Until the 20th century, most people in the area made their living by fishing.
From 1901 to 1946 the village of Rossitten, now Rybachy, became the site of the pioneering Rossitten Bird Observatory, the world's first, founded by German ornithologist Johannes Thienemann there because of the Spit's importance as a bird migration corridor.

After World War I, Nidden, together with the northern half of the Curonian Spit became part of the Klaipėda Region according to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and was annexed by Lithuania in 1923.
Officially renamed Nida, the village nevertheless remained a German-majority settlement — the border with the remaining East Prussian half of the Spit lay only a few kilometres to the south.

In 1929 Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann visited Nida while on holiday in nearby Rauschen and decided to have a summer house erected on a hill above the Lagoon, mocked as Uncle Tom's Cabin (Onkel Toms Hütte) by locals.
He and his family spent the summers of 1930–32 in the thatched cottage, parts of the epic novel Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder) were written here.
Threatened by the Nazis, Mann left Germany after Hitler's Machtergreifung in 1933 and never returned to Nida.
After the Klaipėda Region was again annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939, his house was seized at the behest of Hermann Göring and served as a recreation home for Luftwaffe officers.

The German population was expelled by force after World War II by the occupying Soviet forces, accompanied by widespread ethnic cleansing.
Like elsewhere in present-day Kaliningrad Oblast, the assimilation of the territory and colonization by Russian settlers was completed by changing the historic German toponyms to Russian ones throughout the Russian-controlled part of the Spit.
Until the 20th century, most people in the area made their living by fishing. From 1901 to 1946 the village of Rossitten, now Rybachy, became the site of the pioneering Rossitten Bird Observatory, the world's first, founded by German ornithologist Johannes Thienemann there because of the Spit's importance as a bird migration corridor.
After World War I, Nidden, together with the northern half of the Curonian Spit became part of the Klaipėda Region according to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. Officially renamed Nida, the village nevertheless remained a German-majority settlement — the border with the remaining East Prussian half of the Spit lay only a few kilometres to the south.
In 1929 Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann visited Nida while on holiday in nearby Rauschen and decided to have a summer house erected on a hill above the Lagoon, mocked as Uncle Tom's Cabin (Onkel Toms Hütte) by locals. He and his family spent the summers of 1930–32 in the thatched cottage, parts of the epic novel Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder) were written here. Threatened by the Nazis, Mann left Germany after Hitler's Machtergreifung in 1933 and never returned to Nida. After the Klaipėda Region was again annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939, his house was seized at the behest of Hermann Göring and served as a recreation home for Luftwaffe officers.
The German population was expelled by force after World War II by the occupying Soviet forces, accompanied by widespread ethnic cleansing. Like elsewhere in present-day Kaliningrad Oblast, the assimilation of the territory and colonization by Russian settlers was completed by changing the historic German toponyms to Russian ones throughout the Russian-controlled part of the Spit.
Curonian Spit