Locked behind the Iron Curtain for nearly half a century, the pristine Baltic Sea peninsula of Fischland-Darss-Zingst has since re-emerged as one of Germany's prime tourist destinations - but not without a price.

Far northern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern can be as equally confounding as enchanting. Pastures of golden rapeseed meander beyond the horizon, the bucolic undulation only interrupted by the battalion of wind turbines churning indefatigably, in what is the region's most potent symbol of modern economic progress.