Unmatched, the Mecklenburg natural scientist Ernst Boll discovered the island of Rügen in the mid-19th century. Today, it attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year. This illustrated book portrays the island's versatility, its history, professional and cultural life, tourism and the accompanying spa architecture, nature, and the UNESCO World Heritage beech forests – as well as the Romantics around Caspar David Friedrich, who made Rügen a center of their artistic era. The texts by Hans-Joachim Hacker are accompanied by numerous images from the Romantic among northern German landscape photographers: Thomas Grundner. These images uniquely capture the special atmosphere of Rügen, the interplay of light, sea, and landscape.