Alone or in guided groups, you can explore the North Sea island all year round.
Walk along the paths of our eventful history, encounter Hoffmann von Fallersleben
and James Krüss on the culture trail and explore the wonders of nature on both islands of Helgoland. For your theme trails there is
There is a free information brochure at the Tourist Information, which will accompany you on your journey of discovery. You can also find the map with the theme trail in the gallery.
Here stood the island theater, opened in 1868 and destroyed in the Second World War. Before the war, the actors of the famous
Vienna Hofburg in the summer months, during their summer break. After the return of the people of Helgoland to their island, the theater-
tradition was continued with guest performances of famous theaters and actors.
Helgoland presents itself today as an exceedingly colorful island. This is the work of the painter Johannes Ufer, who acted as color consultant during the reconstruction of the island. He developed a color plan with 14 hues that were intended to soften the sobriety of the red red sandstone rock in the expanse of the sea and to break up the - intended - uniformity of the house facades.
The house of the imperial court photographer Franz Schensky, born on Helgoland in 1871, stood on this spot. For 60 years he captured the life of the
island with his camera and thus created a unique document of contemporary history.
At the time of the Continental Blockade, this was the site of the Conversationshaus - also known as "De Beers", the stock exchange, in Helgoland. It was at the same time
business meeting place for merchants and a place of hospitality with a bar. The new Conversationshaus, built in 1891, was used as a luxurious
The new Conversationshaus, built in 1891, was designed as a luxurious spa house with a restaurant and ballroom, where the sophisticated aristocracy met.
After the reconstruction, Helgoland's architecture shows a rather sparse, Scandinavian-influenced style, which is softened by a finely coordinated
in the lower part of the island and the brilliant white of the upper part.
According to a story, the old "Pottchen" went down in the history of Helgoland. Due to its strategically favorable location, it was a popular first port of call for sailors and other hard-drinking islanders. The former island pastor Ring, on the other hand, considered it rather a "den of iniquity against which the angels of heaven fight in vain.
The writer, who spent his childhood and youth on the island, is probably one of Helgoland's most famous sons. The children's book "Mein Urgroßvater und ich" (My Great-Grandfather and I) and the TV series "Timm Thaler" were written by him. On his 60th birthday on May 31, 1986, his home island awarded him honorary citizenship.
Hardly any of the famous contemporary writers could escape the attraction of the red, rugged red sandstone rock in the wide
North Sea. From Kleist and Heine to Hoffmann von Fallersleben and Hebbel, Strindberg and Kafka - they all stayed on Helgoland
or dedicated some or even many lines to the island in their works.
(Several panels in the Kieler Straße)
He is considered the pioneer of the now world-famous Helgoland Bird Observatory, today's Institute for Bird Research. After his marriage
After marrying a Helgoland woman, he remained loyal to the island as an ornithologist and became a founder of scientific ornithology with his book "Die Vogelwarte Helgolands".
scientific ornithology. Gätke's traces on the island, his grave and his bird collection, considered to be one of the largest in the world, were
tragically victims of the bombs during the Second World War.
Helgoland has always been a place of inspiration for the most important representatives of the respective art epochs at all times and for all styles of painting. And if the artists once lacked the small change for the overnight stay, the practical motto "bed against picture" always applied.
Besides painting, music is highly valued on Helgoland. There are two choirs with a long tradition on the island: the Helgoland Karkfinken
and the Halunner Songers. And by the way, the island itself is sung about in more than 100 hits and songs.
On Helgoland, the old customs have been preserved to this day and are lovingly cultivated, for example, in the folk dance and costume group.
Very special ceremonies such as "wishing" on Wendskedai (January 1) or the carrying of water for children at their baptism have a firm place in the everyday life of the islanders.
a fixed place in the everyday life of the islanders.
Helgoland has been Christian since the 8th century and Protestant since the Reformation. Today's St. Nicolai Church stands on the same site as its two predecessors from 1609 and 1685.
It has been placed under a preservation order because its interior contains some valuable old and new furnishings: ship models, old grave
and new furnishings inside: ship models, old grave monuments and a Jerusalem candelabrum.
This tree is also called "The Miracle of Helgoland" because it was the only tree to survive the bombardment of World War II. Although almost destroyed, the stump, which is about 150 years old, got fresh shoots again. It used to stand in the old pastorate and "sheltered" until 1900 - before the
Before the introduction of civil marriage, it "sheltered" countless couples in love who wanted to marry quickly without any banns or formalities. That is why Helgoland was also known
known as "Love Island".
The German scientist and Nobel Prize winner is one of the most important physicists of the 20th century. In 1927 he formulated the
the "uncertainty principle" named after him. Heisenberg developed essential findings for this in 1925 on Helgoland, where he - plagued by severe
Heisenberg was sent to Helgoland by his superior at the time, who was suffering from a severe hay fever.
Not only the varied political history of our island, but also the cultural history of Helgoland has special significance.
Here we walk in the footsteps of Franz Kafka or Heinrich Heine, and here the text of the national anthem of the Germans, written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, was created in response to the call for “unity and justice and freedom”.
Perhaps on the west coast we will experience Heine’s “high vaulted sky that resembles the dome of a Gothic church”.
And listen to the “sea waves” that “rush like a water organ.”
“Whoever has not seen such a thing,” we may say with Helgoland visitor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, “dates a new life from such a sight and reads all descriptions with a new sense.”
After Lichtenberg, Heinrich von Kleist, Friedrich Hebbel and the Swedish poet August Strindberg experienced Helgoland.
As a contemporary, James Krüss described his home island. His enchanting book “My Great-Grandfather and I” is read in 35 countries alone.
What the poets translated into language inspired the composer Anton Bruckner to his work ” Helgoland” for male choir and large orchestra.
Time and again, the island with its bizarre red rock, green land and white sand has also attracted visual artists.
The photo “Helgoland at heavy sea” by Franz Schensky is one of the most famous Helgoland motifs.
Our theme trail leads to those places where Eberhard Schmidt and Gustav Schönleber, the genre painters Christian Ernst Bernhard Morgenstern and Rudolf Jordan, the marine painters Hans Bohrdt and Claus Bergen set up their easels and where, in more recent times, the ingenious Horst Janssen took up his drawing pencil.
What brushes and paints were for the painters, the camera was for Franz Schensky.
He captured the stormy Heligoland in unique photographic documents and achieved world renown with the first aquarium photographs.
Where visual artists, poets and composers breathed the clean air on the island, actors could not be missing.
In 1868 Helgoland received its theater, unfortunately destroyed during the war, and no less than the actors of the castle in Vienna gave guest performances here during the summer break.
On the stage were Josef Kainz and Lotte Lehmann, and finally “Hoppla, jetzt komm ich” – the legendary Hans Albers.
After the Second World War, well-known actors continued the Helgoland theater tradition in guest performances.
So this theme trail leads us once across the island through a cultural history that hardly any other place of this size can boast.
And that includes the islanders. “Think of a busy little people clinging to each other like ants in eternal agitation, as if only this small remnant, close to crumbling, remained of the whole big planet, and you see the Helgolanders.”
At least poet Friedrich Hebbel saw them that way.
