welcome to rügen

Rügen’s beauty was immortalized by painter Caspar David Friedrich in 1818, when he sensitively captured the island’s magnificent white chalk cliffs that plunge into the jade-hued sea in the far north.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Rügen used to be a popular vacation destination with Germany’s writers, artists, politicians and industrial tycoons. Much of the grand splendor of that time can still be seen in the pompous seaside resorts that still exist from that era.
With the division of Germany into East and West after WWII, the island belonged to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) for 40 years and was barely visited by anyone who wasn’t living in East Germany.
After the German reunification in 1989, Rügen became increasingly popular among visitors from former West Germany and beyond. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a lot of work and effort has been put into preserving, rebuilding and renovating those areas and buildings that had been neglected by the GDR regime.
Today, due to Rügen’s diversity and uniqueness, it is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Germany.