Balmer See

The uninhabited little island of Balmer Werder lies in the Baltic Sea, in the Balmer See, the southeastern part of the Achterwasser lagoon, between Usedom and the mainland off the village of Balm. Balm belongs to the municipality of Benz in the county of Vorpommern-Greifswald in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.The island is 6.3 hectares (16 acres) in area, 500 metres (1,600 ft) long from north to south and 200 metres (660 ft) wide at its widest point. Its maximum height above sea level (NN) is 5.9 metres (19 ft). The Balmer Werder, along with the smaller island of Böhmke, lies within a nature reserve, established in 1967, in Usedom Island Nature Park.

Mellenthin is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

The Usedom Botanical Gardens, Mellenthin (German: Usedoms Botanischer Garten Mellenthin) (60,000 m²) is a private botanical garden located at Chausseeberg 1, Mellenthin, Usedom, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is open daily in the warmer months; an admission fee is charged. The garden was constructed between 2006—2008 and opened on May 1, 2009. It contains about 50,000 plants representing approximately 1,000 taxa that are winter-hardy on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom. Plants are arranged by botanical classification in 14 garden areas, with labels in Latin, German, and Polish: Green Garden - a conifer collection with evergreen ground cover, as well as about 8000 tulips, azalea, ground cover roses, and Erica tetralix. Early Flower Gardens - late spring and early summer perennials, hyacinths, chestnut trees, and a hedge of Spiraea x vanhouttei. Rose Garden - more than 100 rose varieties. Late Flower Garden - herbaceous plants flowering in late summer and autumn. Garden on a Slope - three fieldstone terraces displaying both early- and late-blooming perennials, with over 150 Clematis and more than 250 Phlox subulata. Lawn - a large pond and creeks, seating and picnic facilities, edged with Syringa vulgaris, Carpinus betulus, and Fagus sylvatica purpurea. Woods - natural forest with walking paths. Kitchen Garden - fruit trees and bushes including apple (Malus), pear (Pyrus), cherry (Prunus cerasus), and peach (Prunus persica), as well as a small vineyard with a variety of grapes (Vitis) and hedges of Lonicera xylosteum and Humulus lupulus. Heather Garden - Calluna vulgaris and Erica carnea, as well as 7000 tulips, with hedges of Hippophae rhamnoides and Taxus baccata. Herb Garden - about 20 types of culinary herbs. Rhododendron garden - More than 700 rhododendrons, with hydrangea and hibiscus. Ziersträuchergarten - Bird garden. Ponds and water gardens Rock garden

Usedom-Süd is an Amt in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The seat of the Amt is in the town Usedom. The Amt Usedom-Süd consists of the following municipalities:

The Usedom Island Nature Park (German: Naturpark Insel Usedom) comprises the German part of the island of Usedom in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. In addition to the island itself, the park covers the waterbody between the island and the mainland as well as small strips of mainland in the northwest and west near the seaside resorts of Lubmin and the town of Lassan. Even in East German days several parts of Usedom had been declared nature reserves, and they were gradually expanded. It was designated a protected area in 1966 and, in 1993, expanded to the area of the present-day nature park.In December 1999 the entire region was officially designated a nature park in the sense of being a large-scale cultural landscape. An information centre, the Ruth and Klaus Bahlsen House, with exhibition rooms, maps and leaflets, is located in the historic station building on the Bäderstraße from Usedom. The building was promoted as part of an INTERREG project and completed in 2005.The park is bounded by the Baltic Sea on the Bay of Greifswald (Greifswalder Bodden), the Peenestrom river, the Achterwasser lagoon and the Oder Lagoon (Stettiner Haff). The total area of the park is 632 square kilometres (244 sq mi). Roughly 30% of this area is covered by forest, about 50% by lakes and the bay, 15% is moorland and the remaining area is a cultural landscape. A special feature of the nature park is the great diversity of landscapes within a small area. These include beach and littoral, lakes and marshes, dunes, pine and beech forests mixed with small villages and fields. The island of Usedom is one of the richest bird areas in Germany. Osprey, white stork, crane and heron all breed in the nature reserve. The eutrophic and shallow lakes, such as the Gothensee and Schmollensee are ideal for bird roosting and nesting sites. The park is easily accessed on the B110 from Anklam or the B 111 from Wolgast or by rail on the Usedomer Bäderbahn. At the edge of the park is the municipality of Heringsdorf with its villages of Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf and Bansin.

Groote Beek (also: Große Beek) is a river on the island of Usedom, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany connecting the Schmollensee lake to the Achterwasser lagoon, which is connected to the Baltic Sea. The waterway begins at the Schmollensee to the east of the village Pudagla and runs approximately 2.1 kilometres in a north-westerly direction through wetlands to the Achterwasser.

Benz is a municipality on the island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. In an area that has been occupied since the Stone Age, the first documentation of the village dates to 1229 and during historical times, possession of it has changed several times, including by Sweden and Prussia. It is a famous spot for visitors, due to its scenic location between hills and lakes, the picturesque windmill, the old church St. Petri, and the graves of notable people, such as the German painter Otto Niemeyer-Holstein. The windmill, an Erdholländermühle, that was in operation until the later half of the twentieth century is open to the public, where they may learn about its historic, architectural, and technological importance. Portions of the church date to the fifteenth century. A series of drawings and paintings by Lyonel Feininger bears the name of Benz. He created many drawings and paintings of sites in Benz. A tour of the town takes visitors to many of the sites that appear in his works.[1] The path of the tour is marked with plaques in the ground, enabling self-guided tours. Feininger continued to use the site as the subject for works of art until his death, despite his return to living in the United States.[2][3]

Pudagla is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

The North European Plain (German: Norddeutsches Tiefland – North German Plain; Mitteleuropäische Tiefebene; Polish: Nizina Środkowoeuropejska – Central European Plain; Danish: Nordeuropæiske Lavland and Dutch: Noord-Europese Laagvlakte ; French : Plaine d'Europe du Nord) is a geomorphological region in Europe that covers all or parts of Belgium, the Netherlands (i.e. the Low Countries), Germany, Denmark, and Poland. It consists of the low plains between the Hercynian Europe (Central European Highlands) to the south and coastlines of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to the north. These two seas are separated by the Jutland Peninsula (Denmark). The North European Plain is connected to the East European Plain, together forming the majority of the Great European Plain (European Plain).

Usedom (German: Usedom [ˈuːzədɔm], Polish: Uznam [ˈuznam]) is a Baltic Sea island in Pomerania, divided between Germany and Poland. It is the second largest Pomeranian island after Rügen, and the most populous island in the Baltic Sea. It lies north of the Szczecin Lagoon estuary of the Oder river. About 80% of the island belongs to the German district of Vorpommern-Greifswald in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The eastern part and the largest city on the island, Świnoujście, are part of the Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship. The island's total area is 445 square kilometres (172 square miles) – 373 square kilometres (144 square miles) in the German part and 72 square kilometres (28 square miles) in the Polish part. Its population is 76,500 (German part 31,500; Polish part 45,000). With an annual average of 1,906 hours of sunshine, Usedom is the sunniest region of both Germany and Poland, and it is also one of the sunniest islands in the Baltic Sea, hence its nickname "Sun Island" (German: Sonneninsel, Polish: Wyspa Słońca). The island has been a tourist destination since the Gründerzeit in the 19th century, and features resort architecture. Seaside resorts include Zinnowitz and the Amber Spas in the west, the Kaiserbad and Świnoujście in the east.

Schmollensee is a lake in Usedom, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. At an elevation of 0 m, its surface area is 5.03 km².

The Achterwasser (Low German achtern = "rear, behind") is a lagoon forming a bay on the Peenestrom river, which flows into the Baltic Sea. This lagoon extends so far into the island of Usedom, that it is only separated from the Baltic Sea by a narrow barrier spit between Ückeritz and Zinnowitz. It is bordered to the north by the peninsula of Gnitz and to the south by the Lieper Winkel. The reed-lined south-eastern bay is called the Balmer See, and the one to the southwest, which can only be accessed with difficulty on its western shore, is the Krienker See. In past centuries the barrier protecting the lagoon was sometimes breached by the Baltic Sea during storm surges that flooded across the island of Usedom, when the narrowest part of the land bridge between Zempin and Koserow at Rieckgraben (near Lüttenort) was flooded. This land bridge between the Achterwasser and the Baltic Sea is only 300 metres wide. The Achterwasser is not very deep, and is a popular surfing and sailing area. The beach sand on the Achterwasser on the peninsula of Gnitz is not as fine-grained as that on the Baltic Sea beach of Usedom. The bottom of the Achterwasser is very stony. On some maps from medieval and early modern times, the lagoon is named as "Lassansches Water" or as plural "Lassansche Waters“. The description is related to the town of Lassan, which as the only town on the Achterwasser possessed the fishing rights for the waters.