Juist () ( nds, Juist) is an island and municipality in the district of

Aurich Aurich (; East Frisian Low Saxon: ''Auerk'', West Frisian: ''Auwerk'', stq, Aurk) is a town in the East Frisian region of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Aurich and is the second largest City in East Frisia, both i ...

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 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The island is one of seven

East Frisian Islands The East Frisian Islands (German: ''Ostfriesische Inseln'', West Frisian: ''Eastfryske eilannen'', stq, Aastefräiske Ailounds) are a chain of islands in the North Sea, off the coast of East Frisia in Lower Saxony, Germany. The islands extend fo ...

at the edge of the Lower Saxon

Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( nl, Waddenzee ; german: Wattenmeer; nds, Wattensee or ; da, Vadehavet; fy, Waadsee, longname=yes; frr, di Heef) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern conti ...

in the southern

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. It is located between

Borkum Borkum ( nds, Borkum, Börkum) is an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany. It is situated east of Rottumeroog and west of Juist. Geography Borkum is bordered to the west by the Westerems strait ...

Island (west),

Memmert Memmert is a small East Frisian island off the northern coast of Germany, with an area of . Memmert is uninhabited, with only one house on the island for wildlife-spotting purposes. Occasionally, some guests from the neighboring islands visit Me ...

Island (southwest) and

Norderney Norderney ( nds, Nördernee) is one of the seven populated East Frisian Islands off the North Sea coast of Germany. The island is , having a total area of about and is therefore Germany's ninth-largest island. Norderney's population amounts ...

(east). The island is long and from to wide, depending on the tide levels. There are two villages on the island: the main village Juist, and Loog. The island is separated from Norderney by the

Norderneyer Seegatt The Norderneyer Seegatt or (officially) Norderneyer Seegat is a gat (landform), gat in the southern North Sea. The gat runs in a north–south direction between the East Frisian Islands of Juist to the west and Norderney to the east. There are tw ...

Overview and geography

The tallest buildings on Juist that can be seen from the North Sea are the water tower and an old hotel. There is a lighthouse on the island, but it is not in use. At the western end of the island is the Billreef, a large sandbank where birds such as

dunlin The dunlin (''Calidris alpina'') is a small wader, formerly sometimes separated with the other "stints" in the genus ''Erolia''. The English name is a dialect form of "dunling", first recorded in 1531–1532. It derives from ''dun'', "dull brown ...

grey plover The grey plover or black-bellied plover (''Pluvialis squatarola'') is a large plover breeding in Arctic regions. It is a long-distance migrant, with a nearly worldwide coastal distribution when not breeding. Taxonomy The grey plover was forma ...

s and

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

s rest during their migration. In the western part of the island the beach and the dunes are eroded by the sea. The edge of the dunes moves about five metres south each winter. On the western third of the island is Lake Hammersee, a freshwater lake. Juist is accessible by plane or daily ferry.

FLN Frisia Luftverkehr FLN FRISIA-Luftverkehr GmbH Norddeich, usually shortened to FLN, is a small airline from Germany based in Norden, Lower Saxony, which was founded on 14 June 1969. Destinations As of November 2020, FLN operates scheduled flights between Nordde ...

operates planes between

Norden Norden is a Scandinavian and German word, directly translated as "the North". It may refer to: Places England * Norden, Basingstoke, a ward of Basingstoke and Deane * Norden, Dorset, a hamlet near Corfe Castle * Norden, Greater Manchester, a vi ...

and Juist. Most motor vehicles are prohibited on the island, with only the fire department, the

German Red Cross The German Red Cross (german: Deutsches Rotes Kreuz ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. With 4 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services within ...

and doctors allowed to use them. Island tractors require a special license, while most other transport is done by bike or horse-drawn carriage. It was reported by the Reuters news agency, 24 September 2014, that an unmanned " parcelcopter" will commence delivery of urgent drugs and supplies to the island by DHL. It will be the first time an unmanned aircraft had been authorised to deliver goods in Europe and the first time that automated drones have been used to deliver medicines anywhere in the world. The flight at an altitude of 50 m and at a speed of up to 18 m/s will be automated but monitored in Norddeich.

Economy

Tourism is the main source of income for Juist's economy. Almost all the buildings on the island feature guestrooms, with several hotels and a youth hostel also on the island. There is an island partnership between Juist and

Hiddensee Hiddensee () is a car-free island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Germany's largest island, Rügen, on the German coast. The island has about 1,000 inhabitants. It was a holiday destination for East German tourists during German Democratic ...

in 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 from ...

History

In the 17th and 18th century Juist was cut in two parts by several

storm tide A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the no ...

s (see St. Peter's Flood). Around year 1770 people started to close the 2 km wide burst at the southern side by a dune dike. As recently as 1928 the northern side was repaired. By that time, the water in Lake Hammersee had turned from saltwater to freshwater. On September 9, 2001 Juist citizens voted for their mayor directly for the first time, with Karl-Josef Wederhake winning the election. He was re-elected in September 2006.

Notable people

Curt Bruns Curt Bruns (March 12, 1915 – June 14, 1945) was a Wehrmacht captain and war criminal. He was the first war criminal to be executed by the United States Army for war crimes after World War II. Bruns was shot for having ordered the executions of ...

(1915–1945) was a war criminal who was executed for the murders of two American-Jewish POWs. He was one of the first Nazi war criminal to be executed in

Allied-occupied Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...

. *

Martin Luserke Martin Luserke (3 May 1880 in Schöneberg near Berlin, Prussia, German Reich – 1 June 1968 in Meldorf, Holstein, Germany) was a progressive pedagogue, a bard, writer and theatre maker. He was one of the leading figures of German progressive ...

(1880–1968) founded ''Stiftung Schule am Meer'' in 1924 and ''

Schule am Meer Schule am Meer, English language, Engl. ''School by the Sea'', Hebrew language, Hebrew בית ספר ליד הים, also known as ''S.a.M.'' or ''SaM'', was a private, Holistic education, holistically oriented Mixed-sex education, coed Progres ...

'' in 1925 on Juist. *

Ma Anand Sheela Ma Anand Sheela (born 28 December 1949 as Sheela Ambalal Patel in India, also known as Sheela Birnstiel and Sheela Silverman) is an Indian-Swiss woman who was the spokesperson of the Rajneesh movement (aka Osho movement). In 1986, she was convi ...

(1949-) lived in Juist after leaving

Rajneeshpuram Rajneeshpuram was a religious intentional community in the northwest United States, located in Wasco County, Oregon. Incorporated as a city between 1981 and 1988, its population consisted entirely of Rajneeshees, followers of the spiritual tea ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

References

{{Authority control East Frisian Islands Towns and villages in East Frisia Car-free zones in Europe Aurich (district) Islands of Lower Saxony