Together with Ahrenshoop and Schwaan, Hiddensee counts as one of the North German artists‘ colonies. On a small and intimate island like this, wide blue skies dotted with clouds above your head and endless views do the trick. No noise, just the calm space to create in. Hiddensee’s visitors included poets, painters, sculptors, musicians, actors and other artists. Gerhart Hauptmann, poet, dramatist, Nobel prize laureate and one of the most loyal visitors to the island definitely recognised the Hiddensee appeal.
Among the visitors were the painters Henni Lehmann, Julie Wolfthorn, Käthe Löwenthal, Elisabeth Büchsel, Clara Arnheim, Elisabeth Andrae and Dorothea Stroschein. In 1919 these, together with other women painters, founded the Hiddensoer Künstlerinnenbund (Union of Hiddensee Lady Artists). An exceptional association at the time! With its more than hundred-year artistic and cultural history, Hiddensee has become a thriving part of German culture. The town is still very much alive as a cultural hub, offering exhibitions in the local Heimatmuseum and in the Asta Nielsen House, recitals on the Schuke organ in the island’s church, puppet-plays in the Seebühne (Theatre-by-the-sea), concerts and readings in the Gerhart Hauptmann House, in the Groot Partie and in the Henni Lehmann House – we could go on and on!