Minsener Oog, also Minser Oog or Minsener Oldeoog, is an uninhabited East Frisian island that belongs to the parish of

Wangerooge Wangerooge is one of the 32 Frisian Islands in the North Sea 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 F ...

in the north German district of

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

in the state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

.Landesbetrieb Landesvermessung und Geobasisinformation Niedersachsen: ''DGM5 Verfügbarkeit Landkreis/Stadt Friesland''. As at 23 October 2009
/ref> It has been artificially enlarged through the construction of groynes.

Location

The

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

is located just two kilometres southeast of the island of

, from which it is separated by the creek of Blaue Balje, and four kilometres north of the

mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or dem ...

. The nearest towns on the mainland are Minsen and Schillig. The island's landowner is the Wilhelmshaven Water and Shipping Authority (''Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt Wilhelmshaven'' or WSA).

Name

The name of the isle comes from the village of Minsen which lies opposite it on the mainland. There is a legend that Minsen was originally established on the island of Minsener Oog. The fishermen of the village caught a

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are sometimes ass ...

with the lower body of a fish, which then had the village drowned by a flood in revenge. In commemoration of the legend, there is in Minsen a bronze sculpture of the ''Minsen Seewiefken'', which is also the emblem on the coat of arms for the parish of Wangerland.

History

Minsener Oog was formed from the Minsener Oog sandbanks and the ''Olde Oog'' or ''Steen Plate'' sandbank, 200 to 300 metres to the south. In 1906 the Wilhelmshaven Marine Construction Authority erected groynes and embankments on the Olde Oog and dams to prevent the channel of the River Jade from silting up. This was intended to keep the channel to

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsh ...

clear of sand drifting from east to west, especially for the fleet of the

German Imperial Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

. On the original 7 km² sand bank of Olde Oog there was a small area of dunes, as on Minsener Oog. By building long connecting groynes the sand was held back and formed a "fore-dune" which quickly established itself as a breeding ground for seabirds. Originally it was planned to connect

with Minsener Olde-Oog, to prevent the erosion of Wangerooge. In the 1930s, this project was temporarily reinstated, but the events of war prevented further work in this direction. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the British occupation forces tried to render Wilhelmshaven unusable as a

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that u ...

by letting the Jade estuary silt up completely. A major embankment on Minsener Oog was blown up, but no further action was taken.

Present state

To keep the Jade channel clear, a new large-scale dune island was formed in the 1970s. Between 1975 and 1978 about 10 million m³ of dredged material was dumped from the Jade channel thus increasingly enlarging the southern part of the island. This now has sand dunes up to 12 m high and is covers an area of about 370 hectares. Through the planting of beachgrass, erosion could be largely contained. The island is 4.5 km long from north–south, and up to 1.5 km wide. After the Second World War, the Wilhelmshaven Water and Shipping Authority (WSA) was particularly active on the Minsener Oog. Two groyne wardens did shift work looking after the various maintenance tasks on the island. In addition to the

radar tower A radar tower is a tower whose function is to support a radar facility, usually a local airport surveillance radar, and hence often at or in the vicinity of an airport or a military air base. In addition, radar towers are used for the installatio ...

built in 1976, a larger accommodation facility was erected in the form of pile dwellings for the WSA's staff. At the end of the groyne A in the north there is still a small

flak tower Flak towers (german: link=no, Flaktürme) were large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers constructed by Nazi Germany. There were 8 flak tower complexes in the cities of Berlin (three), Hamburg (two), and Vienna (three) from 1940 on ...

made of concrete, which was built during the Second World War and served as a lighthouse until 1998 . In 1998, the Wilhelmshaven Water and Shipping Authority (WSA) gave up its permanent presence on the island for reasons of cost and only deploys staff as needed. Since the automation of the

beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

, however, only a bird warden from the ''Mellumrat'' resides on Minsener Oog during the summer (breeding season), who shares the living quarters of the water and shipping authority. The island is considered one of the most important research areas for the Institute of Avian Research (''Institut für Vogelforschung'').

Gallery

Image: Ostfriesische Inseln (Karte).png, Location of Minsener Oog within the East Frisian Island Image: MinseA.jpg, Lighthouse in the north at the end of Groyne A File:Elbe weser mündung.jpg, On a 1906 map only the ''Minsener Sand'' lighthouse is shown File:Schmalspurbahn Buhne C.JPG,

Radar tower A radar tower is a tower whose function is to support a radar facility, usually a local airport surveillance radar, and hence often at or in the vicinity of an airport or a military air base. In addition, radar towers are used for the installatio ...

, narrow-gauge railway on ''Groyne C'' and WSA building yard File:2012-05-13 Nordsee-Luftbilder DSCF9143.jpg, Aerial view of the radar tower; in the background: mainland with JadeWeserPort, Wilhelmshaven Power Station (E.ON) and oil tanks of Nord-West Oelleitung (May 2012) File:2012-05-13 Nordsee-Luftbilder DSCF8675.jpg, Radar tower and WSA building yard File:2012-05-13 Nordsee-Luftbilder DSCF8678.jpg, Aerial view of the narrow gauge railway File:2012-05-13 Nordsee-Luftbilder DSCF8684.jpg, Aerial view of the island

Fauna

Lighthouse keepers who used to live on the island introduced rabbits as living a food reserve. As a major breeding site for seabirds, the island was placed under protection in 1959. Breeding birds in 2004 were the

herring gull Herring gull is a common name for several birds in the genus '' Larus'', all formerly treated as a single species. Three species are still combined in some taxonomies: * American herring gull (''Larus smithsonianus'') - North America * European ...

lesser black-backed gull The lesser black-backed gull (''Larus fuscus'') is a large gull that breeds on the Atlantic coasts of Europe. It is migratory, wintering from the British Isles south to West Africa. It has increased dramatically in North America, most common alo ...

common gull The common gull or sea mew (''Larus canus'') is a medium-sized gull that breeds in the Palearctic, northern Europe. The closely related short-billed gull is sometimes included in this species, which may be known collectively as "mew gull". Man ...

common tern The common tern (''Sterna hirundo'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migrator ...

, Arctic tern,

Sandwich tern The Sandwich tern (''Thalasseus sandvicensis'') is a tern in the family Laridae. It is very closely related to the lesser crested tern (''T. bengalensis''), Chinese crested tern (''T. bernsteini''), Cabot's tern (''T. acuflavidus''), and elega ...

and

little tern The little tern (''Sternula albifrons'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was formerly placed into the genus ''Sterna'', which now is restricted to the large white terns. The genus name is a diminutive of '' Sterna'', "tern". The specific ' ...

, as well as the magpie,

carrion crow The carrion crow (''Corvus corone'') is a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus ''Corvus'' which is native to western Europe and the eastern Palearctic. Taxonomy and systematics The carrion crow was one of the many species or ...

and

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

. While the numbers of

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

s amount to more than 2,000 pairs, only a few pairs of the little tern were noted.

Shelduck The shelducks, most species of which are found in the genus ''Tadorna'' (except for the Radjah shelduck, which is now found in its own monotypic genus ''Radjah''), are a group of large birds in the Tadorninae subfamily of the Anatidae, the biolog ...

and stock dove have bred in the rabbit holes.

Tourism

In the summer months mudflat hikes are conducted from Schillig on the mainland to the island. But, for conservation reasons, only a small part of the island may be entered The whole island is a nature reserve and belongs to the "quiet zone" of the

Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park The Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park (german: Nationalpark Niedersächsisches Wattenmeer) was established in 1986 and embraces the East Frisian Islands, mudflats and salt marshes between the Bay of Dollart on the border with the Netherland ...

Sources

* Coldewey, Tim (2004). ''Anthropogener Eingriff in die maritime Morphodynamik einer unbewohnten Nordseeinsel''. Wilhelmshaven * Friedrich, Ernst Andreas (1982). ''Gestaltete Naturdenkmale Niedersachsens'', Landbuch-Verlag, Hanover,

References

External links

Minsener Oog - Oldeoog
island information
Inselbahn.de - The Materialbahn on Minsener Oog
with photos, list of rolling stock and much information
Minsener Oog Buhne C lighthouse
at leuchttürme.net
Internet page of Mellumrat
{{Authority control , additional=Q28599017 East Frisian Islands Artificial islands of Lower Saxony Protected areas of Lower Saxony Lighthouses in Lower Saxony Buildings and structures in Friesland (district) Uninhabited islands of Germany Islands of Lower Saxony Wangerooge