GDR military station with bird droppings and rust Mini island goes under the hammer for at least 39,000 euros
The artificial island is located in the Greifswalder Bodden, south-east of the island of Rügen.
Image: dpa
The auction will take place on June 4 in Hamburg.
Image: dpa
The minimum bid is 39,000 euros.
Image: dpa
After reunification, the island gradually fell into disrepair.
Image: dpa
Remote and only accessible by sea - the buyer decides what happens to the island.
Image: dpa
The auction house describes the condition of the building as "dilapidated".
Image: dpa
The artificial island is located in the Greifswalder Bodden, south-east of the island of Rügen.
Image: dpa
The auction will take place on June 4 in Hamburg.
Image: dpa
The minimum bid is 39,000 euros.
Image: dpa
After reunification, the island gradually fell into disrepair.
Image: dpa
Remote and only accessible by sea - the buyer decides what happens to the island.
Image: dpa
The auction house describes the condition of the building as "dilapidated".
Image: dpa
Once a secret military station of the People's Navy, now a morbid lost place: a GDR platform off the German island of Rügen will be auctioned off on Wednesday for at least 39,000 euros.
03.06.2026, 06:27
03.06.2026, 06:51
SDA
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- The former GDR military station Ostervilm in the Baltic Sea will be auctioned off on June 4 in Hamburg.
- The minimum bid is 39,000 euros.
- Some interested parties apparently already have ideas for its future use.
- After the end of the GDR, the island fell into increasing disrepair despite changing owners.
- The island served the GDR's People's Navy as a so-called demagnetization station.
At an auction on June 4 in Hamburg, the dream of having your own island can at least begin to come true. The former GDR military station Ostervilm in the Baltic Sea, south-east of the island of Rügen, is up for sale.
The view of the approximately 250 square meter platform in the Greifswald Bodden, including the building, is spooky. Doors and windows have been torn off their hinges, the wooden floorboards have partially collapsed. The building is covered in verdigris and bird droppings, with rusting structural elements in between.
According to Norddeutsche Grundstücksauktionen AG, the island served as a so-called demagnetization station for the People's Navy of the GDR. Naval vessels were treated here via a cable loop in the sea so that they were not detected by sea mines with magnetic detonators.
Platform on 600 wooden piles
It is an artificial island at a water depth of around ten meters. According to the auction house, it was built in 1954 on around 600 wooden piles. There was a residential building and a washroom on the platform, "spartan but functional", according to the catalog.
After the end of the GDR, the island fell into increasing disrepair despite changing owners. The auctioneers describe its condition as "dilapidated". Nature, bird droppings and vandalism have taken their toll on the building. There are settlement cracks.
Minimum bid: 39,000 euros
The minimum bid is 39,000 euros. Some interested parties already have ideas for future use, says Hanna Scheibeler, clerk at the auction house. For example, the island could be used as a casino, a wedding venue or a secluded bar in the Baltic Sea. "There are no limits to creativity here," she says.
Burkhard Lenz from Putbus on Rügen also had ideas with a friend after the end of the GDR to convert the island for possible further use. He knew many soldiers from the People's Navy who worked on the secret island during the GDR era and came to Putbus to play football, he says. The facility was not intended for a longer stay. The soldiers were usually only on the island for a few days, or several days if there was more to do.
"There wasn't much there," says Lenz, who surveyed the island with his friend in the mid-1990s. "There was no 220 volt electricity and no drinking water on the island. It was always brought over there in tanks." The plans that he and his friend made then fell through again, he reports. "After several discussions with experts, we dropped everything."
