Dornbusch (Hiddensee)
The Dornbusch is a region of low rolling hills in the northern part of the German Baltic Sea island of Hiddensee.
With much of its cliffed coast still active it represents an important landscape in the West Pomeranian Lagoon Area National Park and is part of protection zone II.
During the retreat of the glacier, the uplands were left behind as a push moraine and for about 4,000 years they were part of a large area of the mainland, south of the present Baltic Sea.
Previously, the entire hill country was a belt of treeless grasslands and arable land which was regularly covered by sand in high winds.
The felling of individual trees in newly planted forests to meet the demand for fuel resulted in many clearings with much undergrowth.
The Dornbusch extends from the low-lying terrain by the waters of the Vitter Bodden and the village of Kloster in the southeast up to the cliffs in the north, towering 60 metres above the sea, at the foot of which a more or less wide gravel beach has formed.
From the northeastern point, the Enddorn, two wide, spits, covered by sea buckthorn, stretch southwards: the Altbessin and Neubessin.
Whilst the cliff between the village of Kloster and the north shore of the westernmost bluff (Hucke) is largely inactive due to the construction of a three-metre-high retaining wall, there are often landslides and collapses in the central and northern areas.
The name "Dornbusch" is derived from several large thorn bushes that once stood at the top of the cliff and which acted as landmarks for sailors.
As a result of grazing by cattle, horses and sheep this area, as well as the former arable fields, have developed into a calcareous grassland.
In the west - on the former clifftop dunes - field maple, hawthorn, silver birch, hazel, willows, roses, fly honeysuckle, buckthorn, blackthorn (sloe), spindle and alpine currant are mainly found.
North of Kloster, in the area of the old bird ornithological station, there are a few large- and small-leaved limes as well as hybrids of both species.
On the outer coastline, after strong northwest storms in autumn and winter, Nordic ducks, petrels and shearwaters, and auks are occasionally blown ashore here.
The sunny slopes attract Mediterranean species; confirmed spots include alpine swift, bee-eater, blue rock thrush und hoopoe.
The material eroded from the Dornbusch cliffs is transported by currents to the southeast and southwest and enables both the Hiddensee lowlands on Gellen and the Neubessin to continue to grow.
The only clearly conspicuous coastal defence structure is the 2-kilometre-long stone wall between Rennbaumhuk and Hartem Ort, which at the Hucke has been a height of 3 metres.
From 1938 until the war broke out in 1939, the first section at the Hucke was built about 20 yards away from the beach, the narrow water channel between the stone wall and the shore was filled rapidly with sand.
The steep coast was indeed successfully protected, but there were still cliff collapses, due to weather conditions, that formed a large alluvial fan.
The coastal defence woods afforested in 1861 with pine, oak, hornbeam and hazel on the western side of the Dornbusch protect the area from wind erosion.
On the uplands are several other isolated buildings, the 18-metre-high Dornbusch Lighthouse, the tourist cafe and bed and breakfast inn, the Klausner.
