X-Nico

7 unusual facts about Heligoland


August Engelhardt

Heinrich Eukens, was a 24-year-old vegetarian, student of Bavaria and native of Heligoland.

Grauerort fortress

After WW II, a popular restaurant, Klein Helgoland ("Little Heligoland"), was located on the pier.

Henry Seebohm

His expeditions included the lower Pechora River in 1875 along with John Alexander Harvie-Brown as well as a visit to Heligoland at the home of Heinrich Gätke.

J. G. Swift MacNeill

In 1890 he took an unpopular stance in opposing the cession to Germany of Heligoland, which became an important German naval base in the First World War.

Merina Kingdom

Meanwhile in Europe, diplomats partitioning the African continent worked out an agreement whereby Britain, in order to obtain the Sultanate of Zanzibar, ceded its rights over Heligoland to the German Empire and renounced all claims to Madagascar in favour of France.

The Claverings

Soon thereafter, Sir Hugh and Archie Clavering are both drowned when their yacht goes down off Heligoland.

Wolfgang Altenburg

Altenburg was born in Schneidemühl, Posen-West Prussia (today Piła, Poland) and was conscripted as a Marinehelfer (Navy aide) in 1944 serving at Heligoland.


1890 in Germany

Germany receives Heligoland and the Caprivi Strip from the United Kingdom and a free hand to control and acquire the coast of Dar es Salam.

Cliffed coast

A cliffed coast is made of a loose bedrock material, such as at the Red Cliff on the German island of Sylt, but can also occur in hard rock like the red sandstone cliffs on Heligoland.

HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst

In the 1950s, the HADAG operated a ferry to England and to the islands Heligoland and Sylt.

Heligoland trap

The name is taken from the site of the first such trap, the Heligoland Bird Observatory on the island of Heligoland, Germany, where it was developed by Hugo Weigold who established the observatory and initiated the banding program there.

Horace Andy

1990 saw Andy's profile further raised when he began collaborating with Bristol trip hop pioneers Massive Attack, going on to contribute to all five of their albums (the only artist to do so), most notably with "Angel" (a new version of "You are My Angel") released on their third album, Mezzanine and most recently on their 2010 release Heligoland, on the tracks "Splitting the Atom" and "Girl I Love You".

OLT Express Germany

Therefore only the ´islands hopping´ services from Emden to Heligoland and Borkum with small aircraft would have remained.


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