As with any East-German kid, you hadn’t lived if you never spent your holidays at the Baltic Sea. Reason enough to revisit as a grown-up, only that i chose to go there in winter. The place is Rügen, Germany’s largest island.
Prora
While i was strolling down the beach i noticed a rather huge concrete structure at a distance, immeadiately wondering who the hell would build such a monstrosity at a beautiful shore like this. Well, turns out: The Nazis. Their Seebad Prora was supposed to house up to 20.000 guests for whatever their definition of a nice day at the beach was. Nowadays, a tiny part of the extensive buildings is used for museums and even some appartments again, but nobody has any idea what to do with the rest of it.
Ostseeperle
I also discovered an abandoned building created by East-German architect Ulrich Müther. There are several of those remarkable thin shell constructions at Rügen, his homeland. The Ostseeperle used to be a beach restaurant, and a rather fancy one, too.
