When Lower Saxony was founded 75 years ago, the island of Norderney was still firmly in British hands. Soldiers from the Army of the Rhine spend their holidays on the island. There are only a few German guests - they exchange liquor or cigarettes for vacation.
by Stefanie Grossmann
Even during the Second World War, Norderney was part of the first line of defense of the German Wehrmacht. As in the First World War, the island is declared a military restricted area - and resembles a sea fortress with bunkers, military facilities, the naval railway for transporting ammunition and the air base. Several anti-aircraft batteries are being built in the dunes to shoot down enemy bomber squadrons on their way to major German cities. The British pilots also refer to the well-equipped, well-fortified island as "Hedgehog" ("hedgehog"). Extensive barracks and residential buildings are built for the many German soldiers and officers - this is how the Nordhelmsiedlung, several residential buildings around Mühlenstraße and the sports hall are created.
Island closed to tourism during World War II
At the same time, in the first years of the war, the island was still the site of the children's deportation. City children should relax during these stays in the country. But when children were killed in attacks by British low-flying aircraft on Maundy Thursday 1941, entire school classes were evacuated from Norderney and "sent" to Austria. The island is closed to civilians anyway, and all tourism is prohibited. As a result, this industry experiences a complete collapse in the war.
British Army of the Rhine establishes "Leave Centre" on Norderney
One of the most popular places to stay on Kaiserstraße in Norderney:the "Hotel Germania".In the post-war period, the English initially shaped island life. From 1946, the British Army of the Rhine set up a summer recreation camp, a so-called Leave Centre, on Norderney. The British confiscate the first houses on the square, for example the "Hotel Germania", the Kurhaus, the swimming pools and the golf course. The well-known "milk bar by the sea" serves the soldiers and their family members as a "tea and coffee room". In a beach chair shed below the Georgshöhe, officers offer their compatriots riding opportunities. After all, the occupiers want to claim all the comforts for themselves - and to do so they use all the opportunities that are available to them as war profiteers. The famous Kaiserstraße, the first address on the island with a view of the lake, will soon be entirely in British hands.
British confiscate hotel and household appliances
The British occupiers kept meticulous lists of the confiscated items.But not only hotels and health resorts go into the hands of the British occupiers, also pensions and lodging houses. They also confiscate household appliances as needed. They keep detailed records of all items:a list dated May 22, 1945, for example, lists 750 mattresses, 750 sheets and 1,500 plates, followed two days later by 44 bottles of wine. "And in fact everything appears here in these lists, even if it is still of such low value as a toast roaster for a Reichsmark sales value," explains Insel archivist Matthias Pausch in the NDR documentary "Happy Birthday Lower Saxony" from the beginning of June 2021.
Up until the early 1950s, Norderney remained a popular travel destination for British soldiers and their families. They enjoy themselves on beaches that are still closed to locals. The "Leave Centre" existed until 1952.
Schnapps and cigarettes as holiday currency
Even while the British are on vacation on Norderney, the military government approves restricted spa operations. However, after the end of the war there was hardly any room on the island for those looking for relaxation and tourists from their own country, because many of the accommodations were used to house hundreds of war refugees and expellees from the former eastern territories. The first few German guests on the island often paid for their vacation in kind in the post-war years. Bacon and schnapps, but also food stamps are popular barter goods for guest rooms. In most cases, however, cigarettes are the most common substitute currency for the Reichsmark, which has become worthless. In this way, holidaymakers sometimes bribe a porter to take part in a dance event.
Currency reform in 1948 dries up the black market
Tabloids denounced the black market as a "sad post-war chapter".Newspapers such as the "Berliner Illustrierte" describe the black market on the East Frisian Islands as a "paradise for the profiteers" and a "sad post-war chapter". It was no secret that various liquor bottles and other goods changed hands every day. But it must have been a pretty wild time, says Insel archivist Matthias Pausch, referring to the supply situation at the time. Attempts by the Allies to stop the black market in Germany were generally unsuccessful. Because until the currency reform in 1948, the Germans were short of money. Only with the introduction of the D-Mark does the range of goods normalize, which eventually dries up the black market.
The economic miracle in the 50s made tourism flourish
In 1952 the British released the confiscated spa facilities again. This enables regulated spa operations for German people seeking relaxation. The economic miracle and the increase in purchasing power encourage Germans to consume more, including travelling. In the 1950s, many holidaymakers were drawn to the North Sea coast, which also made tourism on Norderney really flourish again. Vacationers flock to the island from Bavaria, Hamburg and the Rhineland. But guests from abroad are also attracted to the second largest of the East Frisian Islands. They include Swedes and Swiss.
Islanders rent out their bedrooms and children's rooms
Tourism on Norderney really starts to boom in the early 1960s.1959 goes down in the history books of Norderney as a crazy summer. The good weather triggers a veritable island boom, with more than 100,000 spa guests and visitors coming for the first time. This trend continued in the early 1960s, and strangers' beds were in great demand. The islanders are resourceful and rent out every bed they own. They themselves move into their cellars - and offer vacationers their bedrooms and children's rooms. The living room serves as a breakfast room. With no takeaways and few restaurants on the island, holidaymakers line up to eat. Every free seat is occupied, so couples often cannot sit together. And people are satisfied after years of deprivation:"They wanted to eat, they also wanted to be full - that was the time to catch up. Hooray, we're still alive!", Tjark Gramberg describes the situation in the NDR documentary "Happy Birthday Lower Saxony ". He comes from an old family in Norderney and is a fourth-generation hotelier.
Tourist boom changes the island's cityscape
Modern buildings are increasingly crowding out the historic spa architecture on Kaiserstrasse.In the course of the ongoing tourist boom, new boxy apartment buildings and hotels were built on Norderney from the 1960s and 1970s. They change the cityscape - also in the formerly glamorous Kaiserstraße - because they increasingly displace the old spa villas and lodging houses. On the north beach, two high-rise buildings shoot up, on the west beach you can see a row of multi-storey hotels, which stand directly behind the historic beach hotels.
Norderney is the tourism magnet of the East Frisian Islands
Norderney has been a "state-recognized North Sea spa resort" since 1947, and a year later the island received city rights. Norderney is currently the leading North Sea resort in East Friesland:there are normally almost 600,000 tourists per year for a good 6,000 inhabitants. For comparison:Borkum, the largest of the seven islands, accommodates almost half as many holidaymakers as Norderney with a good 300,000 overnight guests. Overall, the island records as many overnight stays as the eastern and western neighboring islands combined. Tourism is the largest economic factor around the East Frisian Islands and the Wadden Sea National Park in Lower Saxony.