Putbus () is a town on the southeastern coast of the island of

Rügen Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...

, in the county of

Vorpommern-Rügen Vorpommern-Rügen is a district in the north of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the Baltic Sea and the districts Vorpommern-Greifswald, Mecklenburgische Seenplatte and Rostock. The district seat is ...

in the state of

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

, close to the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

. The town has 4,741 inhabitants and is a significant tourist destination with numerous seaside resorts. It is the oldest resort on the island and has been formally recognised by the state as a resort town since 1997. Putbus was founded in 1810 by

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

Wilhelm Malte zu Putbus as his town of residence and had it built in the

Classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

style, so that the town formed a harmonious union with the park and palace (''Schloss''). Malte also introduced

sea bathing The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Se ...

to Germany at Lauterbach which is about 2 km from Putbus. The nickname of the place as the "White Town" (''Weiße Stadt'') comes from its white-painted houses, but it is also referred to as ''Rosenstadt'' ("Rose Town") due to the many rose bushes in front of individual buildings. The name Putbus is derived from the Slavic ''epod boz'' and means "behind the elder bush".

Geography

The town of Putbus lies eight kilometres from Bergen auf Rügen and is located within the

Southeast Rügen Biosphere Reserve The Southeast Rügen Biosphere Reserve (german: Biosphärenreservat Südost-Rügen) is a biosphere reserve in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which covers the southeastern part of the island of Rügen (including Granitz and Mönch ...

. The terrain around Putbus is undulating and the coastline of the

Rügischer Bodden The Rügische Bodden is a bay which is part of a larger stretch of water, the Greifswalder Bodden, bounded on two sides by the German mainland and on a third by the Baltic Sea island of Rügen. It is located southeast of Rügen island between Mö ...

, on which it lies, is characterized by an alternation of flat stretches of shore with steep banks. The cove of the

Wreecher See The Wreecher See is a cove, southwest of the town of Putbus on the German Baltic Sea island of Rügen. The bay is named after the village of Wreechen on its eastern shore. On its southern shore are the settlements of Glowitz and Neukamp. This b ...

makes a deep inroad into the coastline. The subdistrict of Lauterbach, with its approximately 500 inhabitants, has a

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

and

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cou ...

harbour. Near the forest of

Goor Goor () is a city about 20 km west of Enschede in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It received city rights in 1263. Goor was a separate municipality until 2001, when it became a part of Hof van Twente. Goor was the site of a statue of the r ...

, Prince Malte built the first seaside resort on the island. The island of

Vilm The Baltic Sea island of Vilm lies in the bay south of the much larger island of Rügen, and is one of Germany's most remote and tranquil spots. Covering less than , Vilm is the remnant of a moraine left as the glaciers retreated about 6000 ye ...

in the Bay of Greifswald, 2.5 kilometres from Rügen, also belongs to Putbus.

Municipalities

The municipalities within the borough are: Altkamp, Alt-Lanschvitz, Beuchow, Darsband, Dolgemost, Dumgenevitz, Freetz, Glowitz, Gremmin, Groß-Stresow, Güstelitz, Kasnevitz, Klein-Stresow, Ketelshagen, Kransevitz, Krakvitz, Krimvitz, Lauterbach, Lonvitz, Muglitz, Nadelitz, Neuendorf, Neukamp, Neu-Lanschvitz, Pastitz, Posewald, Strachtitz, Vilmnitz, Wobbanz, Wreechen and the island of

Neighbouring administrative units

Putbus is bordered in the west by the town borough of Garz/Rügen, in the north by Sehlen and the town of Bergen auf Rügen and in the east by Zirkow and Lancken-Granitz.

Land use

For a town, Putbus has an unusually high proportion of agricultural land and forest that covers 89% of the territory in the borough. The land use by type is detailed in the following table:Statistical Office for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: SIS Gemeindedaten für Putbus 2008
accessed on 31 July 2010

History

Until 1326, the area around Putbus was part of the

Principality of Rügen The Principality of Rügen; da, Fyrstendømmet Rygien; pl, Księstwo rugijskie; la, Rugia was a Danish principality, formerly a duchy, consisting of the island of Rügen and the adjacent mainland from 1168 until 1325. It was governed by a loc ...

. Mentioned for the first time in 1286 as ''Putbus'', it was the seat of a noble family of Slavic origin. The lords of Putbus had the same status in terms of land ownership as the princes of Rügen and were regarded as a collateral line. Later a feudal dependency arose. Following the extinction of the Rügen princes in the 14th century, Putbus went into the

Duchy of Pomerania The Duchy of Pomerania (german: Herzogtum Pommern; pl, Księstwo Pomorskie; Latin: ''Ducatus Pomeraniae'') was a duchy in Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, ruled by dukes of the House of Pomerania (''Griffins''). The country ha ...

. Under the

Treaty of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pea ...

in 1648, Rügen came under

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

rule. In 1815 the place and

New Western Pomerania New Western Pomerania (german: Neuvorpommern or ''Neu-Vorpommern'') was that part of Western Pomerania that went to Prussia under the terms of the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The territory of New Western Pomerania corresponded to that area of earl ...

went into the

Prussian province of Pomerania Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

. From 1808 to 1823, Prince Malte of Putbus built his residence and a bathing area in Lauterbach along the lines of Bad Doberan. As a result, in 1816, the first seaside resort on Rügen was opened. In 1817/18 Prince Malte had the Goor Swimming Baths built. From 1819 to 1821, the residence theatre was built and modified in 1826. The royal stables, built from 1821–1824, were home to Prince Malte's horses. Finally, from 1824 to 1853, he built the

orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

. The conversion of the palace began in 1825, and it was joined in 1844–1846 by the Putbus Palace Church. The transformation of the castle park began in 1804; the monkey house was completed in 1830 and the pheasant house five years later. The first civic house was built in 1810 as a small brewery. The residential houses on the ''Circus'' were built between 1815 and 1860. In 1836 the old royal ''Pädagogium'' was opened as an educational establishment. Today it houses the Putbus IT College (''IT-College Putbus''). In 1889 Putbus was given a railway link from Bergen. In 1895 the first section of the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

light railway A light railway is a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards allow ...

, ''Rasender Roland'', to

Binz Binz is the largest seaside resort on the German island of Rügen. It is situated between the bay of Prorer Wiek and the ''Schmachter See'' (a lake) in the southeast of the island. To the north of Binz stretches the Schmale Heide (the "narrow he ...

was completed. In 1823 Putbus was given town rights for trade and business; it was not granted full rights however until 2 July 1960. In 1962 the former Putbus Palace (''Schloss Putbus'') was destroyed by the East German communist régime, which considered it a symbol of Prussian imperialism. However, its

and stables survive in the park. In 1818 Putbus became part of the county of

(for a time known as

Kreis Rügen Kreis is the German word for circle. Kreis may also refer to: Places * , or circles, various subdivisions roughly equivalent to counties, districts or municipalities ** Districts of Germany (including and ) ** Former districts of Prussia, al ...

). From 1952 to 1955 the county was divided and Putbus was the centre of the county of

Putbus Putbus () is a town on the southeastern coast of the island of Rügen, in the county of Vorpommern-Rügen in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, close to the Baltic Sea. The town has 4,741 inhabitants and is a significant tourist destina ...

. From 1952 to 1990 Putbus belonged to the district (''Bezirk'') of

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

and, after that, to the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. After the political '' Wende'' in 1991 the historic town centre with its ''Circus'', market place (''Marktplatz'') and town hall, orangery and royal stables, now a theatre, were thoroughly renovated as part of the

urban development Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of peop ...

and heritage conservation projects in the town. Today, Putbus presents an unusual, uniform white appearance. In 2010, the Upside-Down House (''Haus-Kopf-über'') was erected on the road to Lauterbach as a tourist attraction. The town is also notable for the small theatre and the Crown Prince's residence (now a tourist office and museum). The town is connected to the rest of Rügen by the narrow gauge steam railway known as '' Rasender Roland'' and by good roads and cycle tracks.

Politics

Town council

The Putbus town council has 17 councillors. The seats were divided after the last local elections as follows:

Mayor

Harald Burwitz (FDP) was chosen as Mayor of Putbus. The mayoral time in office is 7 years and ends in 2015. The town council have elected Monika Scherff and Thomas Möller as deputies.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Putbus was authorised on 9 December 1938 by the governor of Stettin and registered as No. 195 in the coat of arms roll of

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

Flag

The flag of the town of Putbus has two longitudinal black and gold (yellow) stripes. In the centre of the flag is the town coat of arms, two thirds of the height of the two stripes. The ratio of the flag is 5:3.

Twinning

Putbus has been twinned with the towns of

Eutin Eutin () is the district capital of Eastern Holstein county located in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As of 2020, the town had some 17,000 inhabitants. History The name Eutin (originally Utin) is of Slavic origin. Its meaning i ...

in Germany (since 3 October 1990) and Rewal in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

(since 23 May 2002).

Culture and sights

Sights

Palace park

The palace park (''Schlosspark'') was laid out in 1804 by Wilhelm Malte I. in the style of a

French garden The French formal garden, also called the (), is a style of garden based on symmetry and the principle of imposing order on nature. Its epitome is generally considered to be the Gardens of Versailles designed during the 17th century by the ...

. Later it was transformed into an

English landscape park The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

. It has numerous impressive views of the lagoon or ''

bodden Bodden are briny bodies of water often forming lagoons, along the southwestern shores of the Baltic Sea, primarily in Germany's state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. These lagoons can be found especially around the island of Rügen, Usedom an ...

'' countryside. Structures that survived the East German era are the orangery of 1824, the royal stables built from 1821 to 1824, the mausoleum of 1867, the palace church built from 1844 to 1846, the parish church, the monkey house and aviary from 1830/35. Putbus Palace, which was once surrounded by the park, was demolished in the 1960s. The park also has other unusual dendrological specimens such as giant and ancient sequoias, cedars, yellow-blossomed

horse chestnut The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species n ...

s and

tulip poplar ''Liriodendron tulipifera''—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus '' Liriodendron'' (the othe ...

s. Attached to the ''Schlosspark'' is a wildlife enclosure for

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

and

Fallow Deer ''Dama'' is a genus of deer in the subfamily Cervinae, commonly referred to as fallow deer. Name The name fallow is derived from the deer's pale brown colour. The Latin word ''dāma'' or ''damma'', used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes ...

Orangery

In the 18th century a

pleasure garden A pleasure garden is a park or garden that is open to the public for recreation and entertainment. Pleasure gardens differ from other public gardens by serving as venues for entertainment, variously featuring such attractions as concert halls ...

along French lines was created at the initiative of Count Moritz Ulrich I of Putbus. The

Orangery An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...

or greenhouse was built in 1824 in place of the belvedere, cancelled in 1804/05, and an ice house (1816–1819), based on plans by

Karl Friedrich Schinkel Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassic ...

. The present Orangery dates to the year 1853 and was remodeled by Berlin architect, August Stüler. Until 1945, the Orangery was mainly used to acclimatize non-native shrubs intended for the park and to enable pot plants arranged around the ''palace'' during the summer to survive the winter. In addition the building was used for festive events. After 1945 some of the rooms were made available as accommodation for displaced families. In 1973 the town library and resort administration were housed in the Orangery. Exhibition activity began in one of the galleries. At the beginning of 1996 the main building was largely rebuilt in just 16 weeks and, on 24 May 1996, it was handed over to become the artistic exhibition centre for the island of Rügen.

Royal stables

The royal

stables A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

were used to keep horses and to store harnesses and coaches for the prince's family and their guests, as well as providing lodgings for the stablehands. The grounds of the royal stables in Putbus's palace park also include the riding area and the old smithy. In 1817 the first performance of theatrical pieces for guests took place in a

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open ...

belonging to the old stables. Following its demolition, the construction of the new stables was carried out from 1821 to 1824 in a Classicist style with 16 arched windows and three arched portals, probably to plans by Berlin architect, Johann Gottfried Steinmeyer. The eastern gable of the building is decorated by a tondo with an equestrian relief.

Palace church

The Church of Christ is a 19th-century, triple-aisled church situated in the palace park at Putbus.

Mausoleum

Originally the church of

St. Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

in Vilmnitz served as the family tomb of the von Putbus family. Not until 1867 was the present mausoleum built in the grounds of the palace park in a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. The first member of the family to be buried here was Wanda von Putbus, wife of Prince Wilhelm Malte II of Putbus (1833–1907), in 1868.

Former Putbus Palace

Putbus Palace in the palace park was the former aristocratic residence of the princes of Putbus. The building was torn down between 1960 and 1964. The original site of the palace is indicated today by means of a few metal posts, that make clear the ground plan of the building in the current field.

Residence theatre

The old residence theatre, built in the Classicist style, stands opposite the park. It was probably built from 1819 to 1821 under the direction of the prince's master architect, W. Steinbach. In 1826 a remodelling was carried out under Schinkel's pupil, Johann Gottlieb Steinmeyer, in which gables were added above the ends of the building and over the portico. It was painstakingly restored from 1992 to 1998 and is one of the most dominant buildings in the town. Historically, the theatre was generally only used as a summer theatre. Putbus only had its own theatre company from 1952 to 1968. Today only visiting companies put on performances in the theatre with its 244 seats. Each year in May the Putbus Festival attracts visitors from all over Germany to Putbus.

Circus

buildings ring this circular roundabout, known as the ''Circus'', on which all the local roads converge. A clearly divided area of parkland fills the inner ring of the square, whose centre point is marked by a tall

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

. The Putbus Circus is the last uniformly designed circus in Germany, which Prince Wilhelm Malte I of Putbus laid out from 1828, at the same time as founding the Pedagogium, based on the "Circus" in the English bathing resort of Bath (Roman: ''Aquae Sulis''), and French gardens. In 1845 he had it developed in the period to 1845 with neo-classical houses. All the buildings that were erected in the time of Prince Malte I are still there, only their use has changed. For example, the Royal Putbus Pedagogium, which was built in 1833-1836 by Prince Wilhelm Malte I of Putbus to plans by Johann Gottfried Steinmeyer. This building now houses the "Putbus IT College". On the other hand, we have the boarding school wing (''Nebenalumnat'') of the Pedagogium, which was built in 1835 by the mariner, Wilcken. This building is now the home of the "IT Science Centre."

Former Putbus Pedagogium

The largest house on the ''Circus'' is the former Putbus Pedagogium. It was Prince Malte of Putbus, who wanted his aristocratic seat to have a higher educational institution with the aim of educating and raising the children of his territory. He had the house built at No. 16, ''Circus'', in 1833. The Princely Pädagogium of Putbus was built with a boarding school, canteen and gymnasium. In 1836, he handed it over to the Prussian state as the ''Pädagogium Regium'' (Royal Pedagogium). Until the Second World War, the Pedagogium was the most important educational institution in Western Pomerania after the

University of Greifswald The University of Greifswald (; german: Universität Greifswald), formerly also known as “Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald“, is a public research university located in Greifswald, Germany, in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pom ...

. From 1941 to 1945 the

National Political Institutes of Education National Political Institutes of Education (german: Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten; officially abbreviated NPEA, commonly abbreviated Napola for ''Nationalpolitische Lehranstalt'' meaning National Political Teaching Institute) were ...

of Rügen was housed in this building. After the Second World War, teachers were trained here from 1946 to 1975. At times, there were 200 students in training. From 1975 to 1994 deaf children were taught in the building. In 1994, the Charitable Foundation for Multi-handicapped Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Deaf-Blind took over the facility. From 2000 to 2002, the historic building was partially empty and left to decay, because the "Special Education Centre for Multiple-Handicapped Hearing Impaired" moved to a new building complex in Putbus. Since 2002, the Pädagogium has housed the'' Putbus IT College'', a private education and training facility for computer science professionals. West of the town is the so-called ''Primanerloch'', which was also linked to the Pedagogium.

August-Bebel-Straße

In ''August-Bebel-Straße'' there are still numerous single-storey tradesman's houses from the time of the town's foundation. Kasnevitz 2

Church in Kasnevitz

In the village of Kasnevitz is St. James' Church which dates to the 2nd half of the 14th century.

Bath house and Goor Woods in Lauterbach

The

bath house was built between 1817 and 1818 in the Classicist style. The bath house was named after the woods that of the

Goor-Muglitz Nature Reserve The Goor-Muglitz Nature Reserve (german: Naturschutzgebiet Goor-Muglitz) is a nature reserve (Germany), nature reserve, covering an area of 157 hectares, in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It lies on the island of Rügen on the nor ...

near

Lauterbach (Rügen) Lauterbach () is a village in the borough of Putbus on the German Baltic Sea island of Rügen. The village has a population of about 500 and lies southeast of Putbus on the Bay of Greifswald. Lauterbach has a harbour and a connexion, via a branch ...

Memorial to the Victims of Fascism

The memorial dates to 1978 and is situation in front of ''Haus Goor'' on the beacht at ''Lauterbach''. It commemorates the victims of the forced evacuation of

Stutthof concentration camp Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the territory of the German- ...

in April 1945. The memorial was made by the sculptor,

Werner Stötzer Werner Stötzer (born Sonneberg 2 April 1931, died Altlangsow 22 July 2010) was a German Artist and Sculptor. For the last three decades of his life he lived and worked in Altlangsow (administratively part of Seelow) in the marshy Oderbruch r ...

, with an inscription by the Czech author, Julius Fučík. After the destruction and theft of the urn in 1990 the site was re-inaugurated in 1995.

Church in Vilmnitz

The Church of St. Mary Magdalene Church is a Late Romanesque/

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

brick church in the village of Vilmnitz.

Megalithic tomb near Lauterbach

Between Lonvitz and Lauterbach on the ''Rasender Roland'' railway line there is a

megalithic tomb A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

() from the

New Stone Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

Technical facilities

Narrow gauge railway
Putbus is today the start of the narrow gauge line known as the Rasender Roland ("Racing Roland") (gauge: 750 millimetre) running from Lauterbach via

to Göhren. This daily operating line was built in from 1895 to 1899 and today is mainly used by tourists. Steam locomotives of Classes 99.48 (built: 1938) and 99.78 (built: 1953) are deployed. Not until 1999 was the line extended to Lauterbach (Mole). Here the standard gauge railway line from Bergen to Lauterbach (Mole) was enhanced between Putbus and Lauterbach by another rail to form a dual gauge track. In 1999 a modern garage was built to plans by Stralsund architect, Niclas Dünnebacke, that is combined with the light railway station. Transmission site
Near Putbus is a medium wave transmission site. This facility was used in GDR times to broadcast programmes of the radio station, ''Radio DDR Ferienwelle''. To 2009 it transmitted programmes for

Deutschlandradio Kultur Deutschlandfunk Kultur (; abbreviated to ''DLF Kultur'' or ''DKultur'') is a culture-oriented radio station and part of Deutschlandradio, a set of national radio stations in Germany. Initially named ''DeutschlandRadio Berlin'', the station was ren ...

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement milita ...

mode. The antenna of the 4 KW transmitter is a 51-metre-high, insulated, guyed, steel lattice mast with a cross-shaped roof capacitor at the top. It was built in 1960. The Putbus medium wave transmitter, with a frequency of 729 kHz, is the last of its type in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In order to save it from being dismantled, in mid-2010 the media authority ran a tender to find private operators. As well as Pomerania the station can also cover Rügen and Usedom, as well as parts of southern Sweden and Schleswig-Holstein. Also worth mentioning is a

weather radar Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pulse- ...

facility with a special

radome A radome (a portmanteau of radar and dome) is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material transparent to radio waves. Radomes protect the antenna from weather and conceal antenna e ...

, that feeds date to the German Weather Service.

Regular events

From the Putbus events calendar the following regular events with large regional or national following are worth mentioning ntheit: * May: ''Putbus Festival'' – Music concerts at various locations in Putbus * June: ''Rügener Holzmesse'' – Exhibition in Lauterbach to do with the natural raw material, wood (since 1997) * July: ''Segel- und Hafenfest'' in the Putbus subdistrict of Lauterbach * August: ''Vilmschwimmen'' – Tradition-rich swimming competition on the route between the island of Vilm and the harbour in Lauterbach * September: ''Kabarett-Regatta Rügen'' – elite and talented up-and-coming artists of German cabaret in the residence theatre of Putbus (since 1997)

Transport

Road

The L 29 state road runs through Putbus, which, as one of Rügen's "tourist side roads", forms part of the

German Avenue Route German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

- the section from Rügen to

Rheinsberg Rheinsberg () is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located on lake and the river Rhin, approximately 20 km north-east of Neuruppin and 75 km north-west of Berlin. History F ...

. Putbus is also connected via the L 301 to the city of Bergen.

Bus

Regional busses connect Putbus to cities nearby, such as Stralsund and Bergen. Busses are operated by the ''Rügener Personennahverkehr''.NetzPlan Rügener Personennahverkehrs GmbH
, accessed on 28 July 2010 Rasender Roland 2

Boat

The former fishing village of Lauterbach which lies on the shores of the

is today a village in the borough of Putbus. From Lauterbach harbour various excursions are offered during the summer season, including trips around the island of

in the

as well as lagoon cruises through the Rügischen Bodden. On 7 June 1993 a

lifeboat Lifeboat may refer to: Rescue vessels * Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape * Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues * Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen ...

belonging to the

German Maritime Search and Rescue Service The German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (german: Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger - DGzRS, ; lit. ''German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked Persons'') is responsible for Search and Rescue in German territorial waters ...

(DGzRS) was christened with the name ''

'' and has since been stationed in the harbour of Lauterbach. The boat, known internally by the DGzRS as SRB 37, was built in 1993 by the Fassmer yard in Bern under works no. 1261 and has the callsign DH 3.

Rail

Putbus station is on the Bergen auf Rügen–Lauterbach Mole railway as well as the

line of the steam train known as '' Racing Roland'' from Lauterbach (Mole) via Putbus,

Sellin Sellin is a municipality on the Island of Rügen, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. History First mentions of Sellin date to 1295. From 1880 on, the town gained importance as a Baltic Sea spa town. After the '' Wende'' in 1989, the building ...

, and

Baabe Baabe is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Sights * ''Baaber Bollwerk'' viewing point * Thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed ...

to Göhren. The common section of two railway lines from Putbus to Lauterbach Mole was equipped with a special dual gauge system for 750 mm and 1435 mm gauge. Thus, trains of both track gauges (narrow and standard gauge operation) run on the section in turn.

References

Literature

* BIG-Städtebau (editor): ''Putbus - 10 Jahre Städtebauförderung''. Stralsund, 2001 * Andre Farin: ''Wilhelm Malte zu Putbus und seine Fürstenresidenz auf der Insel Rügen. Eine Biographie über eine norddeutsche Gründerpersönlichkeit des 19. Jahrhunderts''. - 4th edition - Putbus, 2007, . * Peter Feist: ''Putbus – Stadt des Klassizismus''. Kai Homilius Verlag, Berlin, 1995, ,
extract
. * Andreas Vogel: ''Johann Gottfried Steinmeyer und Putbus''.

Thomas Helms Verlag The Thomas Helms Verlag is a specialist publisher for North German culture, monument preservation, local and regional history, history, church and art history and is based in Schwerin in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. History In 1994, the publi ...

, Schwerin, 2003, . * Johannes Friedrich Weise: ''Zwischen Strandleben und Ackerbau – Die Herrschaft Putbus im 19. Jahrhundert''. Koch Verlag, Rostock, 2003, .

External links

Putbus Official Website
{{Authority control Vorpommern-Rügen Towns and villages on Rügen Populated places established in 1810 Marinas in Germany