Most people know the small island of Sylt at the northern tip of Germany as a nice holiday destination. But what about the island in the offseason, when the storms are running in from the rough North Sea? When the storm surge is destroying the dunes, taking the land back to the sea? How does it affect the people?
Ole and Knut Saß are brothers, living at the southern part of Sylt, where they manage a small bar on the top of the dune. When they started the edge of the dune was something like fourteen meters away. Today there is half a meter left. Even the heavy action to protect the dune wasn’t enough and today the two have to face, that at some point the bar will go down in a heavy storm night.
Outbound the story of the two we talked to many people about the protection of the coastline and tried to draw a picture of the problems and barriers, what the tourists know and think about it and how the protection in going on technically. At the end it’s as always coming down to the money theme and it’s getting pretty clear that there is no real chance for Ole and Knut. It’s a sad story on the one hand, but maybe it’s also a lesson for excepting nature as something you can’t control at the end.
