burn the schooner and spike the guns of the battery.
In 1859, the Stachouwer family sold the island to John Eric Banck from The Hague. Amongst other works he started planting the sand dunes with marram grass to stabilize them. There is now a monument to him on the top of the dike that he built. In 1878 he sold the island to the German count, Hartwig Arthur van Bernstorff-Wehningen. When the count died in 1940, his son Bechtold Eugen Graf von Bernstorff inherited Schiermonnikoog. When World War II broke out and the German military occupied the island, he ensured that the islanders were largely left in peace. When von Bernstorff died in 1987, his family was allowed to bury him beside the Reformed Church in the village.
In 1940, KLM briefly initiated passenger and postal service to Schiermonnikoog and nearby Ameland, landing its Douglas DC-3s on the beach.
During World War II, the German Army heavily fortified the island as part of theAtlantic Wall defence line. The number of German troops came to equal the island’s own population of 600. Towards the end of the war, hundreds of SS troops along with members of the SD fled to the island, reinforcing the German contingent already there. After the war ended, the Germans on the island had not yet surrendered, and the Canadian forces, which were responsible for the sector, did not want to have to fight to force a surrender. Fortunately, the German commander agreed to surrender and the German soldiers were evacuated to Wilhelmshaven in Germany. On June 11, 1945, the island became the last part of Europe freed by the Allies.
After World War II, the Dutch government confiscated Schiermonnikoog as 'enemy property'. Schiermonnikoog became an independent municipality in 1949, as part of the Province of Friesland.
On 1 January 2006 the eastern border of the island was moved eastbound, further into the now former territory of the municipality of Eemsmond in the province ofGroningen, for a
