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Prora — Strength
through Joy
The site was to have
been a Nazi
beach resort for the masses.
Four-and-a-half
kilometers of apartment blocks
that are
plain by
anyone’s standards (and just plain ugly by many
people’s) sit on a beautiful strip of land totaling 178 acres
(71 hectares) alongside some of the island’s finest
beaches.
Due to the outbreak
of WWII, Hitler’s
idea of
“Strength through Joy” for up to 20,000 guests at a
time was never realized. The buildings were later used as housing for
bombed-out
war refugees, and then as a barracks in the communist era.
In recent years, the
German
government spent time looking for a buyer for it. That fact made some
of the
hoteliers nervous about huge block of budget rooms coming onto the
already competitive market. It finally went on the auction block in
September of 2004 with a starting price of EUR 125,000 and ended up
with a hammer price of EUR 625,000. Recently, Prora has opened as a
massive youth hostel. More recently, this story was posted on The Local. Upmarket or down, Prora
would be an excellent choice for a vacation. A short walk through the
dunes brings you to Prora's beach, with Ostseebad Binz visible in the
distance.
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Prora
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Prora is the site of what was to have been a Nazi beach resort for the
masses.