History

Putbus has it’s origin in a slavic settlement. It was officially documented in 1253 for the first time. Since 1371, the Dukes of Putbus were resident in “a house made of stone”. During the following centuries, this house was extended several times, so that it finally became a castle at the beginning of 18th century.

At this point the development into a new residence began, as Wilhelm Malte of Putbus established a representative seaside resort in 1810, following the example of “Heiligendamm”. The establishment of Europe’s latest residence town took place among the old avenue “Stralsund – Garz “ being referred to the rectangular market place in town centre and the “Circus” , a circle-styled place in the east. Craftsmen and farmers settled down. All buildings of the exhaustive monument Putbus were built between 1810 and 1860, having a homogeneous architectural character. Thus, today’s Putbus offers a pure and stylistic entire portrait of classicistic building art. The castle, one of the most important buildings of Ruegen Island, was unfortunately cleared away in the 60’s. During the rule of Wilhelm Malte I. the parc became designed differently. During the time , an english landscape parc developed out of a baroc garden, being one of today’s most important parcs in nothern germany.

Great masters of building arts, as Schinkel, Steinmeyer, Steinbach or Stüler effected in Putbus, having left masterpieces of building arts.

Especially:

Church (Stüler/Steinmeyer, 1844-1846)

Theatre (Steinbach, 1819-1821)

Orangerie (Schinkel, 1824)

Today

Putbus is situated in the southern part of Ruegen Island, within easy reach by bus, train and even by ship and car. Having a population of about 5.200 citizens, it contains 33 small and intermediate villages. With a size of about 66 qkm, Putbus is, concerning the area, the biggest municipality on Ruegen Island.

The towns economy is mainly stamped by small and intermediate enterprises. Beside constructional business, trade, service and gastronomy, tourism plays the most important role. About 2.000 beds are available for guest accomodation.

2 km away from town centre, the village Lauterbach with it’s harbour in the “Greiswalder Bodden” is situated. From here it is the only possibility to reach the Isle of Vilm by guided ship tour.

Having a look from the sea to the coast, the viewer notices the town and its smaller villages, which appear to be straight in one line around the “Bodden”.

Future

Basing on a health resort development plan, the town council decided  to develop Putbus into a health resort the following years.By using the natural brine ressources, this goal is supposed to be reached.

In 1997, Putbus received the predicate

“Oualified appreciated recovery place”

which is seen as a first step towards the goal.

The development into a health resort is based on the following philosophy:

Our Philosophy

Artisticly established in the first half of the 19th  century, Putbus is Europe’s  latest residence town with classicistic architecture. It is a unique connection between nature and culture  romance in a stylistic enviroment of classicism, embedded into a marvelous forest and water scenery with carefully preserved nature.

Putbus is an architectural experience, situated in a stylistic landscape park. It revelates gorgeous views to the landscape and to the atmospheric Bodden with its wonderful romantic harbour.

With its cultural values, Putbus is the high level cultural center of Ruegen Island.

Putbus is starting and ending point of a nostalgic narrow gauge rail.

Putbus is an oasis of health, nature and silence away, situated near the highly frequented seaside resorts of Ruegen Island. 

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