DECEPTIVE IDYLL
The name derives from a Slavic word for “island” (ostrov in Czech, Slovak, and Russian, ostrvo in Bosnian and Serbian), and yet Wustrow isn’t an island at all. The peninsula extends into the Baltic Sea northeast of the German city of Rostock now that an artificial spit connects it to the mainland. It is also called the “Forbidden Island,” and not without reason. Wustrow’s modern history began in 1933 when the German armed forces bought the peninsula and built the country’s largest anti-aircraft school. By 1937 there were 180 military buildings and a village for the officers and officials who worked there. Wustrow was occupied by the Soviet Army in 1945 and remained in Soviet military hands until 1993, two years after the Soviet Union collapsed. The departing soldiers had failed to clear away unexploded munitions, so the job was left to the German government, which spent millions on the task. About 50 tons of ammunition were cleared from Wustrow and the remaining 1,700 acres that have not been cleared now serve as a bird sanctuary—an ammunition-contaminated Eden. In 1998 the government sold the land to private investors who’d planned to build a luxury resort, but the locals blocked access to the single road leading to the peninsula. Essentially uninhabited, the once-picturesque place continues to fall into ruin. Residents hoping to return were told environmental damage from 60 years of military occupation have left much of Wustrow uninhabitable.