In the southern Baltic Sea, the island covers an area of 54 hectares, where a lively flora and fauna has developed. Moreover, no other German Baltic Sea island is further away from the mainland coast.
As a relic of the last ice age, the island with its forests, bush areas and beach sections is today an Eldorado for nature lovers. The first inhabitants came to the Oie as early as the 13th century. Once belonging to Wolgast, it was acquired by the city of Greifswald in 1291 and used as summer pasture for breeding horses. In the last century, with the beginning of the war preparations, the Greifswald Oie was declared a restricted military area in order to carry out numerous rocket launches there. Later, the GDR transferred about 30 soldiers of the border security unit to the island. In the meantime, a biological station for scientific research of bird migration is based there. In addition, the German Society for the Rescue of Castaways has stationed one of its rescue cruisers in the harbor of refuge.
The lighthouse, built in 1853 and almost 50 meters high, towers above the island. Its beacon still shows the way to shipping today. Its luminosity extends 50 kilometers out into the Baltic Sea, outshining all other lighthouses in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In addition, the beacon is the only left-turning one in the entire Baltic Sea region. The listed building can be climbed in summer.
Day visitors can reach the island by excursion steamer from Peenemünde and Freest. However, the entire area is designated as a nature reserve. Accordingly, the number of visitors is limited to a maximum of 50 people per day. Hiking is only possible on two signposted paths, and after two hours visitors must leave Greifswalder Oie again.
