Kühlungsborn (from 1937 to 1938 Brunshaupten-Arendsee) is an
official city in the Rostock district in Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania. The community was created in 1937 from the union of the
places Brunshaupten, Arendsee and Fulgen. A year later it was given
its current name and was granted city rights. Kühlungsborn is one of
the most important seaside resorts on the Mecklenburg Baltic Sea
coast. Since February 15, 1996, the city bears the name affix
Ostseebad.
Kühlungsborn, the largest bathing and recreation
area in Mecklenburg, is located on the Mecklenburg Baltic Sea coast
directly on the Mecklenburg Bay, about 25 kilometers west of
Rostock. Immediately to the south of the city rises the cooling
ridge with the Bastorf lighthouse that can be seen from afar.
With a length of 3,150 meters, Kühlungsborn has one of the
longest beach promenades in Germany. On the western outskirts of the
city, the promenade flows into Baltic Square. The wide sandy beach
stretches for about six kilometers. A special feature is the urban
forest of Kühlungsborn, which is around 1 kilometer × 1.5 kilometer
in size, which is relatively large compared to the size of the urban
area and which is enclosed in a ring by the built-up urban area.
The place forms a basic center for its surroundings.
The history of the three original villages Arendsee, Brunshaupten and Gut Fulgen, from which Kühlungsborn was formed in 1937, goes back almost 800 years. In 1177, "Bruno von Cubanze" and "two villages of Brunos" were mentioned in a document. “Cubanze” may mean temple district or clearing. In 1219 the name "Brunshövede" (= courtyard or port of Brunos) was mentioned in a deed of foundation of the Sonnenkamp nunnery. At that time, the village was donated by the sovereign to the Sonnenkamp nunnery, which initially had its seat in Parchow near Kröpelin and later in Neukloster. The village of Arendsee is said to have received its name from the nuns of this monastery, after the monastery of the same name in the Altmark. Fulgen was only mentioned during the Thirty Years War, when all three villages were badly hit, but Fulgen especially. Brunshaupten was a row village that roughly followed the course of the Cubanze brook. The oldest part of Arendsee can be found where the road to Rerik leaves Kühlungsborn in a sharp bend. Before the Thirty Years War, Fulgen was a large village east of Brunshaupten. The inhabitants of the three villages lived from fishing and agriculture. Some were allowed to call themselves hereditary tenants, their leasehold land was the size of small farms, most of them ran farms and cottages.
In 1857 the leaseholder E. Wittholz von Fulgen
had a two-storey lodging house built and a swimming brochure printed
out in which he recommended himself to take in bathers, and charged
7 to 9 Reichstaler per week for maintenance, boarding, lodging and
baths, depending on the room requirements . The Baltic storm flood
on 12./13. November 1872 caused considerable damage to the Fulgen
farm. Since all the meadows and pastures and even the stables were
under water, the cattle were quickly housed in the comfortable
lodging house for a few days. In 1881 bathers came to Brunshaupten
and three years later to Arendsee. A sea rescue station was set up
in Arendsee in 1882. In 1887 there were around 600 residents and 300
guests in Brunshaupten. From Kröpelin, the construction of a road to
Brunshaupten began in 1895. From then on, a post bus drove to
Arendsee and Brunshaupten twice a day. This tour took about an hour
with private vehicles. It was also possible to get to and from
Kröpelin with a pair of horses without a break or stop for 6 marks a
one-way trip to Brunshaupten and Arendsee. There was a bathing club
that decided in 1899 that a warm bathing establishment should be
built. At that time, some lodging houses such as the "Ostseehotel"
or the "Strandperle" were ready for occupancy. For the first time, a
promenade footbridge of 120 meters in length was built into the
Baltic Sea.
The construction of the promenade that ran
parallel to the beach began in 1900. On June 1, 1901, the warm bath
was opened for the holiday guests, who also appeared for the first
time during the Easter holidays. The connecting path between
Arendsee and Brunshaupten, today the Ostseeallee, was opened for
development in 1904. Magnificent villas were built in the resort
architecture typical of the region. The lodging houses for the
affluent public were furnished to a high standard. At the beginning
of the 20th century, the hotels and pensions were built in the dune
area. On August 4, 1906, kerosene lamps were introduced as street
lighting, as gas or electrical systems would have been too expensive
with the large expansion of Brunshaupten and Arendsee. The central
water supply system was built between 1908 and 1912. In 1909 it was
decided to build a gas works. The Molli Bäderbahn has been running
from Bad Doberan via Heiligendamm to Brunshaupten and Arendsee since
1910. In 1911 both places received electricity. In 1912 there was
around 17 million marks in private capital in the houses of the
bathing districts.
Despite common interests, the communities
of Brunshaupten (with Fulgen) and Arendsee worked separately, often
in sharp competition with one another. Many institutions were and
are therefore twofold (e.g. the east and west concert gardens, two
piers). The number of guests rose sharply during the peace periods
(1913: 28,000 guests with 2,600 inhabitants, 1933–1935:
30,000–45,000 bathers annually, 1970–1981: 130,000–160,000 bathers
annually).
In 1937 the municipalities of Arendsee and Brunshaupten were
merged with the associated Fulgen estate to form the municipality of
Brunshaupten-Arendsee. The city of Kühlungsborn was created on April
1, 1938 by renaming the municipality, which had been
administratively united a year earlier, and by giving it the name
"city". The name Kühlungsborn is an artificial word that was derived
from the terms cooling (name of the mountain range south of the
place) and Born (source, well) and was interpreted at the time as "a
fountain of health and new strength". During the years of the Second
World War, Kühlungsborn took in numerous evacuates from the air war,
women and children, not only from the heavily bombed Rostock, but
also from Berlin and West Germany. From 1944/45 onwards,
Kühlungsborn became a temporary or permanent new place to live for
many war refugees from the east.
In the house of Church
Council i. R. Karl Timm survived the Berlin Jew Rosemarie Dessauer
in hiding until the end of the war after an odyssey through various
parsonages in Mecklenburg.
The first demonstration of the Peaceful Revolution took place on November 2, 1989 in Kühlungsborn. The starting point was a prayer for peace in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in which 800 people took part. Since not everyone found space in the house of God, the speeches were broadcast outside, where people persevered despite the cold and damp weather. The New Forum drafted a resolution in the church which demanded that the SED's claim to leadership should be checked as quickly as possible through free elections. They also sang the Ingo Barz song "The thoughts are free" again. After the event, a demonstration formed spontaneously and moved in front of the town hall. Some of the only 300 participants left sharply attacked the mayor. He resigned a few days later.
Since
January 5, 1952, the former military area on the vineyard was again
used by different units. In total, up to 18 different units were
stationed in the Kühlungsborn office one after the other or partly
at the same time, with one being appointed as a location unit. From
1958 to 1990 the combat swimmer unit KSK 18 of the NVA Volksmarine,
consisting of around 100 men, was stationed in Kühlungsborn. Since
1965, the training battalion of the border troops of the GDR was
stationed in the 6th Coastal Border Brigade in the village. The unit
consisted of five companies with a crew of about 400 people.
On November 14, 1989, the Ministry for National Defense of the GDR
announced the lifting of the exclusion zone in the border area on
the state border with the Federal Republic. In the course of this,
the sea waters of the GDR were also approved for sport boat traffic
in their entire width up to twelve nautical miles. In the last
months of the GDR's existence, the border troops dismantled a number
of border security systems such as watchtowers and barriers. The
Baltic Sea border tower in Kühlungsborn is still preserved. It is
one of two still existing border towers on the Baltic Sea coast, of
a former total of 27.
A large
number of hotels and guesthouses were expropriated, nationalized and
converted into holiday homes and facilities of the state Free German
Trade Union Confederation in Kühlungsborn. 50 facilities were
nationalized in Kühlungsborn. If the owners resisted, she was
partially convicted in show trials. Many had to flee to the Federal
Republic of Germany. Until 1989, the now state holiday facilities
were mainly used for holiday and spa stays by GDR citizens in
accordance with strict guidelines for the allocation of places and
the allocation of so-called FDGB holiday checks.
As in most
of the Baltic Sea resorts in the GDR until 1989, individual tourism
was either not possible or only possible to a very limited extent
(through the use of private apartments or camping). The costs of
using the FDGB holiday check were very low (60-100 GDR marks for 14
days of full board by the sea). Due to the uniform holiday season
(July / August) in the GDR, Kühlungsborn and especially all trade
facilities were regularly flooded by holidaymakers during this time.
There were frequent supply shortages in the retail facilities.
During the so-called "Baltic Sea Weeks" (mostly the first week of
July), which were held annually as festival weeks for around three
decades, the GDR leadership tried to gain international recognition.
There was a better range of goods and numerous top-class cultural
events. The participants from the countries bordering the Baltic Sea
and Norway were accommodated in holiday homes that were specially
reserved for this purpose.
The facilities of the holiday service on the Baltic Sea were subordinate to the Rostock district board. This was divided into the three branches of Binz, Heringsdorf and Kühlungsborn. The Kühlungsborn branch comprised the administrative area of the rest homes and other contractual partners in the coastal section. From 1961 to 1963, the agency consisted of a manager and eight employees; it was housed in the former Dr. Robert Koch Hotel (now Hotel Arendsee). At that time, 37 holiday homes were operated. Together with the private landlords, around 5000 beds were available. In 1963 Fritz Uhlig was given the management of the holiday service in Kühlungsborn. He was supposed to convert the service into an overall company, taking modern economic conditions into account. This task was made more difficult by the partly desolate condition of the buildings and the inadequate qualification of the 450 employees. The district building authority in Bad Doberan approved the repair of a building for the Kühlungsborn holiday property every year. Uhlig found a partial solution on the verge of legality, the holiday service awarded so-called outdoor beds to state-owned medium-sized companies for one season. These companies then made work and materials available free of charge outside of the main travel season in return. In this way, central heating was installed, interior fittings were renewed and facades were painted. In addition, so-called after-work brigades restored entire houses out of season. In 1963 and 1964 a total of nine houses were completely overhauled. The qualifications of the employees were still very poor; of the 450 permanent employees and 150 seasonal workers, only 15 were trained as cooks or waiters. The recreation home Am Karpfenteich has been converted into a boarding school for apprentices in the profession of commercial clerk. Around 100 service staff were trained every year. Between 1964 and 1987, 369 cooks and 174 receptionists left. 517 restaurant and hotel specialists and around 100 apprentices from other professional groups are responsible for the facility. The quality of the services improved noticeably. The vacation service was the city's largest employer. In March 1980 the vacation service had 997 beds and accommodated between 80,000 and 87,000 vacationers annually. The FDGB looked after the homes that had been fully occupied until 1990, but shortly after the fall of the Wall there were signs of disintegration in the administrative structures. The head of the facilities was removed; the employees selected three people from among their ranks, who were entrusted with the management until the end of the season. Then the Treuhand hired a company Lochner GmbH to handle the service. There were 20 caretakers who took care of the security of the building structure and the theft protection of the objects. By 1991, all remaining inventory parts, food and luxury items and basic items were handed over to the city administration. A number of previous owners demanded their former hotels and pensions back. The holiday service was finally terminated on December 31, 1991; the personnel files were stored at the BfA in Berlin, all other documents were kept in the state main archive in Schwerin. In the GDR era, the pioneer holiday camp "Max Reichpietsch" was operated in the village.
Since the reunification of Germany, the historic town center has been fundamentally renovated within the framework of urban development funding; many historical buildings have been restored. However, this went hand in hand with the demolition of 26 buildings, some of which were significant, from the historical spa architecture, such as the Arendsee Kurhaus, which was completed in 1906 and which was released for demolition in 1994 after some resistance. There are numerous new buildings of hotels and holiday apartments and exemplary refurbished hotels and pensions of the old spa architecture available for individual tourism. Kühlungsborn remained a community without tall buildings, because no house could be built higher than the tallest trees. These building specifications also had to be adhered to when building the steeple of the Catholic Church. The pier was built again in 1991 in Kühlungsborn-Ost, and the 3200 meter long beach promenade was completely paved by 2007. Since the mid-1990s, Kühlungsborn has once again become a very popular year-round destination for the holiday season. From 2002 to 2004 the new sports boat harbor with 400 berths was built in Kühlungsborn-Ost. The new boat harbor, into which the Fulgenbach flows, already recorded over 13,000 boat arrivals in 2007 with a stay of over two nights.
The press center was set up in Kühlungsborn-Ost for the G8 summit
in Heiligendamm 2007. About 5390 journalists representing 1,045
media from 78 countries were accredited and most of them also lived
in Kühlungsborn. During the summit, the Molli served as a shuttle
for journalists between the press center and Heiligendamm.
From 1952 to 2011, Kühlungsborn belonged to the Bad Doberan district
(until 1990 in the GDR district of Rostock, then in the state of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). Since the district reform in 2011,
the city has been in the Rostock district.
Kühlungsborn, the largest bathing and recreation area in
Mecklenburg, is located on the Mecklenburg Baltic Sea coast directly
on the Mecklenburg Bay, about 25 kilometers west of Rostock.
Immediately to the south of the city rises the cooling ridge with
the Bastorf lighthouse that can be seen from afar.
With a
length of 3,150 meters, Kühlungsborn has one of the longest beach
promenades in Germany. On the western edge of the city, the
promenade flows into Baltic Square. The wide sandy beach stretches
for about six kilometers. A special feature is the urban forest of
Kühlungsborn, which is around 1 kilometer × 1.5 kilometer in size,
which is relatively large compared to the size of the urban area and
which is enclosed in a ring by the built-up urban area.
The
place forms a basic center for its surroundings.