Sassnitz (, before 1993 in ) is a town on the Jasmund peninsula,

Rügen Rügen (; Rani: ''Rȯjana'', ''Rāna''; , ) 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 ci ...

Island, in the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The population as of 2012 was 9,498. Sassnitz is a well-known

seaside resort A seaside resort is a city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...

and

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

town, and is a gateway to the nearby Jasmund National Park with its unique chalk cliffs. The decommissioned British submarine HMS ''Otus'' was purchased by a German entrepreneur and towed to Sassnitz to be a floating museum. The Sassnitz area is most popular for its famous chalk rocks (''Kreidefelsen''), which inspired artists like

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (; 5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a German Romanticism, German Romantic Landscape painting, landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation, whose often symbolic, and anti ...

Geography

File:Sassnitz (2011-05-21).JPG, Sassnitz aerial view (2011), the famous chalk cliffs of the Jasmund National Park to the right. _{More aerial photos
'} File:Sassnitz Mukran (2011-05-21) 7.JPG, Sassnitz Mukran, the ferry port of Sassnitz File:Sassnitz Kreidefelsen 2011.jpg, Chalk rocks in the front, spa town of Sassnitz in the back File:Herthasee und Herthaburg auf Rügen.jpg, The small yet deep Herthasee in the

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

as part of Sassnitz, with the Slavic

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

''Herthaburg'' at its banks The borough of Sassnitz lies in the northeastern part of the island of Rügen, covering the eastern part of the Jasmund peninsula as far as the sand bar of Schmale Heide to the south. The countryside there is renowned especially for its chalk cliffs. In addition, ice age depositions dominate the landscape. Its depressions have frequently been filled by small lakes. The most striking chalk cliff is the -high Königsstuhl. Large parts of the borough are covered by various types of trees with their typical habitats. One feature is the forest on the coastal slopes. Here there are rare trees like wild pear, wild apple, and yew. The town lies on the coastal slopes at the southern end of the Stubnitz, a -long and up to -wide

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

forest. The remaining land areas consist of moors, beach, meadows, pastureland, and settlements. In the south of the borough, near Mukran, are the Wostevitz ponds, a boggy depression that is protected as a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

. The small stream of Steinbach flows through the built-up area of the town. Near the Königsstuhl lies another lake, the Herthasee, which has a diameter of about and is up to deep.

Subdivisions

The borough of Sassnitz is divided into the following municipalities: Blieschow, Buddenhagen, Dargast, Drosevitz, Dubnitz, Klementelvitz, Mukran, Neu Mukran, Rusewase, Sassnitz, Staphel, Stubbenkammer, Werder, and Wostevitz.

Geology

The original landscape on the Jasmund is geologically very young. Its formation began with the end of the Weichselian glaciation about 12,000 years ago, when the ice sheet left behind there a Young Moraine landscape. As a result of thawing inland ice the underlying land and rose and hollows were filled with water. The predecessor to what later became the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

, the

Ancylus Lake Ancylus Lake is a name given by geologists to a large freshwater lake that existed in northern Europe approximately from 8,750 to 7,850 years Before Christ, BC, being in effect one of various predecessors to the modern Baltic Sea. Origin, evoluti ...

, was formed. Next, a cold steppe spread across the region. Later, birch and pine forests emerged, followed by oak forests. During the last 1,000 years, beech forests dominated the area. Lakes formed in the endorheic depressions, some of which silted up and became bogs. About 6,000 years ago, the sea level rose to its present level, leaving upland areas to form the Jasmund. As a result of the erosive action of waves and currents created, steep shores were formed that still characterise the landscape.

History

It was not until 1906 that the farming and fishing village of Crampas and the fishing village of Sassnitz were merged into the municipality of Sassnitz. Fishing was (and is) important. The desire of many city dwellers to relax by the sea led, at the end of the 19th century, to a rapid and strong growth on the shores of the Baltic and North Sea, as well as on Rügen itself. As early as 1824, it is recorded that the family of the Berlin theologian

Friedrich Schleiermacher Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (; ; 21 November 1768 – 12 February 1834) was a German Reformed Church, Reformed theology, theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Age o ...

went on a beach holiday to Sassnitz. Theodor Fontane, in his book '' Effi Briest'', named her lover, Major von Crampas, after the fishing village on Rügen. He also wrote about the Herthasee lake and coined the phrase in his book: ''"To travel to Rügen is to travel to Saßnitz."''

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

and Kaiser Wilhelm were other illustrious visitors to Sassnitz. In 1871, the road to Sassnitz was upgraded, in 1891 the town was connected to the railway network from Bergen; in 1878 there was a boat service to Stettin; in 1889 to the port in Sassnitz and, soon thereafter, sea links to

Rønne Rønne () is the largest town on the Denmark, Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It has a population of 13,675 (1 January 2025). It was a municipality in its own right from 1970 until 2002, when Bornholm was a Bornholm County, county (D ...

(

Bornholm Bornholm () is a List of islands of Denmark, Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. I ...

Trelleborg Trelleborg () is a town in Skåne County, Sweden, with 43,359 inhabitants as of 31 December 2015. It is the southernmost town in Sweden located some west from the Smygehuk, southernmost point of Sweden and the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is one ...

and Memel (now

Klaipėda Klaipėda ( ; ) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, third-largest city in Lithuania, the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, fifth-largest city in the Baltic States, and the capi ...

). The new links enabled the place to grow rapidly. The chalk industry expanded, fish and now fish products as well characterised working life, and tourism grew, even though other places with beaches were better developed. At the beginning of the 20th century, the beach promenade was built. The typical resort architecture with bed and breakfasts and hotels stamped the appearance of the place at this time. After establishing ferry and mailboat services Sassnitz also became an administrative centre with the appropriate new homes. Sassnitz was not given town rights until 1957. The fishing industry was expanded around that time; the B&B houses, however, fell increasingly into dilapidation. In 1984, a new port was built in the subdistrict of Mukran for the railway ferry between

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

and the Soviet Union. After 1991, Sassnitz Ferry Port was rebuilt for services to the entire Baltic Sea region. The official spelling of Sassnitz was "Saßnitz" until 2 February 1993. It was the spelling used in the letter of authority for town rights dated 23 November 1956. From 1991, the historic town center was thoroughly renovated as part of the plan to promote

urban development Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of peop ...

; the town's appearance improved considerably. The houses in the resort architecture style were renovated and most of them painted in a uniform white colour. The old town port was included in the municipal renovation plan in 2000. In July 2007, a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

for pedestrians was inaugurated, which links the center of Sassnitz between the station, Rügen Gallery, spa hotel and main street with the port of Sassnitz.

Demographics

With its rise as a seaside resort and ferry port, the population of the municipality of Sassnitz grew steadily from 332 in 1885 to 3,987 in 1925 and 7,826 in 1939. The further expansion of Sassnitz, now elevated to the status of a town, as a ferry and fishing port in 1957, resulted in another sharp population increase (1971: 13,676; 1981: 14,944) Since the late 1980s, the population has again declined, however, to 11,985 in 1998 and 10,366 by end 2010.

Politics

Town council

The

town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland In 2002, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissi ...

of Sassnitz consists of 25 councillors. The local elections of 7 June 2009 produced the following division of seats on the council: *

Die Linke Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...

: 11 * FDP: 5 * CDU: 4 * Alternative Freie Wählergemeinschaft (AFW): 2 * SPD: 2 * Independent: 1

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was adopted by the town council in 1959 and notified by a resolution of the town council on 1 November 1994. The emblem is registered under No. 17 in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern coat of arms register.

Blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

: "The coat of arms shows a red and silver lighthouse on a blue field emitted silver beams of light. It rises from a gap in the top row of a red, brick wall with silver mortar".

Flag

The town flag has three vertical stripes: blue, white and blue. The blue stripes occupy two ninths of the flag height. The white stripe take up five ninths of the height and is emblazoned in the centre with the town's coat of arms. The ratio of the height of the coat of arms to the height of the bunting is 4:9. The ratio of height to length of the flag is 3:5.

Twin towns – sister cities

Sassnitz is twinned with: *

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...

, Germany *

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, China *

Kingisepp Kingisepp ( or ), formerly Yamburg (), Yam (), and Yama (; Votic language, Votic: Jaama), is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Kingiseppsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located along the ...

, Russia *

, Lithuania * Port Washington, United States *

, Sweden

Culture and sights

The town of Sassnitz is the most important tourist destination in the Jasmund National Park, Germany's smallest national park by area. The Königsstuhl is the top tourist magnet in the park. At , it is also the highest point on the

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

cliffs in the national park. 2016 Sassnitz Harro Koebke 01

Since March 2004, the national park has had a national park centre at Königsstuhl, which has two exhibitions offering visitors an insight into the natural world, the chalk, the Baltic Sea and the beech forests of the park. On the edge of the Jasmund National Park lies Sassnitz Wildlife Park, the only one of its kind on the island of Rügen. The Gummanz Chalk Museum (''Kreidemuseum Gummanz''), the only chalk museum in Europe, lies not far from Sassnitz near Sagard on the terrain of an old chalk pit, worked from 1855 to 1962, and uses an open-air area with original implements as well as photographic and textual information boards, that describe the geological relationships, the mining and working of chalk on Rügen. In summer there is a regular briefing on archaeological discoveries for fossil collectors.

Harbour area

The "glass station" has lost its function as a result of the expansion of the new Sassnitz Ferry Port and today houses an exhibition and events hall as well as the Museum for Underwaterarchaeology. Here there are several exhibits of the Ralswiek boat discovery. The Fishing and Harbour Museum documents the history of fishing on Rügen and the old Sassnitz harbour. Amongst the exhibits is the ''Havel'' fishing smack (''Fischcutter''). In the harbour, as well as excursion and fishing boats, is the British submarine HMS Otus, a museum piece, as is the coastal sailing cargo boat, ''Annemarie'', which was converted in 2007 into a passenger boat. The Alaris Butterfly Park in Sassnitz has been open since July 2003. The park is home to hundreds of free-flying butterflies in a tropical environment. Since 2000, the club ''Lichtspiele'' has run a programme of revival house films in the ''Grundtvighaus''. The E-WERK youth project sees itself as a centre for ideas and projects aimed at testing and implementing meaningful and welfare-oriented jobs in the main labour market for socially disadvantaged youth and young adults. In 1995 the "Sassnitz Company" was launched to provide a lasting social network for the Rügen region. From one hundred-year-old Sassnitz power station a youth, culture, services and events centre was built with an event hall, an accommodation block, a youth hostel floor, and much more. The municipal and evangelical church community centre at ''Gerhart-Hauptmann-Ring 50'', founded in February 2000 as a meeting place for older people, has now merged with various other projects, such as the "Kiek in" cafe, the ''Spinnstube'', the ''Klönstube'' of CJD Garz, the ''Klönclub'', the clothes market, various self-help groups (Alcoholics Anonymous, etc.), ESV Sassnitz (weight training for everyone) and the church youth club, Saskia. Cultural groups include ''De Jasmunder Plattdänzer'', a folk dance group of girls and boys (aged 6–18), the Sassnitz youth brass band, the Sassnitz People's Choir, formed in 1964, and the Sassnitz Carnival Club, founded in 1975.

Buildings

* Sassnitz has the longest outer mole in Europe with a length of . Construction started in 1889 and it was finally completed in 1912. * The present town hall was designed by Berlin architect, Gustav Bähr, and opened in 1910 as a heated baths and community centre for members of the united parish of Sassnitz. On the main entrance a picturesque glass mural recalls its former function as a public bath. * On the edge of the Dwasieden Forest is the old people's centre of the Workers' Welfare Association (AWO). It consists of a nursing home, and managed apartments with flats for the elderly and disabled, which were completed in 2005. In collaboration with artists, a sensory garden was created. In it there is a trail along which people with dementia can move freely without getting lost. * The "Glass Station" (''Glasbahnhof'') and

ferry terminal A passenger terminal is a structure in a port which services passengers boarding and leaving water vessels such as ferry, ferries, cruise ships and ocean liners. Depending on the types of vessels serviced by the terminal, it may be named (for e ...

at the port of Sassnitz recall the over 100-year tradition of

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

services to Sweden and Northern Europe. * Sassnitz's old town is near the town hall. In ''Karlstraße'' is the oldest house in Sassnitz, clearly visible from its blue and white exterior. Because of their architecture, ''Haus Seerose'' (''Ringstraße 5'') and ''Villa Hertha'' are worth seeing. * The Evangelical St. John's Church stands on a hill between Sassnitz and Crampas on ''Stubbenkammerstraße''. Its construction was begun in 1880 to plans by city architect Adolf Gerstenberg from Berlin. Its inauguration took place three years later. * The 274-metre-long suspension bridge that, since 2007, has connected the town centre, between the railway station, Rügen Gallery, the spa hotel and the high street, to the port of Sassnitz. * is set in a park in the Dwasieden Forest. Its ruins give an idea of the varied history of this once magnificent building. The top Aachen banker, Adolph von Hansemann purchased the property in the mid-19th century from Baron Eduard von Barnekow. The mansion was built in 1873–1876 following a concept by Friedrich Hitzig in Italian

Neo-Renaissance Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

style. In 1947 the building was blown up at the order of the GDR government, only parts of the one-storey arcade wings survived. In 2007, there were plans to rebuild the castle in a historically incorrect way and to extend it to a 'spa town' with 3,000 beds. Fortunately, in the eyes of many, these plans were abandoned and a more sensitive plan for a faithful reconstruction of the castle and a gentle extension are prepared. In Dwasieden Forest there also is a grave mound.

Gallery

Sassnitz Mole Leuchtturm 2012-08-04 063.JPG, Sassnitz Breakwater Light Musikpavillon Kurmuschel Sassnitz.jpg, Concert pavilion of Sassnitz, shaped like a shell Ruegen, Sassnitz, Alter Reichshof.jpg, 'Alter Reichshof' (imperial court) Sassnitz Villa Hertha.jpg, Villa Hertha, a historical mansion featuring the typical resort architecture of the region Sassnitz Kurhotel 2012-08-04 028.JPG, 'Kurhotel', the historical health resort hotel of Sassnitz Sassnitz Hauptstraße 27.jpg, At the main shopping street of Sassnitz Ruegen, Sassnitz, Post.jpg, Old post office Ehem. Lotsenhaus.jpg, Former

pilot station A pilot station is an onshore headquarters for maritime pilots, or a place where pilots can be hired from. To get from a pilot station to an approaching ship, pilots need to use fast vessels to arrive in time, i.e. a pilot boat. History Histor ...

, now used as a vacation home Kirche Sassnitz.jpg, The Protestant (Evangelical) church

Historical monuments

* Memorial by sculptor, Reinhard Schmidt, erected in 1973 in the ''Park gegenüber dem Rathaus'' to the victims of fascism * Memorial grave at the woodland cemetery (''Waldfriedhof'') with monument to the

social democrat Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

mariner, Hermann Bebert, who was murdered in 1945 for being a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

. Since 1970 the special needs school in ''Stubbenkammerstraße'' has been named after him * Memorial stone in honour of Lenin, who stopped at Sassnitz on his way back to Russia from his Swiss exile in 1917. The monument is located at Rügenplatz and was restored in 2017.

Sport

* The ''SG Empor Sassnitz'' has about 700 members and is the largest sports club on the island of Rügen. It has sections for football, handball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, badminton, light athletics, judo, bowling, veterans and athletics.

Regular events

* The Sassnitz Carnival Club (''Sassnitzer Karnevalclub'', SKC) holds its main carnival every year at the Dwasieden Sports Hall * Children's Festival in the wildlife park with pony rides, music and entertainment on the Sunday nearest to Children's Day * The Midsummer Fire (''Mittsommerfeuer'') is an event based on Swedish tradition with guests from the twin town of Trelleborg. * The High Street Festival (''Hauptstraßenfest'') is celebrated by the town together with its traders since 2001 on the last weekend in June. * Summer concerts in St. John's Church, Sassnitz, regularly from June to September * The annual Rügen Harbour Days (''Rügener Hafentage'') take place on the second weekend in July for three days in the town harbour. * The Sassnitz Mole Soiree (''Sassnitzer Molensoiree'') takes place on the Sassnitzer Mole in the evening on the first Saturday in August * Summer Festival in the wildlife park with pony rides, music and entertainment in mid-August * Sassnitz Sail in Sassnitz Ferry Port on the third weekend in August * Circus at the entrance to the place alternating between Julius Renz and Barlay on the last weekend in August * The Promenade Revue on the beach promenade and pier on the last weekend in August * Advent Market in the old town in Sassnitz in the first advent week

Public facilities

General

* Town hall, ''Hauptstraße 33'' * Sassnitz Volunteer Fire Service founded in 1903, ''Bachstraße 24'' * Sassnitz Police Station, ''Bahnhofstraße 3'' * Sassnitz Criminal Investigation Branch * River Police Station, ''Hafenstraße 12'' * Sassnitz Maritime Search and Rescue Service Station, ''Hafenstraße 12'' Fotothek df ps 0005121 Schulen

Schools

* ''Ostseeblick'' primary school, ''Schulstraße 5'' * Regional School, ''Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 8'' * General Special Needs School, ''Mukraner Straße 5'' * Rügen Vocational School, ''Straße der Jugend 7'' * Ostsee-Gymnasium was a secondary school from 1953, a polytechnic secondary school from 1959/60 and from 1991 until it closed in 2008, grammar school.

Social, culture, sport

* ''An der Brücke'' nursery run by People's Solidarity (''Volkssolidarität'') * ''Lütt Matten'' nursery of People's Solidarity * ''Kunterbunt'' nursery of People's Solidarity * ''8. März'' nursery run by the Evangelical parish of St. John * Dwasieden sports field on the edge of the Dwasieden Forest, 400 metre cinder track and 2

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

pits. * Dwasieden sports hall with handball markings and four smaller sports halls. * A

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. It is usually made of a specially designed 7–8-ply maple plywood deck and has polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboard ...

area on the path to the Dwasieden sports hall

Economy

The economy of Sassnitz is dominated by tourism and the port.

Chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

quarrying near ''Klementelvitz'', not far from Sassnitz, is a traditional industrial activity on the island. As early as 1840, chalk was quarried here in

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ...

s. The chalk is not just used to manufacture

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate Hydrate, dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...

, but is also used by power stations for their filtration plants, due to its high quality. Rügen Chalk (''Rügener Kreide'') is also used for curative and

preventative medicine Preventive healthcare, or prophylaxis, is the application of healthcare measures to prevent diseases.Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark as "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental health a ...

s. The firm of ''Neue Rügenfisch'' is located in the town harbour. The company, which was modernised after Germany's reunification, employs around 200 people and produces a large range of tinned fish. Sassnitz Ferry Port in the subdistrict of ''Mukran'' is the easternmost

deep water port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manche ...

in Germany. This location has the shortest sea links from Germany to Sweden, Denmark (Bornholm), Finland, Russian and the Baltic states. The port lies on the bay of Prorer Wiek immediately on the open sea and it is therefore easy for ships to dock here. Water depths of make the port accessible to all classes of ship in the Baltic Sea region. Its flexible railway track system has enabled the ferry port of Sassnitz to develop into a special harbour for combined goods traffic. Today about 70,000 wagons are transferred onto the Scandlines Line to and from

and around 7,400 wagons on the shipping lines to and from the

Baltic states The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

. Numerous industrial and trading firms are based in Sassnitz Ferry Port. As Sassnitz Port serves as an important point of operations to the controversial

Nord Stream 2 Nord Stream 2 (German language, German–English language, English mixed expression for "North Stream 2"; ) is a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea, financed by Gazprom and several European energy compani ...

gas pipeline construction, Senators

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 ...

Tom Cotton Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician and United States Army, Army veteran serving since 2015 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Arkansas. A memb ...

, and

Ron Johnson Ronald Harold Johnson (born April 8, 1955) is an American businessman and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Wisconsin, a seat he has held since 2011. A Rep ...

authored a personal threat to mayor Frank Kracht, announcing economic and legal sanctions should the port continue its function in the project. At ''Fischwerk Mukran'', owned by the Dutch company Parlevliet & Van der Plas, about 30,000 tons of

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

per year are processed for the fish industry into herring pieces (''Heringslappen''), fillets and frozen goods. A large proportion is supplied by fishermen from Sassnitz and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, who deliver their catches at agreed fixed prices from their own cutters, using rented fish tanks or by truck to the pier of the modern fish processing centre. The rest comes from Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark and Sweden. The firm of ''INVO Bauplanung'' from Ribnitz-Damgarten wants to build a stone factory for 36 million euros on the former railway yard in the area of the ferry terminal because of its favourable location in terms of the delivery and collection of raw materials or finished goods by sea.

Transport

Sassnitz is the end of the Bundesstraße 96 federal road and the Stralsund–Sassnitz railway.

Rail

In addition to Sassnitz station there is the ferry station of Mukran. Even before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Sassnitz Hafen railway station was established in Sassnitz as a

for the so-called Kings Line from Germany to Sweden (

). In the 1980s, a new ferry terminal with broad- and

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

tracks was built in the subdistrict of Mukran. From Mukran there are

ferries A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus. ...

to and from

in Lithuania, to

and

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. On the ferry to Sweden, railway wagons are transported in addition to road vehicles. As well as the Berlin to Malmö night train, with sleeping and couchette cars, there were about 60,000 wagons in 2004. In 1984 a new ferry service was inaugurated between Neu Mukran and Klaipėda, providing a route between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic which bypassed Poland. It was equipped with rail ferries fitted with five parallel Russian 1,520mm gauge tracks. Wagons had their bogies swapped for onward travel, or were unloaded, at extensive railway yards in Neu Mukran. This link eased the supply of Russian troops in Germany in a period when Poland had become less supportive politically and wished to quadruple the transit fees it was paid. Ironically in 1994 the ferry was used to ship Russia's nuclear missiles out of Germany.

Ports

* New Mukran ferry port (Ferry lines to

(Sweden),

(Lithuania),

Baltijsk Baltiysk ( ); ; Old Prussian language, Old Prussian: ''Pillawa''; ; ; is a seaport types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Baltiysky District, Kaliningrad Oblast, Baltiysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, R ...

(Russia),

(Denmark) ) * Fishing port * Marina

Notable people

(1768–1834) sent his wife and children in 1824 to Sassnitz for a long time. This year is seen as the birthday of Sassnitz as a seaside resort. *

(1774–1840), was inspired in 1818 by the chalk cliffs on the steep coastline of the Jasmund near Sassnitz and painted his famous work '' Chalk Cliffs on Rügen''. * Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) collected in Sassnitz in 1895 ideas for his novel '' Effi Briest'' *

(1833–1897) spent a long time in Sassnitz in 1876. He composed there the last movement of his 1st

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

in C minor. *Empress Augusta Victoria (1858–1921) spent a long summer holiday in Sassnitz in 1890 together with the prince. They stayed in ''Villa Martha'' right on the cliff-top above the ''Kurplatz''. * Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924) in 1917 travelled from

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

via the Sassnitz–Trelleborg ferry to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and

. * Steffi Nerius (born 1972), javelin thrower and Olympic medalist, received her basic light athletics training at the ''SG Empor Sassnitz''.

Legend

The Königsstuhl also takes its name from a story in the legendary past. Whomsoever wished to be king, had to climb up the cliffs from the seaward side. Another legend has it that the notorious pirate Störtebeker was born on Jasmund in 1340 at Ruschvitz manor house. The Pirates' Gorge (''Piratenschlucht'') in Sassnitz not far from the old town is supposed to have been one of the many hiding places for Störtebeker and his

Victual Brothers The Victual Brothers () were a loosely organized guild of privateers who later turned to piracy. They affected maritime history, maritime trade during the 14th century in both the North Sea, North and Baltic Sea, Baltic Seas. They were initially ...

in the Baltic Sea area. Since 1993, the Störtebeker Festival has taken place in the summer months on the open-air stage at Ralswiek.

References

External links

* * *
HMS Otus submarine museum
(in German and English) {{Authority control Seaside resorts in Germany Port cities and towns in Germany Port cities and towns of the Baltic Sea Towns and villages on Rügen Populated coastal places in Germany (Baltic Sea) Populated places established in 1906 1906 establishments in Germany