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Measuring less than one square mile, the island of Heligoland in the North Sea, just 30 miles off the north German coast, is an easily forgotten British colony.
But, this Frisian (not German) peaking island of 3,000 inhabitants was part of the British Empire from 1814 to 1890.

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Heligoland had its own British governor (or.Lt. governor), its own flag incorporating the Union flag, and from 1867 issued its own stamps with Queen Victoria’s head on them.

During British rule, the island became a spa resort attracting the cream of European society.
The laid-back colony, became a hub for German liberals, avoiding the more draconian
governments in places like Prussia.
One of these liberal was the poet, August Heinrich Hoffman von Fallersleben.
Whilst staying on the island in 1841 he wrote a poem entitled “Das Lied der Deutschen”
Put to a tune previously written by Joseph Hayden 40 years before, it has become the German National Anthem.

In 1890 in a bizarre land deal, Britian gave up the island to Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany in return for recognition of her colonial ambitions in Uganda, Kenya & Zanzibar.

During both the First and Second World Wars the island was heavily fortified by the Germans.
During WW2, it suffered from a 1,000 bomber raid from the RAF and after the war, in 1947 the British conduscted one of the largest ever non-nuclear explosions to destroy German fortifications once and for all (operation Big Bang).

Nowadays, Heligoland, with a population of just over 1,000 is part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

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