Helgoland: Proposed Construction Will Enlarge Deserted Island

Helgoland, an island in the North Sea which was once fiercely contested between Britain and Germany, could nearly double in size under a land reclamation project which won official clearance this week.

The island was a British possession from 1807 till 1890, then became a major German submarine base in two world wars. In an explosion described at the time as the largest non-nuclear detonation in history, Britain blew up the submarine pens in 1947.

 

The only part of Germany which is not in sight of the mainland is a sleepy tourist resort nowadays, but a Hamburg businessman, Arne Weber, wants to change that, reclaiming a gap between the island's two halves and selling the new land.