The Rostock Heath (Rostocker Heide) -
Purveyor of oxygen and hunting grounds to the local aristocracy |
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In the year 1919, the
brothers Adolph and Rudolf Ahrens wrote about a little jewel, East of the Gates of
Rostock, a little booklet bound in lustreless grey.
Since then, it can be found in many Rostock households. The Heath, once the
Rostocker’s most valued place for excursions, even before Warnemuende, is a woodland area extending over 12,000 hectares and a unique
landscape. It is an autonomous cultural circle awakening out of a forty year long neglect. |
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German sea coast, from the Dutch to the Polish border, it is the one and only woodland
area bordering the sea. Yet the Heath is but the dismal remnants of the last German
primeval forest which, 800 years ago, stretched from Luebeck to the Isle of Ruegen. |
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After the sale of the
western half of this forest landscape in 1252 by Prince Borwin to the Town of Rostock, one
had, at the beginning of the Hanseatic time, absolutely endless timber reserves to use to
build the proud ‘Hansekogge’. The eastern part remained from the turn of the
Century till the end of the Second World War the hunting grounds of the court of the
princes of Mecklenburg. |
Orchids and ice birds, breeding cranes and
century-old oak trees make the Heath a landscape worth seeing.
It is the climate, unique in Germany, resulting from the mixture of forest and sea air,
whose healing properties motivated the Doctor of the court, Karl von Mettenheimer to open
the first sea hospice for the treatment of sick children in Graal-Mueritz. In this way,
the first sea health resort in Germany was created. |
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The President of
Mecklenburgian forestry, Hermann Friedrich Becker, was, since 1791, the first of a line of
prominent foresters to leave their mark on this cultivated forest. Russian Tsars, Danish
Kings wrote the history of the place. After the end of the Second World War, restricted
areas, reserved for the hunting pleasure of Government officials and for military
purposes, spread over the Heath. It was forbidden to print hiking maps. One forgot this
landscape. |
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