The famous resort of Glowe with its long and fine sandy beach is located on the Tromper Wiek, a long drawn up to 16 km wide bay on the southern Baltic Sea. The bay is bounded by the former islands Wittow and Jasmund. Through natural coastal balancing processes these were connected by a spit, the Schaabe. This process started about 4500 years ago. At the eastern end of the beach is a small sports harbor and behind the Cape King Horn. The cape marks the beginning of the island of Jasmund, followed by the eastern beach with a steep coast. This cliff consists mainly of boulder clay, only at its foot you can see the typical white Rügen chalk.
Both the cape and the beach are repeatedly affected by beach rinses and crashes. In 1973, the entire beach of Glowe had to be secured with groynes and massive boulders. Only in 2007 was the massive sandy beach created again. On 4 to 5 January 2017 caused the Deep Axel a bathtub effect in the Baltic Sea and thus a storm flood. This arises after storms from the northwest, when the water is pressed towards the Baltic and Gulf of Finland and nachführendem water comes from the North Sea. In subsequent storms on the northeast, the pent-up water from the east is suddenly pressed towards Rügen and Schleswig-Holstein. The water can not flow back so fast into the North Sea and it comes to floods. Nevertheless, the meteorologically less educated journalists spoke of the worst "storm surge" since 2006. My pictures document the situation on the beach of Glowe on 05.01.2017. The peak of the flood had already passed, the flood had reduced the beach dune on the beach by 1 to 2 meters (indicated by the under-washed fence post). The waves still raged on the eastern beach, an ideal time for beachcombers and amber seekers. Impressive were the differences in the wind conditions these days. In the old towns / ports of Sassnitz and Glowe it was almost windless, whereas in Lohme and on the eastern beach of Glowe the storm was so rough, walking or photographing was hardly possible.