Streckelsberg

The Streckelsberg is located half a kilometre southeast of the former fishing village and present-day seaside resort of Koserow directly on the Baltic Sea shore.

To the southeast is the village of Kölpinsee; the B 111 federal road and Usedomer Bäderbahn railway run past the hill to the southwest.

At that time over 16,000 years ago large parts of central and northern Europe were covered by a massive ice sheet.

During the gradual retreat of the ice, there were repeated smaller advances of the glacier that led to the formation of moraines.

The island of Usedom was created a result of the latest ice age, the Weichselian Glaciation, which reached its climax about 18,000 years ago.

The Baltic Sea carried off material from these island cores with the force of waves and prevailing currents, depositing it on their leeward sides, so that spits began to be formed.

These spits grew as more material was deposited to form sand bars, so that the area between the island cores fully silted up.

Characteristic grasses of the herbaceous layer of the beech forest are False Brome, Wood Melick and Giant Fescue.

Senior Forester (Oberförster) Schrödter afforested the Streckelsberg in 1818 and 1819 in its present form with beech trees in order to better protect the hill and the village of Koserow behind it from the harsh sea winds and from drifting sand.

He knew, in a masterly way how to anchor and cultivate the bare, infertile sands on the beach at Koserow, with which the wind played games.

In particular, he did a great job of afforesting the Streckelsberg at the seaside resort of Koserow, which is now protected by the woods against the harsh sea winds and unwelcome sand drifts.

In the tree layer there are golden oriole, chaffinch, stock dove, tawny owl, wood pigeon, hooded crow and goshawk.

The tower's observation deck later had a cinetheodolite for the optical tracking of missile tests from Peenemünde-West (e.g., V-1 flying bomb) and the Peenemünde Army Research Center (V-2 rocket).