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Heligoland: The True Story of German Bight and the Island That Britain Betrayed
Heligoland is the astounding story of a mysterious British colony in the North Sea that the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, swapped for Zanzibar in 1890. After years of having a UK-style flag, postage stamps, taxation system and currency, Heligolanders were soon experiencing the crushing of their culture, and were forced into learning German. The unscrupulous transference of the island to Germany, in defiance of the islanders' wishes, sparked a public controversy; the explorer Stanley famously commented that Britain had obtained a waistcoat in exchange for a trouser button. The sacrifice of the enigmatic Heligoland became a strategic blunder during the two World Wars, when the island was made into a weaponry fortress by the Germans. After the Second World War there was a plot to cover up the mistake when Britain planned to destroy Heligoland with an A-bomb strength explosion. Implicated in the epic scandal are many key personalities; among them Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm, Arthur Balfour, and The Riddle of the Sands author Erskine Childers. Heligoland goes beyond an amazing story of intrigue, high adventure and national ambition. It highlights Britain's relations with continental Europe; the conduct of the British Empire; even the shape and identity of the British Isles. Using techniques of biography, popular history and narrative, this book unravels for the first time the true story of the island Britain gave away.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryGermany
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 21, 2023
An enjoyable read about some European history that I had known nothing about...the story of Britain's smallest colony, Heligoland. Located in the southeastern North Sea. It was nominally Danish, but the people, a fisherfolk, considered themselves an independent people with their own unique dialect, related to Frisian. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British gained control of the island and kept it as a base for the Royal Navy even at the end of the war, in 1814. The 2000 islanders became loyal members of the British Empire--until Lord Salisbury decided to swap the islanders for Zanzibar in 1890. This was a deal with Imperial Germany and was done by ignoring the will of the Heligolanders who wanted to remain British and in no way considered themselves German. As the story continues, we see that the Brits made a major mistake as Helgoland, as the Germans called it, became an important base for the Germans in both World Wars. Today, the island is completely forgotten in history. How many people today know that England once had a colony in Northern Europe?
February 2, 2017
_Heligoland_ by George Drower tells the story of a small island in the North Sea, or more accurately its history in the 19th and 20th century. What might normally have been a rather insignificant island globally and even regionally was instead noteworthy as a pawn of great power politics, with notable roles in three wars and subject to alternating periods of neglect and overly rapt attention on the part of various nations, changing hands three times in two centuries.
Heligoland is a tiny island, a mere 140 acres today and for much of its history in the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th was home to only 2,000 people. Located in the stormy North Atlantic, it is only 30 miles from the German coast and 290 miles from the English, located near the East Frisian Islands as well as near the estuary of the Elbe and three other great rivers. A dramatic setting - its red sandstone cliffs tower 200 feet above sea level - for many months of the year the island is almost inaccessible, requiring until recent decades the specialist piloting skills of local residents.
Its seafaring people are Frisian, their native language neither German nor English but closer to the latter, a language that is distinct from that spoken on the other Frisian Islands (a dictionary was finally compiled in 1954).
It seems relatively little is known about the island's history prior to the early 19th century. The first known written reference was in AD 98, when it was referred to as the island "Hyrtha" by the Roman historian Tacitus. The island got its name Heligoland (meaning "Holy Land") thanks to the accidental arrival in AD 699 of the 7th century English missionary St. Willibrod, either because Willibrod came from Lindisfarne, on Northumberland's Holy Island, or because the island was once sacred to the Norse. It remained Viking for centuries (and later Danish) and was apparently a once larger island; in AD 800 it was mapped at 24 square miles and home to several villages, though shrank to 4 square miles by 1300 due to erosion (a continuing problem for the island).
Heligoland was captured by the British and became a colony in 1807. It served a vital role during the Napoleonic Wars, both as a forward base for the officially endorsed system of smuggling contraband to violate Napoleon's continental system and also as a center for intelligence gathering. Denmark formally ceded the island to Britain in the 1814 Treaty of Kiel.
After Napoleon was defeated the island vastly diminished in imperial importance and at first had to be supported by financial subsidies fought for by the series of caring British governors that were posted to the island. Later it achieved some prosperity as a center for fishing and more importantly as a tourist destination, largely for German tourists.
While Britain had more island colonies than it knew what to do with and many in the country were largely ignorant of the island, Germany lacked colonies and was keenly interested. Heligoland appeared to have cast a spell on the many visiting German poets, artists, and nationalists. In 1841 Heinrich Hoffman von Fallersleben wrote the German national anthem ("Deutschland über Alles") while visiting the island, and before he was crowned, Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the island and vowed to make it German.
Germany made several attempts to get the island for itself. Chancellor Bismarck coveted Heligoland because of its strategic disadvantages as a British outpost and to provide security for his beloved Kiel Canal (linking the North and Baltic Seas); his offer to Prime Minister William Gladstone of exchanging the enclave in India known as Pondicherry for the island was declined.
In 1890 Germany finally acquired it in an epic deal arranged by Lord Salisbury (both Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary at the time), the British wishing to gain large swaths of German territory in eastern Africa and Germany desperately wanting Heligoland for its own. The deal was done over the vociferous objections of the British governor of the island and of Queen Victoria, who in private furiously condemned Salisbury for handing over the island of loyal British subjects to a foreign power.
The Heligolanders sought in vain to find a way to stop the transfer but were unsuccessful, and soon had reason to regret leaving the British Empire, as their island was heavily fortified and they were increasingly a voiceless minority in their own little nation. British promises to look out for their welfare came to naught.
The British also had cause to regret their transfer of the island to Germany during World War I. The island became strategically valuable once again, becoming as Admiral of the Fleet "Jacky" Fisher proclaimed, "a dagger pointed at England's heart." In the waters of the now fortified island the first surface engagement of the war was fought (the Battle of Heligoland Bight).
When Germany started to rearm (the island was demilitarized post-war), violating the agreements made following the war, Heligoland was refortified as well. Though it never achieved the level of fortification it had during the First World War, Germany did have ambitious plans for the island. Hitler envisioned "Project Hummerschere," an audacious scheme to use Heligoland as the nucleus of a much larger construction, a huge artificial island complex designed to rival the British Scapa Flow.
Heligoland had the dubious distinction of being the first target of RAF bombs during World War II and the target of the first ever RAF nighttime bombing raid.
According to many Britain committed a greater misdeed than the imperial swap after the war. Between 1945 and 1952 the Heligolanders were exiled to mainland Germany, forbidden to reside on or even visit the island, while the British - apparently illegally later on - used the island as a bombing range for high-explosive and chemical weapons and even seriously contemplated testing their atomic bomb program there. Only after much effort were the exiled Heligolanders able to return.
Has numerous photos and maps. I found the book engaging and well worth reading and was continually surprised by the outsized role in played in world politics.
Heligoland is a tiny island, a mere 140 acres today and for much of its history in the latter part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th was home to only 2,000 people. Located in the stormy North Atlantic, it is only 30 miles from the German coast and 290 miles from the English, located near the East Frisian Islands as well as near the estuary of the Elbe and three other great rivers. A dramatic setting - its red sandstone cliffs tower 200 feet above sea level - for many months of the year the island is almost inaccessible, requiring until recent decades the specialist piloting skills of local residents.
Its seafaring people are Frisian, their native language neither German nor English but closer to the latter, a language that is distinct from that spoken on the other Frisian Islands (a dictionary was finally compiled in 1954).
It seems relatively little is known about the island's history prior to the early 19th century. The first known written reference was in AD 98, when it was referred to as the island "Hyrtha" by the Roman historian Tacitus. The island got its name Heligoland (meaning "Holy Land") thanks to the accidental arrival in AD 699 of the 7th century English missionary St. Willibrod, either because Willibrod came from Lindisfarne, on Northumberland's Holy Island, or because the island was once sacred to the Norse. It remained Viking for centuries (and later Danish) and was apparently a once larger island; in AD 800 it was mapped at 24 square miles and home to several villages, though shrank to 4 square miles by 1300 due to erosion (a continuing problem for the island).
Heligoland was captured by the British and became a colony in 1807. It served a vital role during the Napoleonic Wars, both as a forward base for the officially endorsed system of smuggling contraband to violate Napoleon's continental system and also as a center for intelligence gathering. Denmark formally ceded the island to Britain in the 1814 Treaty of Kiel.
After Napoleon was defeated the island vastly diminished in imperial importance and at first had to be supported by financial subsidies fought for by the series of caring British governors that were posted to the island. Later it achieved some prosperity as a center for fishing and more importantly as a tourist destination, largely for German tourists.
While Britain had more island colonies than it knew what to do with and many in the country were largely ignorant of the island, Germany lacked colonies and was keenly interested. Heligoland appeared to have cast a spell on the many visiting German poets, artists, and nationalists. In 1841 Heinrich Hoffman von Fallersleben wrote the German national anthem ("Deutschland über Alles") while visiting the island, and before he was crowned, Kaiser Wilhelm II visited the island and vowed to make it German.
Germany made several attempts to get the island for itself. Chancellor Bismarck coveted Heligoland because of its strategic disadvantages as a British outpost and to provide security for his beloved Kiel Canal (linking the North and Baltic Seas); his offer to Prime Minister William Gladstone of exchanging the enclave in India known as Pondicherry for the island was declined.
In 1890 Germany finally acquired it in an epic deal arranged by Lord Salisbury (both Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary at the time), the British wishing to gain large swaths of German territory in eastern Africa and Germany desperately wanting Heligoland for its own. The deal was done over the vociferous objections of the British governor of the island and of Queen Victoria, who in private furiously condemned Salisbury for handing over the island of loyal British subjects to a foreign power.
The Heligolanders sought in vain to find a way to stop the transfer but were unsuccessful, and soon had reason to regret leaving the British Empire, as their island was heavily fortified and they were increasingly a voiceless minority in their own little nation. British promises to look out for their welfare came to naught.
The British also had cause to regret their transfer of the island to Germany during World War I. The island became strategically valuable once again, becoming as Admiral of the Fleet "Jacky" Fisher proclaimed, "a dagger pointed at England's heart." In the waters of the now fortified island the first surface engagement of the war was fought (the Battle of Heligoland Bight).
When Germany started to rearm (the island was demilitarized post-war), violating the agreements made following the war, Heligoland was refortified as well. Though it never achieved the level of fortification it had during the First World War, Germany did have ambitious plans for the island. Hitler envisioned "Project Hummerschere," an audacious scheme to use Heligoland as the nucleus of a much larger construction, a huge artificial island complex designed to rival the British Scapa Flow.
Heligoland had the dubious distinction of being the first target of RAF bombs during World War II and the target of the first ever RAF nighttime bombing raid.
According to many Britain committed a greater misdeed than the imperial swap after the war. Between 1945 and 1952 the Heligolanders were exiled to mainland Germany, forbidden to reside on or even visit the island, while the British - apparently illegally later on - used the island as a bombing range for high-explosive and chemical weapons and even seriously contemplated testing their atomic bomb program there. Only after much effort were the exiled Heligolanders able to return.
Has numerous photos and maps. I found the book engaging and well worth reading and was continually surprised by the outsized role in played in world politics.
August 28, 2017
fascinating read about this small island in the North Sea involved in the nefarious swapping of colonies in the late 1800s by Germany and Great Britain...geographers' delight to read...althought the detailed accounts of the bombing range activities of the Brits after World War II was a little laborious, I didn't realize how the island had been sacrificed in the vein of Bikini Atoll, etc to aid Britain's bomb development.
September 25, 2013
This is a fascinating account of a former British colony not far away whose existence I'd previously been completely unaware of. As this author makes clear, given the island's history and its inhabitants love of Britain (and, for much of the last 150 years, their desire to again be British), it's shameful that so little is known about Heligoland in Britain. This book tries to change that.
October 20, 2008
This is the history behind the book "The Riddle of the Sands" by Erskine Childers - known as the original spy novel.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews