And it was never meant to be one.
I took the PZL Wilga up from Rügen and did what I usually do:
not flying straight to the destination.
Instead, I turned east first.
Below me appeared Prora – the former KdF complex, later used by the NVA. You don’t need to say much about it. From the air, it speaks for itself. Long, massive, and still carrying its history.
From there I followed the coast toward Binz. Clean lines, almost too orderly from above. Then I turned south.
This is usually where the actual flying begins for me.
Not navigation. Not procedure.
Just looking.
Between fields and small villages, I started to pick out the small churches. You don’t notice them from the ground the same way. From above, they stand out. Quiet landmarks.
Further on toward Peenemünde.
Before reaching it, the lighthouse came into view. A calm structure in a place that is anything but calm if you know its past. The area is known not only for the Peenemünde facilities, but also through literature like “Island without a Lighthouse” by Ruth Kraft.
From the air you can still make out:
the layout of the scientists’ settlement
the power plant
and the exhibits – V1 and V2
Then along the coast again.
Ahlbeck. Heringsdorf.
The piers reaching out into the Baltic Sea like straight lines drawn with intent.
No rush.
The approach into Heringsdorf was uneventful in the best possible way.
Just a clean arrival after a flight that was never about getting somewhere quickly.
It was a short flight.
But it had everything I look for:
not distance,
but perspective.
Bergen train station on Rügen. Apart from Binz, it's the main hub on the island for many tourists and formerly also for soldiers of the NVA (National People's Army) on their way to the Prora barracks.
KdF – "Strength Through Joy" – was a Nazi organization in the so-called "Thousand-Year Reich," subordinate to the "DAF," the "German Labour Front." It was a large-scale project in which 20,000 members were to vacation on the Baltic Sea. Supervised, "ideologically clean," and under control.
After 1945, it was first a Soviet barracks, then taken over by the East German National People's Army (NVA). The most prominent unit here was the "Willy Sänger" Parachute Regiment, the elite of the NVA. In 1982, however, they moved out and were replaced by the "spade soldiers," conscripts who had refused military service with weapons for religious reasons. They wore a spade as a symbol on their shoulder boards. Among other things, they were deployed for the construction of the strategic ferry port of Mukran, which made it possible to obtain supplies from the Soviet Union without transporting them through Polish territory. https://www.proradok.de/en/startseite-2/
https://www.ostseebad-sellin.de/en/seebruecke-sellin/
The Sellin pier is not only a symbol of seaside resort architecture on the Baltic coast, but also of the reconstruction in the former East Germany after 1990. The original pier was demolished in 1978. Thanks to the tireless efforts of photographer Hans Knospe, who found an active ally in Federal President Dr. Richard von Weizsäcker, the pier's reconstruction was a success. Knospe was 99 years old when the pier reopened and lived to see it, but passed away shortly thereafter.
https://www.ostseebad-sellin.de/en/seebruecke-sellin/
The lighthouse at the harbor entrance to the former Peenemünde naval base.
This is the state of the former Army Research Center and testing facility in Peenemünde, where the V1 and V2 rockets were developed. Still present are the power plant and, outside, the two replicas of the weapons that make Peenemünde famous to this day, as well as the story of the Royal Air Force attack on it.
https://museum-peenemuende.de/?lang=en# ... ried%20out
Facts about Operation Hydra, RAF, 17/18 August 1943
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hydra_(1943)
https://museum-peenemuende.de/the-museu ... n/?lang=en
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heringsdorf_Pier
This pier in Heringsdorf is also a replica. The original burned down in 1958.
Here you can see what STOL is... The short runway for landing shows what the Wilga is capable of.
... Pension or not. It was enough for that, especially since it's still discounted.
