Stensholmen is a small island (or
skerry
A skerry ( ) is a small rocky island, or islet, usually too small for human habitation. It may simply be a rocky reef. A skerry can also be called a low stack (geology), sea stack.
A skerry may have vegetative life such as moss and small, ...
)
lying off the west coast of Sweden, in the
locality
Locality may refer to:
* Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada
* Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England
* Locality (linguistics)
* Locality (settlement)
* Suburbs and localitie ...
of
Fjällbacka
Fjällbacka is a locality situated in Tanum Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden, with 859 inhabitants in 2010. It is located approximately from Gothenburg, from Oslo and from Stockholm, and is mostly known as a summer tourist resort. ...
,
and is part of the islands of
Bohuslän
Bohuslän () is a Provinces of Sweden, Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the ...
.
War graves
It is the last resting place of a number of
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
sailors killed in the
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, durin ...
during the First World War and subsequently washed up on and around the island, including the author
Gorch Fock (real name Johann Wilhelm Kinau).
The
war grave
A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations.
Definition
The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...
on Stensholmen was established in 1920 and currently is the resting ground of 12 German sailors. The graveyard is managed by the German ''
Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge
The German War Graves Commission (, ) is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of German war graves in Europe and North Africa. Its objectives are acquisition, maintenance and care of German war graves; tending to next of kin; youth and edu ...
'' organisation.
In June 2016 the island was visited by a ''Volksbund'' travel group in order to restore the graves in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the battle. In August 2020 the island was visited by the German sailing ship ''
Alexander von Humboldt II
''Alexander von Humboldt II'' is a German sailing ship built as a replacement for the ship ''Alexander von Humboldt'', which had been launched in 1906 and used for sail training since 1988. Constructed by Brenn- und Verformtechnik (BVT) in Bremen, ...
'' to pay honour to the dead sailors.
Transport
Stensholmen is only accessible by boat from the port of
Fjällbacka
Fjällbacka is a locality situated in Tanum Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden, with 859 inhabitants in 2010. It is located approximately from Gothenburg, from Oslo and from Stockholm, and is mostly known as a summer tourist resort. ...
, which it is situated a few kilometres away from. The journey takes roughly 20 minutes.
Stensholmen neighbours the island of Kalvö, which is inhabited by three people.
See also
*
List of islands of Sweden
This is a list of islands of Sweden. A 2013 statistics report concluded that there are 267,570 islands in Sweden, though less than 1,000 of these are inhabited. The total area of the islands is 1.2 million hectares, which corresponds to 3% percent ...
References
External links
{{Commons category-inline
Islands of Västra Götaland County
Tanum Municipality