Why Helgoland?
For my birthday in 2022 my son sent me a book by Carlo Rovelli, an Italian scientist. The title of the book is “Helgoland”. Helgoland is a small rock island in the North Sea, I worked on that island in 1954 and 1955. Rovelli called the book “Helgoland ” because in 1925 a young German scientist Werner Heisenberg, while on the island found the idea that made it possible to build the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics, perhaps the most impressive scientific revolution of all time.
In 1841 when Helgoland still belonged to England, Hoffmann von Fallersleben was hiding out on the island because he was wanted by the authorities for propagating the formation of one United Germany. It was here that Von Fallersleben wrote the beautiful poem Das Lied Der Deutschen, that would eventually become the German National Anthem. It was only years later that Germany was unified under Bismarck. Who became the first German Chancellor.
In 1899 Helgoland became German Territory in an exchange with England for the Island of Zanzibar. The Germans, first under Kaiser Wilhelm and then Hitler built up the island into a Military Naval Base. That is why the Brit’s bombed Helgoland toward the end of World War II and then tried to totally destroy it in 1947 by the biggest non nuclear explosion on record. They called it “The Big Bang”.
After years of protests Helgoland was returned to Germany by the Allies in 1952. That year reconstruction of the island began. In 1954/55 as a young construction draftsman I worked for the German Government in charge of all of Helgoland’s harbor facilities. I found a photograph in my old Helgoland Album and created Helgoland Number 1, as a thank you gift to my son. After that the Helgoland Variations just evolved. Enjoy!
