Rømø (german: Röm, frr, Rem) is a Danish island in the

Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( nl, Waddenzee ; german: Wattenmeer; nds, Wattensee or ; da, Vadehavet; fy, Waadsee, longname=yes; frr, di Heef) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern conti ...

. Rømø is part of Tønder Municipality. The island had 650 inhabitants as of 1 January 2011,"Danmarks Statistik."
Retrieved 11 June 2010. and covers an area of 129 km². Rømø is the southernmost of Denmark's Wadden Sea Islands. This distinction was previously held by the small uninhabited island of

Jordsand Jordsand was a small Danish hallig located in the Wadden Sea southeast of the Danish island Rømø and east of the German island Sylt. The island was first known by the name ''Hiortsand'' (" hart island") and was possibly connected to both the ma ...

, which sank in 1999.

History

Rømø is part of

Southern Jutland Southern Jutland ( da, Sønderjylland; German: Südjütland) is the name for the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark and north of the Eider (river) in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The region north of the Kongeå is called da, Nør ...

, a historical region of Denmark. With the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

(1864), the region became part of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

(and later the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

) as part of the

Province of Schleswig-Holstein The Province of Schleswig-Holstein (german: Provinz Schleswig-Holstein ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia (subsequently the Free State of Prussia after 1918) from 1868 to 1946. History It was created from the Duchies of Schleswig and H ...

. Rømø and the rest of Southern Jutland was reunited with Denmark in 1920, after the

Schleswig plebiscites The Schleswig plebiscites were two plebiscites, organized according to section XII, articles 100 to 115 of the Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919, in order to determine the future border between Denmark and Germany through the former Duchy of ...

. Between 1970 and 2006, Rømø was part of Skærbæk Municipality ( da) in

South Jutland County South Jutland County ( Danish: ''Sønderjyllands Amt'') is a former county ( Danish: ''amt'') on the south-central portion of the Jutland Peninsula in southern Denmark. The county was formed on 1 April 1970, comprising the former counties of A ...

. Since 2007 it has been part of Tønder Municipality in the

Region of Southern Denmark The Region of Southern Denmark ( da, Region Syddanmark, ; german: Region Süddänemark, ; frr, Regiuun Syddanmark) is an administrative region of Denmark established on Monday 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish Municipal Reform, which ab ...

13-09-29-nordfriesisches-wattenmeer-RalfR-06

Features

It is linked to the Danish mainland by a road running across a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tr ...

, and the island lies about 3 km from the neighbouring

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

island

Sylt Sylt (; da, Sild; Sylt North Frisian, Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian ...

, to which it is connected by

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...

. It is home to a number of small communities such as Kongsmark, Østerby, Lakolk, and Sønderstrand.

St Clement's Church

Is the main

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

in the island. In the 19th century, the church allowed people to buy name plates for the church benches. Here the name of H.P.P. Møller, grandfather of the founder of the famous Danish Maersk shipping company, can still be seen on one of the front benches.

Kommandørgård Museum

The museum contains artefacts from the

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

industry including a whale skeleton. The house is from 1770 and the barn and stable are from 1744. From 1784 to 1874 part of the manor was a school. "Kommandør" (commander) is an older term for a captain of a

Whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

Ferry to Sylt

The car ferry to the neighbouring (German) island of

is operated by Syltferry. It runs every hour and takes about 35 minutes.

The beach

You can drive your car legally onto the beach. On the southern beach you can go kitebuggying - using a small vehicle pulled at high speed pulled by a large, wind-blown kite. On the first weekend on September, one of the biggest kite festivals of Europe is held on Rømø. Rømø is a popular spot for tourists attracted by the nudist beaches.

Notable people

* Peter Mærsk Møller (1836 in Rømø – 1927) Maersk.com website
retrieved 2 October 2017 was a sea captain who perhaps is best known as the father of

Arnold Peter Møller Arnold Peter Møller (2 October 1876 – 12 June 1965), better known as A. P. Møller, was a Danish shipping magnate, businessman who was the founder of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group in 1904. Biography A. P. Møller was the son of captain Pet ...

, founder of the Maersk corporation,

Notes

Gallery

File:Aerial photograph 400D 2012 05 05 8269 DxO.jpg, Aerial view Rømø Kite Festival 2016 01.jpg, Rømø Kite Festival 2016 Romo_island_harbour_DK.jpg, Harbour Aussenansicht - Sankt Clemens Kirke (Rømø).jpg, Saint Clements Church, Rømø Den gamle Redningsstation Rømø 6.jpg, The Old Rescue Station Rømø Causeway Rømødæmingen 1.jpg, Causeway R%C3%B8m%C3%B8_udsigt.jpg, Shore KommandørGården 02.jpg, Kommandør Gården

External links

Rømø
(tourist website, English).
Cycle Route round the island
(tourist website, English).
Further Tourist Information
(German). {{DEFAULTSORT:Romo Danish Wadden Sea Islands Islands of Denmark Geography of Tønder Municipality