Groß Stresow

The "traitor's house" near Groß Stresow

📍 Groß Stresow

The "Traitor's House" commemorates the battle between Prussia, Denmark and Sweden (Northern War) at Groß Stresow. When the combined forces of the Prussians and Danes landed at sea, tradition has it that Johan Meußling - a man from Groß Stresow - showed the fleet under Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I the way through the Rügen Bodden and ashore with a bed sheet on the roof of his house. The Swedes were only temporarily expelled from Rügen at the time, but Stresower's house was nicknamed the "Traitor's House". The original traitor's house was demolished around 30 years ago. In the new building, typical of Rügen, which has been given a half-timbered roof and walls lined with old bricks that the villagers themselves had recruited, the people of Stresow present their history in an exhibition. The statue of Prussian King Frederick William I stands in front of today's museum. To commemorate the great victory over the Swedes, Frederick William IV had one of the "Prussian Columns" erected on a hill in Stresow in 1855 with a larger-than-life statue of the Prussian King Frederick William I (1688-1740). In 1991, the 15-metre-high "Stresow Prussian Column" was dismantled due to the threat of collapse. Only after 23 years was the last of the two Prussian columns erected in 2014.