Bug is the name both of the westernmost tongue of land (''Landzunge'') on the peninsula of

Wittow Wittow is the northernmost peninsula of the island of Rügen. Wittow was a separate island until the High Middle Ages, but since then has been connected to the Jasmund peninsula of Rügen by the Schaabe spit. Wittow is most famous for Cape Ark ...

on the German island of

Rügen Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...

, as well as the name of the former village there. Bug begins south of the village of

Dranske Dranske is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe af ...

and belongs territorially to that municipality.

Origin of the name

One theory suggests the name ''Bug'' goes back to a landowner, Baronet Antonius de Buge, first mentioned in 1284. Another suggests that the word Bug is derived from the German word ''Biegung'' = "bend". It is also possible that it may have come from a Slavic word ''bug'' = beech.

Geography

The peninsula of Bug runs in a southwesterly direction from the village of Dranske for a distance of 8 km and has an area of 500 ha. It is only 55 metres wide at its narrowest point in the northeast; in the southwest its maximum width measures about 1,500 metres. To the west of the Bug is the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

with the northern part of the island of

Hiddensee Hiddensee () is a car-free island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Germany's largest island, Rügen, on the German coast. The island has about 1,000 inhabitants. It was a holiday destination for East German tourists during German Democratic ...

. To the southwest is the lagoon of

Vitter Bodden The Vitter Bodden is a type of lagoon called a ''bodden'' between the northern part of the island of Hiddensee (with the Neubessin and Altbessin peninsulas) to the west and north and the peninsula of Bug, the Wieker Bodden and the northern part ...

. A large inlet separates the peninsula from the main body of Rügen itself, comprising the lagoon of

Wieker Bodden The Wieker Bodden is a lagoon or ''bodden'', that is largely surrounded by the German Baltic Sea island of Rügen. It is part of the North Rügen Bodden Chain. Location The Wieker Bodden lies between the peninsula of Bug (Rügen), Bug to the ...

in the northeast, and the Buger Bodden and the channel of the Rassower Strom in the southeast. Its southernmost point is the ''Buger Haken'' ("Hook of Bug"). Other spits on the ''

bodden Bodden are briny bodies of water often forming lagoons, along the southwestern shores of the Baltic Sea, primarily in Germany's state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. These lagoons can be found especially around the island of Rügen, Usedom an ...

'' side, from north to south, are the ''Blevser Haken'', ''Eckort'', '' Fischer Haken'' and ''Neubessin'' (not to be confused with the nearby ''Neubessin'' on the island of Hiddensee).

Geology

The Bug is the largest spit on the island of Rügen, and is still growing. The ''

windwatt A ''Windwatt'' is a mudflat exposed as a result of wind action on water. They occur especially in the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park on Germany's Baltic Sea coast. The term is German.

s'' of '' Altbessin'' and '' Neubessin'' in front of the island of Hiddensee to the west are growing towards Bug. Only a regularly dredged

shipping channel In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of water or of other fluids (e.g., lava), most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is ...

separates Bug from the island of Hiddensee.

Flora and fauna

The southern part of the Bug belongs to the

Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park The Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park
at www.naturefund.de. Ac ...

. The Bug was a military out-of-bounds zone for many years. That enabled nature to develop relatively undisturbed. The Bug has woods, dunes and species-rich wet areas. The woods are mostly laid out as a

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

. As in the northeast of the neighbouring island of Hiddensee the formation of new land in the south of Bug provides a habitat for numerous invertebrates, like worms and mussels. This rich source of food draws rare native bird species as well as many migrating birds.

History

* 1540 – Christoph von der Lancken establishes large

fish trap A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps include fishing weirs, lobster traps, and some fishing nets such as fyke nets. Traps are culturally almost universal and seem to have been independently invented many times. There are two ma ...

s for catching fish. * 1615 – the Bug is totally flooded by a storm surge. * 1658 – construction of a post station as an intermediate station on the Stralsund to

Ystad Ystad (; older da, Ysted) is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, a ...

route * 1683 – the post line from Stralsund via Bug to

is opened. The Swedish postal ship, ''Hiorten'', plied this route from 1692 to 1702. * 1700 – the Bug is now treeless as a result of clearing and mostly consists of sandy steppe and pastureland. * Between 1806 and 1810 – closure of the post route * 1822 – the Bug–Ystad route is opened again, this time with steamships. * 1835-1930 - the Bug grew annually by six metres a year thanks to sand deposition. * 1865 – construction of a telegraph station at the postal harbour of Bug * 1872 - the Bug is cut off from Wittow by the floods of 12/13 November 1872. * 1887/1888 – reforestation of Bug * 1895 – construction of a forester's lodge, start of pilot operations * 1914-1945 - used as a military air base * 1916 – extension for the seaplane base * 1931–1937 – clearing of the Bug: demolition of the customs station, eviction notices served on the inhabitants, in Dranske almost all buildings were knocked down * 1935–1945 – Bug

air base An air base (sometimes referred to as a military air base, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base) is an aerodrome used as a military base by a military force for the operation ...

* 1946/1947 – the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

blow up and dismantle the installations on the Bug. The asphalt airfield was blown up and planted. * 1947 – the Bug is uninhabited, in the south nature spreads unhindered. * 1954 – a

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ...

is built. * 1965 – the NVA opens Dranske/Bug duty station for the 6th Flotilla of the

Volksmarine The ''Volksmarine'' (VM, ; en, People's Navy) was the naval force of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990. The ''Volksmarine'' was one of the service branches of the National People's Army and primarily performed a coasta ...

. * to 1990 - the Bug is an out-of-bounds area. * 1990/1991 – use of the fast patrol boat base by the

Bundesmarine The German Navy (, ) is the navy of Germany and part of the unified ''Bundeswehr'' (Federal Defense), the German Armed Forces. The German Navy was originally known as the ''Bundesmarine'' (Federal Navy) from 1956 to 1995, when ''Deutsche Mari ...

* 1991–1999 – concepts of use put forward * since 2001 – renovation of the Bug, demolition of all old buildings and plans for a holiday and leisure centre * since 2003 – project stalls due to lack of sufficient funding from its private investors * 2019 - Airstrip built for small planes to land {{DEFAULTSORT:Bug (Rugen) Spits of the Baltic Sea Peninsulas of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Geography of Rügen Training establishments of the Luftwaffe Wittow