of Rügen became famous around the world.  

Rügen is Germany’s largest island – its maximum length is 51 km, and its maximum width is almost 43 km – and part of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, located on the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea.

To reach Rügen from the mainland, one has to go through the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, which links the island to the rest of the country. The scenic landscape, with its many sandy beaches, lagoons, bays and peninsulas, has drawn visitors here for centuries.

Since 2011, the Jasmund National Park is classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The most majestic part of the chalk cliffs is the “Königsstuhl” (in English: King’s chair), thus named as it (with a bit of imagination) resembles a royal throne. 

The national park lies in a nature reserve on the Jasmund peninsula, in the most northeast part of Rügen. Famous for its chalk cliffs – the tallest in Germany with a height up to almost 200 m above the Baltic Sea – the park is nevertheless the smallest national park in Germany, founded by the last government of East Germany before the German reunification.

The geographical and political division of Germany lasted from 1949 to 1990, and the effects are still clearly visible in Rügen, marked by decades of communist ruling, which restrained the development of urban sprawls that negatively affected so much of the country’s western parts.

The effects of the former communist dictatorship are also noticeable in the consistent lack of investment in infrastructure – visiting parts of Rügen at times feels like traveling back in time, to a time before modernization.

The island is geographically very close to both Denmark and Sweden, and as often is the case with border territories, at times Rügen has belonged to Denmark, at other times to Sweden. Under Danish rule, the old pagan temple hill (dedicated to the god Svetovid) was destroyed and the former monarchs turned into Danish princes of Rügen. Danish monasteries were established, and the previous Slavic cultural elements replaced with German-influenced inhabitants.

For some time, the island belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, and for several hundreds of years, it was part of Sweden. In 1815, it was incorporated into Prussia, until it became part of the unified German Empire. Ever since, Rügen has been German.

To Stay

Kurhaus di Binz – La grand dame of Binz and the most iconic hotel on Rügen.

Strandpromenade 27, Binz

Hotel Schloss Spyker – Stay in Rügen’s oldest castle while enjoying your time on the island.

Schlossallee 1, Glowe

Vju Hotel Rügen – Spa hotel with seaview in Göhren. 

Nordperdstraße 2, Göhren

To Eat and Drink

Freustil – Relaxed atmosphere, seasonal dishes with locally sourced ingredients.

Zeppelinstraße 8, Binz

Dolden Mädel Ratsherrn Braugasthaus Binz – Artisanal craft beer.

Schillerstraße 6, Binz

To Visit

Naturerbe Zentrum Rügen – Treetop walk, with extensive view of the island and the Baltic Sea. 

Forsthaus Prora 1, Ostseebad Binz