Rügen (German pronunciation: [ˈʁyːɡn̩] ⓘ; Rani: Rȯjana, Rāna;[2] Latin: Rugia, Ruegen) is Germany's largest island.

The coast is characterised by numerous sandy beaches, lagoons (Bodden) and open bays (Wieke), as well as peninsulas and headlands.

In June 2011, UNESCO awarded the status of a World Heritage Site to the Jasmund National Park, characterised by vast stands of beeches and chalk cliffs like King's Chair, the main landmark of Rügen island.

In the west of the peninsula of Mönchgut a narrow, 5 km-long (3.1 mi) bar, the Reddevitz Höft, separates the two bays of Having and Hagensche Wiek.

The Schmale Heide separates the outer bay of Prorer Wiek from the lagoon of the Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden.

On the peninsula of Jasmund are the Piekberg (161 m above sea level (NN)), the highest point on Rügen, and the Königsstuhl, a 118-metre-high (387 ft) chalk cliff in Stubbenkammer, which forms the most striking landmark on the island.

By the 1st century, the inhabitants of Rügen were part of the East Germanic tribe of Rugii, who occupied roughly the region that was later to become Western Pomerania and who gave the island its name.

From the 7th century, the West Slavic Rani (or Rujani) built an empire on Rügen and the neighbouring coast between Recknitz and Ryck.

It decidedly affected the history of the Baltic Sea area and the surrounding Obodritic (in the west) and Liutician (in the south) occupied mainland for the next few centuries.

The temple hill of Jaromarsburg, at the northern tip of Rügen and dedicated to the god Svetovid, was significant well beyond the boundaries of the Ranian empire.

In 1184, the Pomeranians, whose rule had previously extended as far as the land of Gützkow and to Demmin and thus made them the immediate neighbours of the now Danish Principality of Rugia, were commissioned by their overlord, the Holy Roman Emperor, to seize Rügen for the empire, but were defeated in the Bay of Greifswald.

This state of affairs, together with the disputes over the Danish throne that occurred at that time, led to the Rügen wars of succession.

In 1478, Pomerania-Wolgast and Pomerania-Stettin were united and, 170 years later, the combined state went to Sweden in 1648 as a result of the Treaty of Westphalia (see Swedish Pomerania).

The largest landowners, owning at least one-fifth of the island until 1945, was the House of Putbus, which was an offshoot of the earlier ruling princes of the Wizlawid dynasty.

Under Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden the town of Gustavia was constructed on the Mönchgut peninsula, but was abandoned during the Napoleonic Wars.

In the Treaty of Kiel of 1814, it was transferred initially from Sweden to Denmark and then fell to Prussia, along with New Western Pomerania (Neuvorpommern), thanks to the Vienna Convention of 1815.

[9] The Nazis added a large resort: Prora, planned by the Strength through Joy organisation, which aimed to occupy people's free time.

The operation commanded by Wolfram von Richthofen that bombed the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, was named after the island.

In the aftermath of World War II, East German and Soviet authorities exiled landholders from the mainland to the island.

The occasion was supposed to have been a visit by Walter Ulbricht to the island of Rügen, during which he had been annoyed by the many surviving private hotels and guest houses.

Many of the hotel owners were convicted by kangaroo courts under the pretext of having been engaged in economic crime or as agents working for the West.

Most visitors come to Rügen between April and October, the peak season being from June to August, but its quiet atmosphere in winter is also appreciated.

Tourist destinations, other than seaside resorts, include Cape Arkona, the wood-covered Stubbenkammer hills on Jasmund with interesting chalk cliff formations, the wood-covered Granitz hills with their Jagdschloß or hunting lodge, the classicist buildings of Putbus and the inland villages of Bergen auf Rügen, Ralswiek and Gingst.

In addition to regional trains, there are also Intercity services from Binz via Bergen and Stralsund to Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and the Ruhr.

Night train services to Munich, Basle and the Ruhr area were deleted from the timetable on 9 December 2007, despite massive protests from the local hotel industry.

Until October 2007, individual traffic from the mainland to the island of Rügen was mainly routed along the two-lane Rügendamm causeway, running between Stralsund and Altefähr over the sound of Strelasund.

The main tourist attractions of Cape Arkona, the Königsstuhl and the Granitz hunting lodge are, however, car-free in order to protect the countryside, as is the island of Hiddensee which belongs to Vorpommern-Rügen district.

The condition and signing of this network varies considerably from one place to another, from very good in the seaside resorts to poor in the area between Garz and Zudar.

Two car ferries belonging to the Weiße Flotte operate every half-an-hour between the Zudar peninsula on Rügen and Stahlbrode on the mainland, halfway between Stralsund and Greifswald .

[14] Local passenger ferries connect the piers of Sassnitz, Binz, Sellin and Göhren with the adjacent islands of Hiddensee, Vilm and Greifswalder Oie.