I take borders for granted. Like most Europeans, I guess. Because most of us have lived in peace for a long time. The history of Wangerooge reminds me that it hasn‘t always been this way. Wangerooge is the place where I am heading for a one-week vacation (I am on a train right now), a Frisian island in the North Sea located close to the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.
Today Wangerooge is a municipality in the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony in Germany. From 1793 Wangerooge belonged to Russia, from 1807 to Holland, since 1810 to France, then back to Russia, and from 1818 to the Grand Duchy Oldenburg. - Imagine you wouldn’t have moved within 25 years, but still, your nationality had changed five times!
Back then, the unstable political conditions led to difficult economic conditions on the island, as my travel guide knows, which I am reading on the train. No wonder!
Have a peaceful day,
Johannes