Wangerooge

Infobox Ort in Deutschland
Wappen = Wappen Wangerooge.pnglat_deg = 53 |lat_min = 47 |lat_sec = 27
lon_deg = 7 |lon_min = 53 |lon_sec = 57
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Niedersachsen
Landkreis = Friesland
Höhe = 1-17
Fläche = 4.97
Einwohner = 985
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 26486
PLZ-alt = 2946
Vorwahl = 04469
Kfz = FRI
Gemeindeschlüssel = 03 4 55 021
NUTS = DE94A
LOCODE = DE AGE
Straße = Peterstraße 6
Website = [http://www.wangerooge.de/ www.wangerooge.de]
Bürgermeister = Holger Kohls
Partei = parteilos

Wangerooge is one of the 32 Frisian Islands in the North Sea that are located close to the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. It is also a municipality in the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony in Germany.

Wangerooge is one of the East Frisian Islands. It is the easternmost and smallest of the inhabited islands in this group (according to some other measurements, Baltrum is the smallest) and the only one that belonged to the historical district of Oldenburg between 1815 and 1947, whereas Borkum, Juist, Norderney, Baltrum, Langeoog and Spiekeroog always belonged to the county of Ostfriesland. As of the census of 2004, the island has 1,055 inhabitants. Especially in the summertime the island accommodates more than 7,000 visitors on a daily basis.

The island is attractive to tourists due to the beaches, various recreation possibilities and the general laid-back atmosphere. The island's slogan underlines this, visible on a sign at the harbour, saying: "God created time, he never mentioned haste!" A yearly beach volleyball tournament, usually held in the beginning of August, is one of the main attractions in the summer time, and has served to modify the general impression that the island is exclusively attractive to older people and young families. Additionally, some windsurfing, kite-surfing and boardriding activities attract younger people.

In order to guarantee recreation, cars are prohibited on the island. The island can be reached by ship from Harlesiel, or it can be reached by plane from Harlesiel, Bremen, or Hamburg. The ferries take off at different times every day due to the change of the tide. As on most East Frisian Islands, a small narrow gauge railway line connects the harbour to the main village.

Concerning historical sites and other places of interest, the island has one active light house, one old light house, and the Western tower. Since the island used to move constantly as a whole from the West to the East before some attachment activities were accomplished a century ago, buildings were to get lost after some centuries to the sea. The Western Tower was built in 1597 and was originally located in the East of the island.

Wangerooge is also known as the site of a historic World War II B-17 Flying Fortress crash. More specifically, the site of two crashes. During a bombing mission on Hamburg on New Years Eve, 1944, a B-17 squadron was attacked by German fighter planes on their trip home. While in tight formation, one plane was shot down and become entangled with the plane below it. One of the pilots managed to take control of the two aircraft and steer them back towards the German coast for an emergency landing. At the time, the two entangled aircraft were described to look like two "breeding dragonflies" as the ball turrets of each plane impaled the chassis of the other. Most of the crew bailed out, while two remained and successfully made a crash landing in a field.

See also

*East Frisian Islands

External links

* [http://www.wangerooge.de] - Official website
* [http://www.siw-wangerooge.de Ferry schedules]