onstructed (R�gendamm), replacing the former ferry shuttles.
The title given to the operation commanded by Wolfram von Richthofen, which saw the town of Guernica bombed during the Spanish Civil War, was named after the island. An Abwehr SIGINT Operation during the same conflict was titled Operation Bodden after the strait separating R�gen from the German mainland.
In the aftermath of World War II, East German and Soviet authorities exiled landholders from the mainland to the island.
After the Second World War R�gen became part of the state of Mecklenburg within the German Democratic Republic. In 1952 the island became part of the district of Rostock.
The island was the focal point of the infamous Project Rose (Action Rose) by the GDR government designed to nationalize hotels, taxis and service companies on 10 February 1953. The occasion was supposed to have been a visit by Walter Ulbricht to the island of R�gen, during which he had been annoyed by the many surviving private hotels and guest houses. Many of the hotel owners were convicted by kangaroo courts under the pretext of having been engaged in economic crime or as agents working for the West. Their property was then confiscated and they were sent to prison. Many of the owners and small businessmen were incarcerated in B�tzow prison. The hotels were supposed to have been officially expropriated by the Free German Trade Union Federation or FDGB. In fact, they were used initially as accommodation for the barracks-based "people's police" (Kasernierte Volkspolizei or (CPI)). As a result of the confiscation of hotels, tourism on R�gen in 1953 came almost to a complete standstill for a time.
In the following nearly four decades, the island became one of the main tourist areas in the GDR. The FDGB actually played a dominant role in tourist accommodation. In 1963 the FDGB had 7,519 holiday places, the German travel agency 2,906 places and a further 5,025 were available for businesses
