Culture and history on Juist

The first stop and thus your starting point is the Haus Siebje at Januspark. The old island house has been renovated, cared for and maintained by the Juist local history society. It is thanks to many donors that the Siebje house is so beautifully renovated today. Inside the building is the cute shop Elfember, where owner Beate Striewe sells handmade products. The upper floor of the charming little house offers space for the Archive of the Heimatverein on the one hand, and on the other hand the rooms are rented out to selected artists who present their unique craftsmanship there. This is how history and modernity meet. When you stand in front of the Siebje house, you can easily step back in time and imagine what Juist must have looked like just under a hundred years ago.
You follow the road a little way and soon you will see today's Village Community Centre, your next stop. This used to be the site of the island's school. At that time, small groups of pupils were taught in different classes. The teacher himself probably lived in the same house as the school. Today, various rooms can be found in the village community centre, where associations meet, community council meetings take place and joint activities such as craft evenings take place.
You turn back and walk in the direction of Siebje House, but a little further, so that you stop in front of the Alte Warmbad . Here, where the public order office and the registry office are located today, there used to be a completely different programme: in keeping with the name, people bathed in the Old Warmbad. First opened in 1899, water from the tidal flats and then fresh North Sea water was piped into the building so that guests could enjoy a great bathing experience. Various bathing therapies could thus take place in the warm bath, which were very much appreciated by the guests. However, when the Seawater Adventure Bath was opened in 1970, today's Old Warmbad was increasingly used for the municipal administration.
At the Old Warmbad, you then walk up onto the dune (well, what is called "high" in flat East Frisia) and turn right until you reach the Water Tower . Completed in 1928, the water tower was once the central part of the water supply on the island, but today it is no longer quite so important for distributing water on Juist. With a height of 13 metres and its location on the almost 30-metre-high dune, the water tower is the highest point on the island. Inside is a huge water basin that helps distribute water by exchanging pressure. By the way: the water tower is also affectionately called "Doornkaartbuddel", as its shape resembles the beer bottle of this very brand.
Further on to the Strandhotel Kurhaus Juist, the "White Castle by the Sea". You will certainly recognise where this name comes from. The hotel itself has stood wonderfully exposed on the Juist dune for over a hundred years. Where once the high society of the German Empire spent the night, today you will find lovingly restored parts of the hotel that celebrate just the right mixture of old and new.
Followed by the aristocratic ambience of the spa hotel, you walk down Strandstraße until you reach the Alter Bahnhof. Until 1936, the island railway ended at this point, which diligently and reliably brought guests from the former harbour in the west to the village - along with suitcases, children and skittles. Today, the site is used as a restaurant. The Old Railway Station is not officially protected as a monument, but it should nevertheless be preserved in its present form, if possible, so that many more guests and islanders can enjoy the architecture. From the Old Island Station you can already see the Lighthouse Memmertfeuer - which is not so difficult, after all, the lighthouse stands relatively free at the harbour. The lighthouse used to do its traditional work on the bird protection island Memmert (hence the name, logically), but was supposed to be lost in 1986. Thanks to the commitment and donations of some Juist residents, the Memmertfeuer lighthouse has found its home on Juist, albeit not as a real lighthouse showing ships the way, but rather as a reminder of earlier times.
From now on, it would make sense to get on your bike. But if you have time and feel like it and are wearing comfortable shoes, of course we don't want to discourage you from walking. Enjoy the ride along the wonderful scenery of Juist. You stop at the Youth Hostel. There used to be a school here with its own theatre. In the 1930s, however, the theatre tradition on Juist was broken. Today, not much reminds us of the long history of the buildings, but with a good book in hand (e.g. by Sandra Lüpkes or Anne Prettin, both of whom write about Juist in the past), it is easy to fire the imagination.
Then you have one last stop to make. It's off to the Loog to the Island Museum. What other tour on the subject of history would be complete? In the former coastal museum, after the new conception, you will still be shown many exciting objects that revive life on Juist in times past.