Рюген аралы: Балтық теңізінің інжуі

Island in the Baltic Sea off the Pomeranian coast of Germany
the island

The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where it is linked to the mainland by road and railway via the Rügen Bridge and Causeway, two routes crossing the two kilometre wide Strelasund, a sound of the Baltic Sea. Rügen has a maximum length of (from north to south), a maximum width of in the south and an area of The coast is characterized by numerous sandy beaches, lagoons (Bodden) and open bays (Wieke), as well as peninsulas and headlands. In June 2011, UNESCO awarded the status of a World Heritage Site to the Jasmund National Park, famous for its vast stands of beeches and chalk cliffs like King's Chair, the main landmark of Rügen island. The island of Rügen is part of the district of Vorpommern Rügen, with its county seat in Stralsund. The towns on Rügen are: Bergen, Sassnitz, Putbus and Garz. In addition, there are the Baltic seaside resorts of Binz, Baabe, Göhren, Sellin and Thiessow. Rügen is very popular as a tourist destination because of its resort architecture, the diverse landscape and its long, sandy beaches.

The chalk cliffs of the Jasmund peninsula belong to the Rügen Chalk unit and were formed during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, around 70 million years ago.

The main body of the island, known as Muttland, is surrounded by several peninsulas. To the north lie the peninsulas of Wittow and Jasmund, connected to each other by the Schaabe sandbar and to Muttland by the Schmale Heide, an embankment at Lietzow and the Wittow Ferry. The northern peninsulas are separated from Muttland by several lagoons or bodden, the largest of which are the Großer Jasmunder Bodden and Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden. Major peninsulas in the south are Zudar and Mönchgut which both face the Bay of Greifswald. Strelasund separates the island from the southern mainland. Rügen has a total area of , or if the adjacent small islands are included. The maximum diameter is from north to south, and from east to west. The winters are not particularly cold, with mean temperatures in January and February of ; and summers are mild and temperate, with a mean temperature in August of There is an average rainfall of and approximately 1800–1870 hours of sunshine annually.

Administratively, Rügen is part of the district Vorpommern Rügen. Its subdivisions are the [[Amt (country subdivision) Bergen auf Rügen (municipalities Bergen auf Rügen, Buschvitz, Garz, Gustow, Lietzow, Parchtitz, Patzig, Poseritz, Ralswiek, Rappin, Sehlen and Thesenvitz), West Rügen (municipalities Altefähr, Dreschvitz, Gingst, Hiddensee, Kluis, Neuenkirchen, Rambin, Samtens, Schaprode, Trent and Ummanz), Nord Rügen (municipalities Altenkirchen, Breege, Dranske, Glowe, Lohme, Putgarten, Sagard, Wiek) and Mönchgut Granitz (municipalities Baabe, Göhren, Lancken Granitz, Middelhagen, Sellin, Thiessow and Zirkow) and the Amt free municipalities of Binz, Putbus and Sassnitz. Overall, there are 45 municipalities on Rügen, four of which have town status (Bergen, Garz, Putbus and Sassnitz).

Discoveries in the bodden indicate that there has been settlement here since the Stone Age. All over Rügen are numerous stone monuments, such as megalithic tombs and altar stones that have survived to the present day. By the 1st century, the inhabitants of Rügen were part of the East Germanic tribe of Rugii, who occupied roughly the region that was later to become Western Pomerania and who gave the island its name. The Rugii may have originated from Scandinavia or evolved from autochthonous tribes. In the Migration Period, many Rugii moved south and founded an empire in Pannonia.

From the 7th century the West Slavic Rani (or Rujani) built an empire on Rügen and the neighbouring coast between Recknitz and Ryck. It decidedly affected the history of the Baltic Sea area and the surrounding Obodritic (in the west) and Liutician (in the south) occupied mainland for the next few centuries. Many traces of their life can be found today. The basis of their great military strength was a combination of the Ranian navy and a favourable location. Denmark, which was at that time very successful in Great Britain and Scandinavia, was neither able to match its Ranian rivals in the Baltic Sea region nor protect its coastline from Ranian armies until well into the 12th century. Meanwhile, the Ranians built numerous castles and temples in the Barth Jasmund Gristow triangle. The temple hill of Jaromarsburg, at the northern tip of Rügen and dedicated to the god Svetovid, was significant well beyond the boundaries of the Ranian empire. After the fall of Radgosc it became the chief shrine for the pagan northwestern Slavs. The administrative centre of the empire was Charenza, possibly on the site of the present day hillfort known as Garz or Venz. The main trading centre of the empire was Ralswiek at the southernmost point of the Großer Jasmunder Bodden.

In 1168, the Danish king, Valdemar I, and his army commander and advisor, Bishop Absalon of Roskilde destroyed the Svetovid temple in the hillfort at Cape Arkona, ending both the territorial and religious autonomy of the Rani; their former monarchs became Danish princes of Rügen. The Rani prince Jaromar I (died 1218) was a vassal of the Danish king and Christianized the island's inhabitants. In 1184, the Pomeranians, whose rule had previously extended as far as the land of Gützkow and to Demmin and thus made them the immediate neighbours of the now Danish Principality of Rugia, were commissioned by their overlord, the Holy Roman Emperor, to seize Rügen for the empire, but were defeated in the Bay of Greifswald. Under Danish rule the Principality of Rugia changed its character. Danish monasteries were established (e. g. Bergen Abbey in 1193 and Hilda Abbey, today Eldena Abbey, in 1199). German colonists were introduced into the land and soon they became the largest and most culturally influential group within the population. The Slavic cultural element disappeared, mostly due to the lack of their own Slavic church structures, so that the Rani were absorbed in the period that followed into the now German influenced people of Rügen. In addition to the colonization of the country and the building of new monasteries and churches, towns were also re established. In 1234 the Rügen Prince Wizlaw I founded the town of Stralsund and granted Greifswald market rights in 1241. The power of the towns grew rapidly, forcing Rügen's rulers to make concessions—for example, the prince's castle at Barth was slighted and Schadegast, the princely "twin" of the municipally controlled Stralsund, was ousted in favour of the latter. In 1304 a storm surge, known as the All Saints' Flood, devastated the island and flooded the peninsula between Mönchgut and Ruden.

After the death of the last Slav prince of the Wizlawiden (House of Wizlaw) dynasty, Wizlaw III, in 1325, the principality was acquired by the duchy of Pomerania Wolgast as a consequence of the 1321 inheritance agreement (Erbverbrüderung), and from 1368/72–1451 was part of the estate of a branch line, the dukes of Pomerania Barth. This state of affairs, together with the disputes over the Danish throne that occurred at that time, led to the Rügen wars of succession. After they had played out, the former principality went in 1354 to Pomerania Wolgast and thus became part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1478, Pomerania Wolgast and Pomerania Stettin were united and, 170 years later, the combined state went to Sweden in 1648 as a result of the Treaty of Westphalia (see Swedish Pomerania). Rügen was part of Swedish Pomerania from 1648 to 1815. The largest landowners, owning at least one fifth of the island until 1945, was the House of Putbus, which was an offshoot of the earlier ruling princes of the Wizlawid dynasty. In 1727, they were created counts of Holy Roman Empire and 1731 counts in Sweden, ultimately Swedish princes in 1807. Under Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden the town of Gustavia was constructed on the Mönchgut peninsula, but was abandoned during the Napoleonic Wars. In the years 1678 and 1715, Rügen was briefly wrested from the Swedes by the Elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William and by the King in Prussia, Frederick William I. For example, a Brandenburg Danish army landed on the island as part of the invasion of Rügen in 1678. After the Treaty of Saint Germain in 1679 the island passed from Danish to Swedish ownership again. At the time of Napoleonic Wars, Rügen was held by the French from 1807 to 1813. In the Treaty of Kiel of 1814, it was transferred initially from Sweden to Denmark and then fell to Prussia, along with New Western Pomerania (Neuvorpommern), thanks to the Vienna Convention of 1815. In 1818 the island became part of the administrative district of Stralsund and thus belonged to the Prussian Province of Pomerania. Wilhelm Malte I (1783–1854), 1st prince of Putbus, was the last Governor of Swedish Pomerania and the first under Prussian rule. In 1816 the first bathing resort was founded at Putbus. Later more resorts were established, and Rügen remained the most famous holiday resort of Germany until World War II.

Rügen was a popular destination for exile of Catholic priests and clergy during Kulturkampf between 1875 and 1879.

The Nazis added a large resort: Prora, planned by the Strength through Joy organisation, which aimed to occupy people's free time. However, Prora was never completed. In 1936 the first bridge connecting Rügen with the mainland was constructed (Rügendamm), replacing the former ferry shuttles. The operation commanded by Wolfram von Richthofen that bombed the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, was named after the island. An Abwehr Signals intelligence Operation during the same conflict was titled Operation Bodden after the strait separating Rügen from the German mainland. In the aftermath of World War II, East German and Soviet authorities exiled landholders from the mainland to the island.

After the Second World War Rügen became part of the state of Mecklenburg within the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In 1952 the island became part of the district of Rostock. The island was the focal point of Project Rose (Action Rose) by the GDR government designed to nationalize hotels, taxis and service companies on 10 February 1953. The occasion was supposed to have been a visit by Walter Ulbricht to the island of Rügen, during which he had been annoyed by the many surviving private hotels and guest houses. Many of the hotel owners were convicted by kangaroo courts under the pretext of having been engaged in economic crime or as agents working for the West. Their property was then confiscated and they were sent to prison. Many of the owners and small businessmen were incarcerated in Bützow prison. The hotels were supposed to have been expropriated by the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB). In fact, they were used as accommodation for the barracks based "people's police" (Kasernierte Volkspolizei or CPI). As a result of the confiscation of hotels, tourism on Rügen in 1953 came almost to a complete standstill for a time. In the following nearly four decades, the island became one of the main tourist areas in the GDR. The FDGB played a dominant role in tourist accommodation. In 1963 the FDGB had 7,519 holiday places, the Reisebüro der DDR 2,906 places and a further 5,025 were available for businesses and organizations. In addition, there were 12,245 places for children in summer camps and another 20,800 places for campers. The plots were located mainly near the beaches. Increased holiday capacity was not however generated until the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1990, Rügen became part of the new state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern and, together with the neighbouring islands of Hiddensee and Ummanz, formed the district of Rügen. Since the 2011 Mecklenburg Vorpommern district reforms Rügen has been part of Vorpommern Rügen. In 2007 a second bridge, the Rügen Bridge (Rügenbrücke), was built to replace the first one built in 1936. Rügen has now surpassed Sylt as the most popular German island again.