Alongside the German Baltic Sea coast line there are in fact a lot of seaside resorts, but only a few of them can be considered as truly exceptional places to visit offering more than board and lodging, entertainment and a sandy beach. To cut a long story short: Heringsdorf is one of these outstanding resorts. What sets it apart from avarage seaside resorts is both

• its promenade pier which is the longest one in Germany and
   
• its luxurious aristocratic architecture dating from the late 19th and the early 20th century.

The place is even called an imperial seaside resort because members of the German imperial family used to stay here in past times. Even William II himself, the later German emperor, spent his holidays at Heringsdorf in 1866, when he was a prince. In the early 20th century His Majesty deigned to come back once a year to have a cup of tea with recently widowed Mrs Staudt at her villa, which is why this building today is also called the Imperial Villa.

The Imperial Villa

One of William´s ancestors was the Prussian king Frederic William III. He also visited Heringsdorf in 1820, but in those times the place was only a nameless small fishing village which had been founded by head forester Bernhard von Buelow only 3 years ago. While Buelow, Frederic William III and the king´s sons were spending their time in watching the fishermen doing their job in the beach, the head forester asked prince Frederic William to name the village. The prince deigned to name it Heringsdorf, which - for those who do not understand German - means Herring Village. It is quite obvious that the place´s naming by His Highness had drawn strong inspiration from the penetrating smell of his coastal environment, or rather: rural environment.

A few years later the first holidaymakers arrived. For this reason Heringsdorf can be called the second-oldest seaside resort on the island of Usedom after Swinemuende. Although the tourists also brought about an end to peace and seclusion to this typical sleepy Pomeranian village, they were nevertheless always welcome. Until the end of the 19th century Heringsdorf finally developed into a very luxurious holiday resort which was visited mainly by the upper crust of Berlin and the surrounding Pomeranian towns. That is to say: Only rich people could afford to spend their holidays at Heringsdorf in those times, among who the painter Lyonel Feininger is one of the most famous guests. Between 1908 and 1912 he enjoyed staying at the Villa Oppenheim during the summer months.

The Villa Oppenheim

After the First World War some upper-middle and middle class citizens also joined the rather exclusive crowd of holidaymakers at Heringsdorf, but the visitor structure did not change significantly. The seaside resort continued to be a place of the moneyed aristocracy, among them a lot of Jewish bankers. Like many other people of their faith, they were also unlawfully dispossessed of their property in 1935.
In 1953, when the eastern part of our country including Heringsdorf was under the thumb of a communist regime, another unmeasurable injustice of the same kind took place: All the hotel and boarding houses owners were dispossessed for flimsy and ridiculous reasons. The FDGB trade union got control of their former property organizing from then until 1989 all tourism services of the communist worker and farmer state. During these years Heringsdorf´s visitor structure was of course completely turned upside town. The former aristocratic houses were now invaded and occupied by crowds of "lower class" workers.

Like all the other places in the eastern part of Germany, Heringsdorf was also run down during the communist era and its buildings fell into decay step by step. This process, however, has been stopped and reversed after the German reunification in 1990. People were given back their houses after the unlawful expropriations had been annulled. Houses have been restored.
Today Heringsdorf and its buildings once again show the splendour of past times. Concerning past times there is only one slight, but important difference: Nowadays anyone is welcome to come and almost anyone can afford to spend his holidays at this beautiful seaside resort.