The story
Medieval
In Old Norse the island was known as Burgundaholmr, and in ancient Danish especially the island's name was Borghand or Borghund; these names were related to Old Norse borg 'height' and bjarg/berg 'mountain, rock' because it is an island that rises high from the sea. Other names known for the island include Burgendaland (9th century), Hulmo / Holmus (Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum), Burgundehulm (1145), and Borghandæholm (14th century). The Old English translation of Orosius uses the form Burgenda land. There are scholars who believe that the Burgundians are named after Bornholm. The Burgundians were a Germanic people who were settled in the Rhone region by the Romans, and who the region of Burgundy in France is named after.
Modern
Bornholm was pawned to Lübeck by Frederick I of Denmark for 50 years starting in 1525, in payment for its support in his acquisition of the Danish throne. Its first militia, Bornholms Milits, was formed in 1624. Swedish forces conquered the island during the Torstenson War in 1645, but returned the island to Denmark in the following peace settlement. After the war in 1658, Denmark ceded the island to Sweden under the Treaty of Roskilde along with the rest of the Skåneland, Bohuslän and Trøndelag, and it was occupied by Swedish forces.
A revolt broke out the same year, culminating in Villum Clausen's shooting of the Swedish commander Johan Printzensköld on 8 December 1658. After the revolt, the inhabitants handed back their island to the Danish kings.
Bornholm attracted many famous artists at the beginning of the 20th century, forming a group now known as the Bornholm school of painters. In addition to Oluf Høst, they include Karl Isaksson (1878–1922) from Sweden, and the Danes Edvard Weie (1879–1943), Olaf Rude (1886–1957), Niels Lergaard (1893–1982), and Kræsten Iversen (1886–1955).
World War II
In the early morning of 9 April 1940, German forces occupied Denmark and began the invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung).
On 22 August 1942 a V-1 flying bomb crashed on Bornholm during a test – the warhead was a dummy made of concrete. The wreckage was photographed and sketched by the Danish Naval Officer-in-Charge on Bornholm, Lieutenant Commander Hasager Christiansen. When reported to British Intelligence, it was one of the first signs of Germany's aspirations to develop flying bombs and rockets, which were to become known as V-1. The Bornholm rocket turned out to be from Peenemünde.
The Soviet bombing of the two main towns on 7-8 May 1945 prepared the landing of Soviet troops at Bornholm.
Danish radio was not allowed to broadcast the news because it was thought it would spoil the liberation festivities in Denmark.
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8 May 1945 was the Victory in Europe Day.
On 9 May, Soviet troops landed at Bornholm, and after a short fight, the German garrison (about 12,000 strong) surrendered. Soviet forces would leave the island on 5 April 1946.
Later research found that the Soviet bombing of Bornholm resulted in approximately three thousand Danish civilians in Rønne becoming homeless, while damaging a majority of the houses in Nexø, fully destroying roughly one-tenth. Ten Danes were killed and thirty-five wounded, considered a low number, because many civilians were evacuated to shelters on the outskirts of the respective towns before the worst raids hit. It was not until 5 April 1946, that Soviet troops finally left Bornholm. After the war, Bornholm received aid from Sweden to rebuild Rønne and Nexø.
Cold War
After the evacuation of their forces from Bornholm in 1946, the Soviet Union pressured Denmark not to allow non-Danish NATO troops to garrison the island. The Danish government never formally declared the island off-limits to foreign soldiers, but in practice the request was respected. During the Cold War, the island served as a radar base to monitor East Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union.
On 5 March 1953, the day of Stalin's death, Polish pilot Franciszek Jarecki defected from the Eastern Bloc and landed a MiG-15 fighter on the island. He was later granted asylum and rewarded for providing Western intelligence with the then-newest Soviet jet fighter.
Since 1991
In June 2014, Russian military planes practiced a missile attack on the island according to the Danish intelligence service.
In 2017, Denmark's Defence Intelligence Service decided to build a listening tower near Østermarie, almost 90 meters high, to intercept radio communications across the Baltic Sea and in parts of Russia.
In September 2022, both Nord Stream gas pipelines were damaged by explosives close to the island.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bornholm Municipality, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4