Location of Bug on RügenView from the northern tip looking southwestNarrowest point on the peninsula. Left: the Wieker Bodden, right: the Baltic Sea outer coast
Bug is the name both of the westernmost tongue of land (Landzunge) on the peninsulaofWittow on the German island of Rügen, as well as the name of the former village there. Bug begins south of the village of Dranske and belongs territorially to that municipality.
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.
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 with the northern part of the island of Hiddensee. To the southwest is the lagoon of Vitter Bodden. A large inlet separates the peninsula from the main body of Rügen itself, comprising the lagoon of Wieker Bodden 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 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).
The Bug is the largest spit on the island of Rügen, and is still growing. The windwattsofAltbessin and Neubessin in front of the island of Hiddensee to the west are growing towards Bug. Only a regularly dredged shipping channel separates Bug from the island of Hiddensee.
The southern part of the Bug belongs to the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park. 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. 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.
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
