A gigantic dune is pushing ahead in Pomerania

Fantastic Baltic Sea beaches, quiet lakes, coastal forests, nature reserves and cities worth seeing: Pomerania (from Slavic po morzu, "by the sea") is an exciting region - touristically, culturally, historically, geographically. Whereby Germans and Poles do not understand Pomerania in the same way: In this country one speaks of Vor- and Hinterpommern, which together formed the former duchy and later Prussian province with Stettin as the capital.

In Poland, on the other hand, today there are the West Pomeranian and Pomeranian Voivodeships (shown in black on the map). Polish West Pomeranian includes Stettin (Szczecin) and large parts of Eastern Pomerania, while Polish Pomeranian consists of East Eastern Pomerania and the area at the mouth of the Vistula, which is referred to in German as Pommerellen or West Prussia. Today, therefore, the beautiful old Hanseatic city of Danzig (Gdańsk), the historic seaside resort of Sopot (Sopot) and Kashubia also belong to Pomerania.

With its large lake district and hills, Kashubian Switzerland is very scenic. The Kashubians still speak a language related to Polish with German loanwords.

Traces of the Mennonites who once immigrated from Holland can also be found in the area. In the 17th century, they dug numerous canals, built locks, drained areas and left a lasting mark on the landscape. Gdansk and the nearby village of Fischerbabke (Rybina) are therefore ideal starting points for houseboat tours through the little-known Vistula Werder area, which can also be navigated without a boat license.

The varied nature is also wonderful to explore on land - the Pomeranian Voivodeship is covered to a third by forests. Cyclists rave about the Pomeranian sections of the EuroVelo 10 long-distance cycle route, the Baltic Sea Coastal Route, which runs from Germany through seaside resorts (such as Kolberg) and Slowinski National Park to Gdańsk and on to the Warmian-Masurian region.

The legendary Lontzke Dune (Laska Gora) towers over 40 meters. It advances up to ten meters a year, the largest shifting dune on the Pomeranian coast, unique in Europe - a crescent-shaped giant of golden yellow sand, surrounded by a sea of ​​equally grandiose, but somewhat smaller dunes. The "Polish Sahara", as the impressive area near the seaside resort of Leba is also called, lies on a 17-kilometer strip of land between Lake Leba and the Baltic Sea coast.

Artists such as Max Pechstein, who fell in love with her in 1921, and his painter colleague Karl Schmidt-Rottluff were fascinated by the play of light in this landscape, which is still a destination for painting trips today. The dunes are part of the Slowinski National Park - with around 18,600 hectares, 140 kilometers of hiking trails, over 250 bird species, some of which are rare, and 850 plant species, the entire UNESCO biosphere reserve is ideal for hiking vacationers. The museum village in Klucken (Kluki) makes it possible for visitors to experience the now vanished culture of the Slowinzen who once lived here, after whom the national park is named.

It is tiny and originally associated with better circles, as a popular accessory of the European aristocracy: the Pomeranian (English "the Pomeranian"). He looks like a stuffed animal, but he's a real dog. Around 200 years ago, the first Pomeranian Pomeranians came to England, where they were bred to toy size.

It was not until the 1970s that the mini Pomeranian dog came to Germany as a kind of re-import. However, one should not be fooled by its lap-animal format: Like its larger forefathers, this Spitz is also a distinctive family and guard dog that needs activity - otherwise it is not amused and barks.

Visible from afar, it towers over the city, the magnificent Szczecin Castle with its many towers. The former seat of the Griffin dynasty in the former capital of Pomerania was badly damaged in World War II and rebuilt over the years in the Renaissance style.

Today the castle of the Pomeranian dukes is a place for theater performances, art exhibitions and concerts. Stettin's opera sits in one of the wings - and forms a stark aesthetic contrast to the Philharmonie in its spectacularly modern prestige building.

In contrast to Gdansk and Warsaw, the old Hanseatic city on the Oder, now the capital of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, was not rebuilt in a uniform historical style. Instead, Szczecin's old town presents itself today as an exciting mix of the Middle Ages, the Gründerzeit, prefab buildings and the modern age.

You could call him Gdansk's biggest short star: Oskar Matzerath, the hero of Günter Grass' novel "The Tin Drum". For 13 years he sat alone on a park bench as part of a memorial in the Langfuhr district of Gdańsk, today Wrzeszcz, where the writer was born in 1927. Grass, who remained closely connected to his native town even after the Germans were expelled, strictly rejected a monument during his lifetime.

Only after his death in 2015 was it allowed to add the Grass figure to the monument. Today the bench where you can sit between Oskar and Grass is a popular photo hotspot. It is a must on every tour of Gdansk following in the footsteps of the Nobel Prize winner for literature, as is the house where he was born and the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, where Grass was baptized as a Catholic.

The West Pomeranian and Pomeranian Voivodeships together have 532 kilometers of coastline towards the open sea - enough space for beach idlers, banana boat racers, sandcastle builders and leisure captains. Around two dozen larger Baltic Sea holiday resorts line the Pomeranian coast, including Swinemünde (Świnoujście) on Usedom, Misdroy (Międzyzdroje) on Wollin and Kolberg (Kołobrzeg), which has been developed into a spa.

In Zoppot (Sopot) on the Bay of Gdańsk you can rent a pretty villa and stroll across Europe's longest wooden pier. There are hotspots for kitesurfers and cliffs for hiking; in the hinterland, ornithologists get their money's worth.

"When we moved there in the summer of 1827, Świnoujście was an ugly little town, but at the same time a place with a special charm"

Theodor Fontane (1819-1898) became the national poet of the Prussian region with his "Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg". It is less well known that he also immortalized Pomerania in literature. As a child, Fontane spent five formative years in Swinemünde on Usedom, which he described in his book "My Childhood Years".

"Effi Briest" is bursting with inspiration from the city, it is considered the template for Kessin, where the title heroine lives. Several descriptions of places, anecdotes and names from the novel come from Świnoujście - appropriate reading for a visit to the port city, whose strange mixture of ugly and attractive should strike the guest today as much as Fontane did back then.

Bizarre, record-breaking, typical: You can find more parts of our regional geography series here.

This article was first published in August 2021.