20 square kilometers of cultural history. Empress Catherine II wanted to acquire the island for her fleet. William Shakespeare set his play "The Tempest" on it. Ariosto had his "Raging Roland" fight on its shores. Hundreds of Mussolini's soldiers surrendered without resistance in 1943 to an English-Jewish pilot who had made an emergency landing on the island. The Italian novelist Tomasi di Lampedusa mocked the island that bore his name. And for more than two decades, Lampedusa has become an island of hope for tens of thousands of refugees. Ulrich Ladurner set out to explore these rugged rocks in the middle of the sea. He found evidence from the heart of European history and present.