Holidays in Hel(igoland)

An article sketch that was never picked up as a full piece

From The Hollywood Reporter (28/06/22): Sky Deutschland commissioned German director Robert Schwenkte (R.E.D., Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins) to helm seven-part sci-fi series Helgoland 513: 2034, based on his original script. The post-apocalyptic drama imagines a world in which the North Sea island of Helgoland has become the last safe haven for humanity. But the totalitarian society in charge dictates that only 513 people be allowed to live on the island, with every resident given a “social ranking” according to their “usefulness.”

The series begins on Sky Deutschland this Friday (15/03/24)

A look at the fascinating North Sea archipelago, which SS boss Heinrich Himmler thought was the original home of a Germanic 'Ur-Volk' - an 'Aryan Atlantis'.

"A miniature Scarborough transplanted into the middle of the German Bight."

Acquired by Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, the tiny islands are located in the German Bay (Deutsche Bucht) of the North Sea, 30 miles off the coast of?Schleswig-Holstein.

Heligolanders are apparently an individualistic?bunch (numbering 1,307) speaking a Friesian dialect, regarding themselves as neither British nor German.

The colony prospered?mightily (a casino was even opened) during?the 83 year British occupation (1807-1890) and was a haven for German?radicals, but was traded for Zanzibar in a treaty?with the Kaiser.

Built?up as a supposedly impregnable Gibraltar-style military facility?by Germany in two World Wars, the UK once?again took control?of the archipelago between?1945-1952.

During?their?stay, the Brits decided in 1947 that they needed somewhere to dispose of thousands of tonnes of unexploded ammunition, the evacuated Heligoland being an obvious choice.

The code-name for the plan??

Operation Big Bang - the largest non-nuclear explosion in history

It didn't destroy the island, but left a huge crater.

Returned to West Germany in 1952 (gee, thanks, they must have felt), the port was rebuilt and Heligoland now thrives as a tourist destination.

The islands also have a rich cultural heritage; in 1841 Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote?‘Deutschland, Deutschland, über Alles!’?there,? F.W. Murnau filmed Nosferatu (1922) there (immortalised in 2000's Shadow of the Vampire)? and a young Leni Riefenstahl acted in Arnold Fanck’s Holy Mountain (1926) there.

Physicist Carlo Rovelli called his 2020 book on Quantum Mechanics Helgoland, apparently?because Werner Heisenberg got the first intuition about the theory while there in the 1920s.

Massive Attack named their 2010 album after the island - why?

The Gentleman of Heligoland

In July 1994, the body of a man was fished out of the North Sea, near the German Island of Heligoland. Dressed smartly and with a complete absence of identifying information, the body was simply named ”The Gentleman”. Nearly thirty years later it is still unnamed and unclaimed.

More clues are discovered.

Other 'Gibraltar'-style fortifications in Europe?

Monemvasia - Greece (off the east coast of the Peloponnese)

Leros (Dodecanese), "the Corregidor of the Mediterranean", according to Mussolini

The Fortress of Luxembourg

Hel, Poland

Suomenlinna, Finland

Kotlin Island, Russia

Dinant, Belgium

Malta

The Channel Islands (when under German occupation)

EXTRA:

F*king Bornholm - the surprisingly cinematic Danish island

Fucking Bornholm?(2022), a?Ruben ?stlund-esque (Triangle of Sadness) tale of a Polish family's dismal vacation on the island:

The oft-fought over Danish island, apparently closer to Sweden, northeast Germany and north of Poland than the rest of Denmark.

Close to the Nordstream pipeline, in the news back in 2022.

German-occupied Bornholm endured similar experiences in WWII to Heligoland (Allied bombing etc).

The setting for quite a few movies including:

Pelle the Conqueror (1987)

Onnen saari (1955)

Da bomberne faldt p? Bornholm (1955)

A Minute's Silence (2016)

Persona non grata (2021)

Far til fire p? Bornholm (1959)

?? (2016)

Sorte m?ne (2015)

And this year's Boundless (part of the popular 'Department Q' franchise), starring?Ulrich Thomsen (Banshee, The New Pope).

Bornholm is also the name of a Hungarian?pagan black metal band.

Nikolay Karamzin (1766-1826) wrote The Island of Bornholm (1793),?a story about a trip he once took there.?'where a Russian traveler, stranded on a mysterious Danish island, is surprised to learn that the island used to be populated by Slavs. The fictional traveler's investigation of the mysteries of the island (deriving from possible incest and the resulting punishment)'

The island's culture includes the famed Bornholm School of Painters.

Bornholm's guardian spirit/mascot is a small, and supposedly 'good-looking' troll called 'Kr?lle B?lle' - 'Curly Bully'.