Zinnowitz

Description

NV Cruising Guide

Navigation

The approach to the harbor is only recommended during the day. From the fairway of the Peenestrom, past the buoyed shoals of Hohe Schaar, Warther Haken and Trokkenort, you head into the unbuoyed 2-3m deep Achterwasser.
After keeping well clear of the island of Görmitz, you approach the head of the passenger jetty at 310° and then turn to starboard into the harbor. The berths in the harbor basin are reserved for yachts under 12.00 m in length. Longer yachts use the outside of the pier. Contrary to the chart, the lifeboat is moored directly in front of the harbour master's office in a box in the corner.

Berths

The harbor is occupied by local pleasure craft, but guests will always find a place to moor after the expansion into a water hiking rest area. The water depth at the moorings is 2.5 m.

The SAR sea rescuers have their home port here

The jetty to the northwest, outside the harbour, is reserved for passenger boats.

Surroundings

The parking lot goes right up to the harbor basin.
There is a bistro and restaurant, good shopping facilities are available in the town center about 2 km away. At the harbor there are bicycles for rent from MV-Rad. 

There is a diving school on the road to the harbor. Among other things, you can dive wrecks in the Baltic Sea.

A gas station is located not far from the harbor on the road. 

NV Land Guide

In SED times, Zinnowitz was known as the "working people's spa". For the party, the seaside resort was a prime example of how a resort should be geared towards workers' vacations and what the leisure facilities should look like. More than in Heringsdorf or Ahlbeck, the development of Zinnowitz from a former aristocratic seaside resort to a family seaside resort was emphasized.

Today's offerings in Zinnowitz hardly differ from those of other seaside resorts on the Baltic coast: seawater wave pool, disco, sauna, bowling alleys, carriage rides, table tennis, computer games, kiosks, beach chair rentals, bakeries, cafés and so on. Not to forget: the fine sandy beach along the promenade, where there is life all day long and the motto is "see and be seen". At the end of the pier, you can dive into the underwater world in a diving gondola, a distance of approx. 3 km. If you go a little further, you will find a sand sculpture exhibition, the attraction "A house upside down", the "Miniature golf pirates of the Baltic Sea" and a butterfly farm on the south side of Trassenheide.

There is less of the vacation hustle and bustle of Zinnowitz in the harbor on the Achterwasser. Two kilometers south-east of the main road, the Zinnowitz yacht club had created an oasis of calm, which unfortunately was not completely preserved after the restoration and expansion of the harbour with the reopening in spring 2011.

The country road coming from Wolgast leads past the harbour's jetties at a distance of 500 m, far enough to be protected from traffic noise. The advantage of this port is obvious: you have the choice of plunging into the vacation hustle and bustle, enjoying the tranquillity of the Achterwasser or exploring the Gnitz on foot. The latter is the sparsely populated peninsula south of Zinnowitz.

Neuendorf, Netzelkow and Lütow, from north to south, are the small settlements on the Gnitz, which offers nature lovers an excellent circular hiking route. The 32-metre-high "White Mountain" and the megalithic tombs near Lütow, which historians regard as evidence that the Gnitz was one of the few habitable areas on northern Usedom more than a thousand years ago, are suitable destinations for two stages. The land, rugged by numerous lakes, marshes, bogs and water arms, was dangerous terrain for those unfamiliar with the area and first protected the Germanic tribes and later the Slavs from raids for a long time. Later, the increasing silting up of the shallow water zones and wetlands deprived the inhabitants of their protection. The Slavs engaged in a battle with the Vikings, which they lost.

On the western side of the Gnitz, a narrow sandy beach at the foot of the steep bank invites you to sunbathe.

Six kilometers south-east of Zinnowitz, Koserow, which emerged from an old Slavic settlement, and the Streckelsberg also tempt you to go on a shore excursion. The rail link from Zinnowitz to Koserow passes the narrowest point of the Usedom land bridge at Zempin. The land connection between the south and north of the island is just 500 m long. There was once a passage to the Baltic Sea here, which was blocked by the Hanseatic League with scuttled cogs because the powerful Hanseatic League feared competition from farmers sailing to sea.

The cogs were rediscovered a few years ago, but unfortunately were not appreciated by the monument conservators. Only in the garden of the late artist Otto Niemeyer-Holstein can some of the frames of the Hanseatic cogs be seen. Usedom's most famous artist settled at the narrowest point between the Achterwasser and the Baltic Sea in 1932 at the age of 36. He called his new home on the road between Zinnowitz and the seaside resorts "Lüttenort". The name came from a sailing boat that his father had once given him in Kiel, the town of his birth, and which he had taken with him to the Achterwasser. He initially lived and worked here in an old S-Bahn carriage until he and his wife Annelise Schmidt had enough money to build a house.

Otto Niemeyer-Holstein only achieved his breakthrough at the age of 60 after an eventful life and exhibitions in Kassel, Lübeck, Halle and Erfurt. Until 1955, a constant shortage of money forced him to lead a spartan life, but he always left his mark on it. In his younger years, he traveled as far as the Scandinavian fjords with his pilot cutter "Orion", and later took voyages as far as China. One of the main themes of his paintings, which were created in nature and in his workshop "TABU", were the Bodden landscapes in the changing seasons. Numerous portraits and nude drawings are also among the well-known works of the artist, whom the locals respectfully called the "painter-professor". If you would like to know more about Otto Niemeyer-Holstein than a visit to his place of work provides, we recommend a book with reproduced stories by the artist: "Lüttenort" by Achim Roscher.

The strip of land near Lüttenort stands for a sad chapter in the island's history. An endless minefield stretched out here, the clearing of which cost nineteen people their lives after the war. In the final days of the Second World War, the "SS" wanted to blow up Usedom at this narrow point and make two parts of the island in order to better defend the northern part.

"Terminal moraine complex with cliff-edge dune" is what geologists call the impressive and legendary Streckelsberg. At only 60 meters, the highest elevation on the island has been severely threatened by storms since stones from the offshore Vineta reef were transported to Swinemünde for harbour construction in 1820. A seawall built in 1896 to protect against erosion has reduced the collapse of the cliffs, but storms still successfully gnaw away at Streckelsberg, which is known as a nature reserve for a number of protected, rare plants, including many species of orchids and hyacinths.

West of the Streckelsberg, the so-called salt huts with "Fischerstuw" and a small historical fishing exhibition invite you to linger.

Medieval historians declared the area around the Koserow stone reefs to be the site of the sinking of the city of Vineta sung about by its contemporary poets. This supported the poetic idea of an unimaginably rich city whose citizens were punished for their extravagance with an even more unimaginable storm surge. To this day, the city, which is shrouded in legends and also serves as a lure for tourists, still stirs the imagination, although it is now considered proven that the city where people ate with golden spoons can be found under today's Wollin. This cannot harm the imagination of those Koserow residents who have seen with their own eyes how Vineta rose from the water for a few hours in its former glory. But it only does this every 100 years on Easter morning. And because the city also wanted to be looked after under water, over the centuries it has caused many ships to smash into the Vineta rocks as if magically guided by a hand, taking their cargo into the depths. It must have been a welcome excuse for the captains.

The legend tells that a shepherd boy entered the city when it emerged from the water before him one Easter morning and the merchants offered him the most valuable goods for just one penny. With this penny, he could have freed Vineta and brought her back to the surface for good, but to the great disappointment of the inhabitants, the boy did not even have a penny, only the clothes he was wearing on his body.

Koserow is also known as the parish where pastor Wilhelm Meinhold had the idea for his "Amber Witch" around 1823 and became Usedom's most important poet with the novel. In old church records, he is said to have come across a document about the burning of a vicar's daughter as a witch. This gave him the idea of writing a novel about a witch and passing it off as a chronicle, with the aim of ridiculing biblical criticism. In the end, however, he made a fool of himself and converted to the Catholic faith in protest. After all, the street leading to Streckelsberg is named after him.

Marina Information

Contact

Surroundings

Electricity

Water

Toilet

Shower

Restaurant

Imbiss

Crane

Grocery

Travellift

Bikerental

Garbage