Kira: Coming up next on islands without cars, we explore an island off Germany's northwest coast that completely rebuilt itself after World War II.

Join us as we visit an artist working with fragments from the past.

It looks like bones.

Kira: Listen to an impromptu rendition of Germany's revised national anthem, and crack into a uniquely intimate lobster fest.

[theme music] Hi!

I'm Kira Cook, and it's my great pleasure to be your guide as we search for islands lost in time, places where cars are restricted, and whose inhabitants wouldn't have it any other way.

So come with me on a journey that you won't forget.

The port in Hamburg is the largest sea port in Germany.

It's known for its architecture on one side of the river Elbe, and shops and restaurants on the other.

We're about to take a four-hour catamaran to what is described as a "rock in the North Sea".

This island is called Helgoland, and is where the Germans go to relax, breathe deeply, and get rid of their allergies.

We're going to find out what else is there.

Helgoland is "far out" -- literally.

29 miles off the German coastline, Heligoland, or "Helgoland" without the "i" in German, is located in the North Sea between Denmark and the Netherlands.

It consists of two separate car-free islands, Helgoland and Düne.

The main island of Helgoland is a populated red rock, distinctive for its vertical cliffs dropping into the sea.

Düne is far less populated if you don't count the seals, and is surrounded by sandy beaches.

But this idyllic vacation spot has a tragic history.

Helgoland was bombed and evacuated during World War II and then completely annihilated after the war.

No exaggeration.

As a result, this entire island, and our story, is one of rebirth, with all life returning to the island in just a little more than half a century.

Hello!

Hello, I'm Maren Lohmeyer.

Okay, nice to meet you.

Thank you so much for having us!

Kira: Born in the late 1950's on the then barely reoccupied island, conceptual artist Maren Lohmeyer spends her days retrieving fragments of the island's past that wash up on Heligoland's beaches and in fuses those pieces of the past with new life and purpose.

We find these pieces out of the second World War, and you can see some pieces how old they are because the years are-- Kira: 1939, 1935.

Maren: And everything is out of the old houses.

Kira: Those "old houses," along with everything else were destroyed near the end of World War II when Britain dropped 7,000 bombs on the island.

But because the extensive wartime fortifications remained somewhat intact, the British finished the job two years after the war... [bombs explode] ...by detonating 6,700 tons of explosives in an operation known as "Big Bang".

The bombing was then the largest single non-nuclear explosion in history, and it completely obliterated the island.

Yet, these beautiful fragments revealing glimpses of life before the explosions have been washing up from the sea ever since, like pieces in a puzzle or notes from the grave.

So your necklace is amazing, this little doll?

Yes.

What is this from, do you know?

Yes.

I think it's from the little girls playing with it.

They had the houses?

-Yeah.

-Yes.

Like dollhouses?

The dollhouses, yes.

And I found a lot of small dolls, legs, arms.

Kira: It's amazing, and it's in great condition!

The paint is still on for the face perfectly.

Maren: Yes, sometimes it's with some paint.

And the most of them, you can see there.

Over there, they have no paint.

Legs, arms.

Kira: Sort of macabre.

Maren: Noses!

Kira: Wow!

Maren: From the broken faces.

Kira: Amazing.

Maren: Yes.

And do you make necklaces out of the faces, or the heads, or the noses?

Maren: Yeah, sometimes, but I want to collect them.

Kira: And you make tiles also?

Maren: I make mosaic.

Kira: Mosaic tiles?

Maren: Yes.

Kira: Just for decoration in the home?

Maren: Yes.

Yeah.

You can see I found a lot here from the ground of the plates.

You can see this.

Wow.

Oh, plates!

These are all broken plates!

God, so beautiful, it looks like bones.

How do you collect the glass, what's your schedule?

What's your routine?

Maren: At low tide.

I like to walk at low tide because the beaches are bigger and you can find more.

Kira: And how often do you go?

Maren: If I can, if I have time enough, I walk everyday.

Everyday I have one handful of pieces.

Kira: You find something every day, there's that much material?

Maren: Yes.

Yes.

Kira: So do you feel that your art reflects how you feel about the island?

Maren: Yes.

Kira: You make something from the place where you've lived your whole life.

That's very special.

Maren: Yes, and I try to get it to the next generation.

Kira: The evacuated islanders were allowed to return to Helgoland in 1952, and the process of clearing undetonated ammunition, landscaping, and rebuilding began.

But it would take decades for the wildlife to find their way back to the island.

Kira: Oh, gardeners!

Rebecca: Yeah, they are our natural gardeners.

Kira: Today Heligoland is home to a new generation of Germans committed to cultivating and preserving the island's animal magnetism.

Kira: So please, tell us about these birds.

The birds we see here in the background are Northern Gannets, and those are our youngest breeding birds, if you want to say so.

All those breeding birds you would not see anywhere else in Germany because you just don't find the conditions those birds need.

And they love those cliffs and they are, as you can see, building those nests also.

You can see and observe species here you cannot observe anywhere else, even in whole Europe.

Kira: So this island is a magnet for bird lovers.

Rebecca: It's a magnet for bird lovers, and also for birds.

Sometimes I really speak of a magnet.

And if birds are, for instance, also migrating, we have roughly recorded about 400 different migrating birds because if you think about that we are very, very far from the German coastline, like 60 kilometers.

They use it like a pit stop.

They are really tired of their hundreds and thousands of kilometers they are doing.

And even those guys here, they just come for the summer months to breed and then they leave.

Kira: You mentioned that you're finding some plastic in the nests.

Is there a danger to the birds with this?

Rebecca: Yes, it is.

The danger here is not that they are going to eat it, but the birds would maybe entangle themselves so they get trapped, basically, and then they can't cut loose.

We are not sure what might be the impact for the whole population.

So, the only thing we can do is public education on marine litter and to try to stop the amount of litter reaching the sea.

Kira: So how do you maintain such an amazing natural conservation area with this influx of tourists that you get every day?

Rebecca: I think that is a great benefit to have those tourists coming here, because they are all so fascinated and they all love the nature here and I think the best tool is education and to tell them something about it.

We do have marine mammals also on the Dune.

We have the Harbor Seals and we have a growing Grey Seal population.

In the middle of the 90's, we had the first seal being born on Dunes.

We have now, from this one seal pup 20 years ago, we had last season over 400 seals.

So, this is a hot spot for really national protected species in Germany to get part of the ecosystem here again.

Kira: But it isn't just the birds and the seals that are enjoying Helgoland's hospitality.

The fish and lobster populations, which were also decimated by the bombings, are now growing as well.

Our new Helgoland friends invited us to experience lobster fishing at dawn.

We don't catch a lot of lobsters after the second World War because everything was destroyed, and even the lobsters were destroyed.

Before the second World War, we had around about 80,000 lobsters a year, and nowadays we catch around about 400-500 and no more.

Kira: Wow.

And that's because of the effect of the bombing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because the population has to start-- Kira: Regenerate.

Holger: --from zero.

Kira: Yeah.

Holger: And there were nothing left here.

Kira: Wow.

And even with the fish, we had the same problem.

Kira: Holger Bünning is a returning islander and Renaissance man.

After a long career in politics, Holger moved back to Helgoland and works a variety of jobs.

Today he's helping sixth and seventh generation fishermen, Klaus and his son Sven, on the open seas.

Oh!

[laughs] Holger: That's the only place in Germany, because it's the only rocky island.

All the other islands are sandy islands without any lobster.

Ah.

And how long does it take for them to grow up?

Like, how old is this lobster?

Holger: This is around about 12 years old.

Kira: Wow.

Do they live until they're 20, or?

Holger: Yeah, more.

Kira: More!

Holger: 30 years.

Kira: Wow.

I'm sorry!

[speaks German] [laughs] Kira: Today's catch goes to Dirk Hardersen, owner of THE happening place on Düne.

Dirk generously offered to have his staff cook us a lobster breakfast, with my expert help.

Goodbye!

Kira: And the result was, well, amazing!

From the hospitality and sense of community, to the sweet, meaty crustaceans themselves.

Holger: My family, where I grow up-- Kira: Yeah.

--we always had to pray before dinner-- Right.

[mumbles] Amen!

[laughs] Holger: I show you.

I show you this-- Kira: Yep.

Show me.

[whistles] Gorgeous!

Look at this!

Oh, my god.

Kira: And after our freshly-caught lobster fest, we sat down with Holger for a lesson in island-style resilience.

Holger: Peace after second World War to Helgoland came in 1952.

In '52, there was a chance that the people from Helgoland could come back, and from that, we started with zero, we built a new city, we built new houses.

We organized ourselves.

So we started immediately with our boats, with our fishing boats feeding the people with fish.

And because of that, you will not find any old house or any old stuff here on the island.

Everything is new, everything is from '52 to '60.

And so you can imagine that we hate war, that we hate everything that has to do with dangerous political situations.

We want to live our peaceful life here.

We want to enjoy our island, the nature, and living not only with us, but also with our guests.

Kira: Islanders and guests alike are treated to an upper land and a lower land, at sea-level.

For those who find the stairs daunting, despite their beautiful views, a "fahrstuhl", or elevator is available.

Both islands offer plenty of opportunities for exploration.

The main attractions are the secluded beaches, hiking paths, a remnant of the "Big Bang" in the form of a rather large crater, and a free-standing rock formation, called Lange Anna, or "Tall Anna".

We discovered that the aerial views are pretty spectacular as well.

Like many islands, Helgoland's economy depends on day-trippers and vacationers.

When the European Union abolished duty free sales on inner-European routes, Helgoland was granted an exception, which helped secure the island's economy.

It's duty free zone attracts people looking to stock up on booze, cigarettes, and perfume.

Let's check it out!

Kira: Most people come here for a few days to walk the island, breathe the brisk, North Sea air, visit the World War II underground bunker, which was buried deep enough in the hard rock to survive the British bombings, check out the small but nicely curated museum complete with miniature replicas of the so-called "lobster shacks" that line the harbor... ...and enjoy the very popular pub culture, which can be particularly enthusiastic during international soccer matches.

[horn blows] [laughs] Kira: The island drink is called Eiergrog.

Into the glass.

Kira: It's made of raw egg, sugar... Islander: A little bit of hot water.

Kira: ...hot water, and blended with not one, but two types of local rum for an extra dose of gemütlichkeit.

Hah!

That's it!

That's it.

Simple!

You can drink.

I will drink!

[laughs] Where's yours?

No.

No, you don't drink?

At all?

Only for tourists.

[laughs] Most-- [coughing, laughing] Well, this my junkyard.

It's beautiful!

Yeah, I love it too.

[laughs] Kira: After living abroad for years, engineer and artist Thilo Denker returned to the island where he was born to get the quality of life he was looking for.

For people who doesn't know what to do with it, it's trash, but if you just look at it the right way, then you can make quite the thing out of it.

What are your feelings about this island?

What do you like about it, why is this place special?

It's special because when you get in this hamster wheel-- I call it a hamster wheel on the mainland-- it's things you have to do every day: get in your car, drive to work for hours.

I was product manager and I was business developing manager over there with companies, traveling a lot, worldwide, and after a while I said, "Do I need this?

No.

I really don't need this anymore."

So, we really said, "Less is more".

Is there a difference in personality between an islander and a mainlander?

Yeah, there is.

They have to learn the slowness.

That's what they-- Sometimes you see even when fresh mainlanders move here, you see them walking.

Somebody who is living here for a lot longer is walking a lot slower than the ones from the mainland because they are always in a hurry, somehow.

Yeah, right.

Thilo: And the amount of people is just right.

The quietness, the cleanness, the water, the air, the sand dune we have, it's holiday right in front of your doors.

People pay a lot of money to have that, and we have it every day if you want to.

For Germany, it's very unique Island-wise.

What makes me happy every morning is my five minute drive to work with my scooter towards the sea.

When I see the sunrise, that makes me happy.

[choir singing] Kira: At the island Lutheran church, we were treated to an impromptu concert organized by another returning native islander... [choir singing] ...which featured the German national anthem.

Or at least a part of it.

Kira: So today, only the third verse of the national anthem is sung because the other verses were misused by the Nazis, is that right?

Gerald: Yes, that's true.

Sometimes, language is ambiguous, so the beginning is, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles".

Deutschland, Deutschland über-- Gerald: Über alles.

Über alles.

"Germany over all".

Impossible to sing after the second World War, this verse.

If you are a patriot, your home country is, for you, more important than other countries.

That's the meaning of the poem.

But in the Nazi time, they changed a bit, the meaning: "Germany, the first country in the world", and the country to govern the other countries.

That was the misuse.

But the third verse remained.

And what is the meaning behind the third verse?

What were you all singing?

Unity and justice and freedom for Germany, our fatherland.

That's the task for all of us, all together like brothers hand in hand.

If you do this, Germany should flourish."

That's the end of the verse.

[choir singing] Kira: How did you gather the people that sang the national anthem for us?

Gerald: Yes, I made a poster.

You can see it hanging.

I informed my musical groups, and there are so many tourists interested in what's happening.

It's a possibility to come into television and so they were curious and came.

But I had no idea who will come, ten or hundred.

I didn't know before.

[laughs] So it was a totally ad hoc choir that you had never worked with before.

Yes, totally.

[choir singing] Ruth: I'm singing in the choir for several years.

I think it's a very emotional thing to deal with because of the history, because there was misuse of the text, which was originally written in 1841, so it's always very difficult for us to deal with singing the hymn without thinking about the Nazi misuse, and I think we are now proud again.

So it's a new kind of feeling of proudness concerning our own hymn, which is still a new feeling for us, I think.

[choir singing] Right here?

The famous mulberry tree.

Mulberry tree.

Mulberry tree.

Kira: What made you return to Helgoland?

Gerald: I spent my childhood on Helgoland and I knew the highest church musician of our church, and I asked him "Do you see a job for me, a task?"

and he said "I would like to have someone for Helgoland because no one wants to go to Helgoland because it's so far away from the rest of Germany.

And for your private life, it's a very great problem if your partner, your family is far away.

And for me, it's my home, and so I thought, "Here I'm on the right place".

[bells ringing] [speaking German] Islands Without Cars.

Kira: For once, the table was turned on me.

Literally!

And I was the one answering questions.

On the appropriately named radio station "The Rock."

How long have you been here already?

We've been on Helgoland for about a week.

For about a week.

Yeah.

So you have seen a lot already.

Yes.

Yes, so how do you like Helgoland?

We love it!

You love it?

Yeah!

It's interesting.

I keep waiting for a certain island to feel the same as every other island or to feel like, "Oh, it's okay, we've already experienced something like this".

But each island has really a very distinct personality, and everyone has just been so welcoming to us, bringing us into their homes and their bars and their places of work, really accommodating us.

It's been really lovely to meet everybody that makes the island move.

It's been really special to spend time here.

Kira: And in case you thought that it was just us who were treated so warmly here, we caught up with Holger again to see the hospitality that is uniquely of this island.

Holger also works with the harbor master to organize a landing service for people traveling on ships that are too big to dock here.

He is currently applying for UNESCO heritage status for their ritual of escorting guests from ship to shore.

So, I'm getting off the ship.

How's the Helgoland hello?

Yeah, I can tell you and I can show you how we say hello to our guests!

We make something like this.

Come on!

And here we got it.

Okay, it's a Foxtrot.

Yeah it is!

Yeah.

Okay.

Do you spin?

Hmm?

Oh, yeah.

Sure.

Yeah, okay.

That's another.

That's the American hello.

Yeah, I know that.

[laughs] Okay.

Holger: We will see something really special and unique in the world because we wait for around about 2,000 guests today.

They will be five ships coming.

One ship can go into the harbor, our big harbor.

One ship can go into the small harbor.

But then there are three other ships we have to put there.

And so we will go out with our boats and we take the passengers and bring them here to shore.

Kira: How many passengers fit on one of these small boats?

Holger: Around about 50.

In former time when people were slim, 70.

Now we come close to 40.

[laughs] Things have changed.

Holger: Yeah.

But it's really something special because we have to bring them safe over here to shore, but we welcome everybody with our open arms.

This is really special, saying hello.

It is cloudy, it is not too hot, but I think it's a perfect day to come to Helgoland and enjoy it, but I think this is what the people are expecting when they come to the North Sea.

They need a little bit more windy, and different than on the mainland.

Kira: Yeah.

Kira: I'm struck by how much more than a rock in the North Sea Helgoland really is.

The solidity of this island seems an apt metaphor for the resilience of their community.

Auf Wiedersehen, Helgoland.

You've been a completely surprising experience and a hopeful lesson in renewal.

For more information about our series, visit our website at www.islandswithoutcars.com.