Easy hikes and walks around Lankower Lake

A very quiet place to linger.

Impressive memorial site for the razed village

Here Germany was divided.

An interesting insight into German history.

Difficult to reach with a normal bike. I managed to get to the spot more or less with my trekking bike.

The Lankow hiking car park on Thurower Straße/K7 is the best starting point to reach the former razed village of Lankow. You can find further interesting information about Lankow here: https://dorf-dechow.de/ortsteile/lankow/

There is no sign of the former border fence today and it is hard to imagine that it was once like that. But the aerial photos on the information board prove it. Nowadays it is a very quiet, idyllic place and a nice place for a short break with rolling lake views.

Founded as a Slavic settlement, the village of Lankow lay on a peninsula on Lake Lankow west of Dechow. Recent excavations document a ten-thousand-year-old settlement history. In 1942, Lankow had 59 inhabitants. Due to refugees, the population had grown to over 100 by 1946, and by 1973, it had fallen to just 28. Following the "Barber-Ljaschtschenko Agreement" in November 1945, the demarcation line between the British and Soviet occupation zones moved to Lake Lankow. This placed the village on the inner-German border, in the Russian occupation zone. The establishment of the SED dictatorship was also felt in Lankow. On Soviet orders, the GDR government established a five-kilometer-wide restricted area along the inner-German border in 1952. The village of Lankow was located in the restricted area and belonged to the 500-meter-wide protective strip directly on the dividing line between East and West. Here, the residents were subject to particularly restrictive regulations; some fled to the West. The exposed location on the lake directly on the western state border tempted quite a few people to illegally cross the border. To protect itself against this, the state forcibly relocated all long-established farming and artisan families to the interior of the GDR in 1952 and 1961, without regard for family ties. New residents moved into the now vacant farms and apartments, or they were demolished and leveled. The few remaining residents of Lankow were gradually resettled as well. In 1976, Lankow was "freed." That same year, further border security and border adjustment began. All Lankow houses and agricultural buildings were demolished, and their remains were pushed down the slope to the lake. To ensure a clear line of sight and a clear field of fire, the vegetation was removed. To deter refugees, border signal and expanded metal barrier fences stretched across Lake Lankow from 1976 to 1990. So Lankow was razed. Simply unbelievable! Today, only a few remnants of the settlement and rural garden culture, as well as a memorial stone, an information board, and boulders with photos marking the location of the former farmsteads, remind us of the village on Lake Lankow, which was undesirable by the GDR government. A detour to Lankow and search for traces on the memorial and educational trail is truly worthwhile! https://dorf-dechow.de/ortsteile/lankow/