Just another picture today from my vacation spot Wangerooge, a Frisian Island in the North Sea.

Yesterday, I posted a photo about something completely untypically in Germany: a car-free city. Today, the opposite, something typically: Germany’s city architecture.

Like many German cities, Wangerooge was bombed heavily during World War II.

It was shelled on 25 April 1945 by 482 bombers of the Royal Air Force. On that sunny day, 6000 bombs were dropped on this tiny island (7.94 km²) within 15 minutes, leaving almost everything destroyed and 311 people dead. If you're more interested in what happened that day between 16:47 and 17:02, it is written down on Traces of War.

The bombing of Wangerooge was the last major allied air attack on German territory during World War II.

As a result, almost every house on Wangerooge was built after WW II – like in many parts of many German cities. Sometimes the often forlorn city architecture in Germany seems like a memorial to me, stating “never again war”.