Alex Ritsema

Heligoland, Past and Present Alex Ritsema

Heligoland (spelled "Helgoland" in German) consists of two small German islands in the southeast of the North Sea, some 50 kilometres from the German mainland. The main - and the only inhabited - island has a length of less than two kilometres but it is one of the top-tourist destinations of northwest Germany. This book contains the first comprehensive history of Heligoland in the English language, including: its unique geology (with its cliffs and fossils); its seals, birds and plants; its legends of saints and pirates; its wreckers, fishermen, hunters and pilots; its turbulent military history, from the Middle Ages to the Nazis; accounts of eyewitnesses from various centuries; many line drawings, some historic ones and some made by the Dutch artist Anneke de Vries.