Named for a small island in the North Sea, 45 km distant from the German coast, commanding the mouths of the rivers Elbe, Weser and Eider. It consists of a red-brown sandstone rock, about 60 m high, towering up nearly vertically from the ocean. There is a green plain upland, and the rock Long Anna is at the northern point. Helgoland has been owned successively by the dukedom of Schleswig, Denmark, Great Britain and — since 1890 — Germany. (M 25445) _ _.