Rügen, Western Pomerania, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany

🇩🇪 Rügen is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where it is linked to the mainland by road and railway via the Rügen Bridge and Causeway, two routes crossing the two-kilometre-wide Strelasund, a sound of the Baltic Sea.

Rügen has a maximum length of 51.4 km (31.9 mi) (from north to south), a maximum width of 42.8 km (26.6 mi) in the south and an area of 926 km2 (358 sq mi). The coast is characterized by numerous sandy beaches, lagoons (Bodden) and open bays (Wieke), as well as projecting peninsulas and headlands. In June 2011, UNESCO awarded the status of a World Heritage Site to the Jasmund National Park, famous for its vast stands of beeches and chalk cliffs like King's Chair, the main landmark of Rügen island.

The island of Rügen is part of the district of Vorpommern-Rügen, with its county seat in Stralsund.

The towns on Rügen are: Bergen, Sassnitz, Putbus and Garz. In addition, there are the Baltic seaside resorts of Binz, Baabe, Göhren, Sellin and Thiessow.

Rügen is very popular as a tourist destination because of its resort architecture, the diverse landscape and its long, sandy beaches.

Land use The heartland of Rügen is gently rolling, and the area is characterized primarily by agriculture. East of the town of Bergen auf Rügen the land climbs to 90 m above NN (at Rugard where there is an observation tower) and to 107 m above NN in the south-eastern hill country of the Granitz. The soil on Rügen is very fertile and productive, particularly in Wittow, the breadbasket of the island. There are major cabbage-producing regions.

Two German national parks are situated on Rügen: the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park, in the west (including Hiddensee), and the Jasmund National Park, a smaller park including the famous chalk cliffs (Königsstuhl). There is also a nature reserve, the Southeast Rügen Biosphere Reserve, consisting of the peninsulas in the southeast.

Tourist resorts Rügen is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Germany. The island receives about one quarter of all overnight stays in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Most visitors come to Rügen between April and October, the peak season being from June to August, but its quiet atmosphere in winter is also appreciated.

The first bathing facility on Rügen opened in 1794 at the mineral-rich spring in Sagard. In 1818, the Putbus village of Lauterbach became Rügen's first seaside resort. In the 1860s Sassnitz became a seaside resort, followed by Binz in the 1880s. During World War II Prora was constructed as a mass tourist resort but it was never finished.

Today the most popular seaside resorts are the Schaabe beaches between Altenkirchen and Juliusruh including Drewoldke, Glowe and Breege, and the eastern beaches between Sassnitz and Göhren including Neu Mukran, Prora, Binz, Sellin and Baabe. The latter are accessible via an historic narrow gauge railway employing steam locomotives, called the Rügensche Bäderbahn. Tourist destinations, other than seaside resorts, include Cape Arkona, the wood-covered Stubbenkammer hills on Jasmund with interesting chalk cliff formations, the wood-covered Granitz hills with their Jagdschloß or hunting lodge, the classicist buildings of Putbus and the inland villages of Bergen auf Rügen, Ralswiek and Gingst. The island offers a huge variety of different beach and shore areas. Rügen is often visited by windsurfers and kitesurfers and offers more than fifteen different locations for surfing. The most popular locations are Dranske, Rosengarten, Wiek, Suhrendorf and Neu Mukran.

On the peninsula of Jasmund is the Jasmund National Park, which consists of the beech forest of Stubnitz, including the famous chalk cliffs of Rügen. On the Königsstuhl itself is the Königsstuhl National Park Centre, which has a multivision cinema and audio-guide exhibitions with information about the national park in several languages.

Rail The railway network consists of the electrified standard gauge stretch of the Deutsche Bahn Stralsund (Rügendamm)-Bergen-Sassnitz line (timetable route (KBS) 195), Lietzow-Binz (KBS 197), the non-electrified routes Bergen-Putbus-Lauterbach Mole of the PRESS (KBS 198) and the narrow gauge stretch (750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in)) of the Rügen Resort Railway (Rasender Roland): Lauterbach Mole-Putbus-Binz-Sellin-Göhren (KBS 199).

In addition to regional trains, there are also Intercity services from Binz via Bergen and Stralsund to Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and the Ruhr. Night train services to Munich, Basle and the Ruhr area were deleted from the timetable on 9 December 2007, despite massive protests from the local hotel industry.

Bus The bus service on Rügen is operated by the Rügener Personennahverkehr. Since 1996 it has been continuously expanded, and has developed an integral clock-face schedule. There is a service between all major towns and municipalities on the island at least every two hours, sometimes more frequently during peak season. Throughout the year, buses now run at least every hour on the routes between Sassnitz-Binz-Bergen, Schaprode–Bergen–Klein Zicker, Bergen/Sassnitz-Altenkirchen-Wiek-Dranske and the Altenkirchen-Putgarten near Cape Arkona. In addition, the bus service is well-linked with the railway, especially in Bergen, but also at other railway stations.

Road Until October 2007, individual traffic from the mainland to the island of Rügen was mainly routed along the two-lane Rügendamm causeway, running between Stralsund and Altefähr over the sound of Strelasund. The cornerstone for a second crossing over the Strelasund was laid on 31 August 2004. This bridge, the Rügen Bridge, running parallel to the Rügendamm, has a length of about 4.1 km (2.5 mi) and a vertical clearance for ships of 42 metres (138 ft), and was on opened on 20 October 2007. In order to relieve the town of Stralsund, a ring road has been built in the last few years, coming from the southwest. The B 96 federal road between Stralsund and Greifswald is also connected via an access road to the A 20 motorway. The B 96 runs from Stralsund via Bergen to Sassnitz. Here a new route with bypasses is planned (the "New B 96").

The main tourist attractions of Cape Arkona, the Königsstuhl and the Granitz hunting lodge are, however, car-free in order to protect the countryside, as is the island of Hiddensee which belongs to Vorpommern-Rügen district. All these destinations can be reached using public transport, without needing a car.

Cycling Rügen has a signposted network of cycle paths. The condition and signing of this network varies considerably from one place to another, from very good in the seaside resorts to poor in the area between Garz and Zudar. There is a circular cycle path around the whole island. During the summer season there is the option on some routes to carry bicycles on the buses. This is always possible on the railways.

Ship Two car ferries belonging to the Weiße Flotte operate every half-an-hour between the Zudar peninsula on Rügen and Stahlbrode on the mainland, halfway between Stralsund and Greifswald .

Another Weiße Flotte car ferry, the Wittow Ferry runs from the heartland of Rügen (Muttland) to Wittow. A ferry sails from Sassnitz ferry port in Mukran to the Danish island of Bornholm, to Swedish Trelleborg, to Klaipėda (formerly Memel) in Lithuania, to Baltiysk (formerly Pillau) and to Saint Petersburg. The island of Hiddensee, which also belongs to the county of Vorpommern-Rügen, is connected by a regular ferry service from Schaprode to Rügen, and is increasingly integrated into the clock-schedule timetable on the main island. In addition, there is a regular ship service from Stralsund, Wiek and Breege to Hiddensee. Tourist services include ferry connections from Lauterbach to Gager, and between Sassnitz, Binz, Sellin and Göhren. There are also round-trips mainly from Sassnitz, but also from Lohme, to the Königsstuhl. Pleasure steamers also ply between the resorts and Peenemünde on Usedom, where there is a connection to the Usedom Railway (UBB).

Ferries Sassnitz–Neu Mukran is the international ferry terminal on Rügen, with ferry services to • Trelleborg (Sweden, served by Stena Line), • Rønne (Bornholm, Denmark, served by Bornholmslinjen), • Klaipėda (Memel, Lithuania, served by DFDS Lisco), • Baltiysk (Pillau, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, served by DFDS Lisco), • Saint Petersburg (Russia, served by TransRussiaExpress) • Ust-Luga (near Saint Petersburg, Russia; planned). Sassnitz-Mukran is the largest railway ferry terminal in Germany and the only one in Europe where different tracks allow switching from standard gauge to broad gauge. Local passenger ferries connect the piers of Sassnitz, Binz, Sellin and Göhren with the adjacent islands of Hiddensee, Vilm and Greifswalder Oie. Passenger and car ferries connect Rügen's centre of Muttland, to both Wittow in Rügen's north via the Wittow Ferry and to the mainland via the Glewitz Ferry (Glewitzer Fähre) between Stahlbrode near Greifswald and Glewitz on Rügen's Zudar peninsula.

Aviation Rügen Airport is located about 8 km (5.0 mi) from Bergen. After the Wende, the first sightseeing flights over the island were offered on the former agricultural airfield. In May 1993, the first tarmac runway was inaugurated. Since then, charter flights to Berlin, Hamburg and other cities in Europe have been available. The Baltic Sea Airport Stralsund also offers flights to and from the region of Western Pomerania. The larger Rostock–Laage Airport offers regular international destinations.

Rügen was a Kreis (district) in the north-eastern part of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. The district was bordered entirely by the Baltic Sea. The nearest districts were Nordvorpommern and the district-free city Stralsund. The district covered the islands Rügen and Hiddensee, and several small islands like Ummanz and Vilm. It was thus the only district of Germany which consists solely of islands.