Baltic Seaside Cities Flower Again : Travelers rediscover the resorts of former East Germany.

We didn’t know what to expect on a visit last summer to Rostock, the former East German territory bordering the Baltic Sea. A four-hour drive north of Berlin, too far from the spotlights on the Wall to catch media attention, the area had been shrouded in mystery.

True, we’d heard aging Northern Europeans reminisce about pre-World War II childhood vacations on the idyllic island of Rugen, the most northerly German territory, just west of the Polish border. But those visits had occurred more than 50 years ago, and that old paradise had since been taken over by the Stasi, the Ministry for State Security of the former German Democratic Republic. There also were rumors that the most remote part of the island had been used as a training ground for terrorists.

We’d read reports on how the neighboring coastal cities of Rostock and Stralsund, long famous for their shipbuilding skills, had fallen on hard times when communism started coming apart at the seams. The shipyards closed two years ago, leaving the area the most depressed part of the GDR.

And so the surprise, less than a year after German reunification, was in how far the industrious citizenry had traveled toward reconstruction. The local people have cleaned up, painted and beautified their towns in an effort to lure tourism.

Most of the takers so far have been affluent West Germans and Scandinavians who can pay exorbitant prices for the few available deluxe hotel rooms and fine restaurants, or Northern Europeans who set up tents in the no-frills campgrounds. A shortage of comfortable, affordable lodging, transportation problems and the language barrier (little English is spoken) have discouraged all but the most adventurous Americans.

But the area offers its own fascinations, especially Rugen, which suffered less decay than its neighbors because the GDR officials used the 32-mile-long island as a holiday destination. Former GDR chief Erich Honecker entertained friends on Vilm, a wildlife sanctuary just off Rugen’s southeastern coast. Visitors can board a cruise boat at Pitbus for a sail-by glimpse of Honecker’s haven, but the real value of such an excursion is the opportunity to meet and talk with the locals, who are eager to make contact with Westerners. English might be scarce, but warm smiles are in good supply.

None of that prepared us for the signs of the times we saw out of the rickety tour van window on the five-hour drive from Hamburg to Rugen. We lost count of the demolished, shiny new BMWs pushed out of the line of traffic. We were astonished at the number of huge billboards advertising American (Camel and Marlboro) cigarettes. And we joked about the traffic jam of elaborate baby carriages on the streets of the small towns.

Our van driver, a former East German whose mouthy ways, he said, had bought him trouble more than once, interpreted what we were seeing. Automobiles abandoned along the highway represented dreams-turned-nightmares. East Germans invested their life savings in the newly available luxuries, then tried to race down the autobahn , West German style, with no idea of how to control the powerful motors. Ka-rash! Back to square one, minus a bank account.

The cigarette advertising played to the local concept of the good life in the West with no mention of cancer. The baby buggies pushed by parents in drab clothing were visual signs of a baby boom that came with new hope for the future.

Rugen’s special status shows up everywhere you look. The architecture is distinctive, from whitewashed lacy frame houses reflecting the area’s Scandinavian roots to thatch-roof cottages straight from a fairy tale. Markets are well-stocked. One small grocery near the causeway leading to the island had a produce display that would be acceptable in Southern California.

We saw little to suggest the GDR legacy of indecisiveness. Rather, there were young and aggressive entrepreneurs determined to rebuild Rugen as a prime tourist destination. They’ve already brought cruise ships to Sassnitz and Mukarn, ports at the northern part of the island. They’ve improved campgrounds, started remodeling substandard hotels and turning out two-room vacation houses at a rapid rate. Even so, accommodations are booked months in advance.

The Cliff Hotel, the former Stasi playground, is still the most luxurious recreational complex on Rugen. Also left over from Stasi days are extreme security precautions--even in matters as small as the numbers on the keys disguising the whereabouts of our rooms and elevator control buttons vague about floor location.

While Rugen has a head start in appeal for visitors, it’s not the only local area pinning its hopes for economic recovery on developing tourism. History buffs find treasure in its neighbor Rostock, one of the most powerful cities in the 14th-Century Hanseatic League, a group of towns in Northern Germany that joined to protect their economic interests. Rostock’s identity has always been tied to its shipyards. First it boasted the fastest sailing ships on the Baltic, then its Neptun shipyards became famous for quality steamships.

Reunification and its resulting competition dealt a fatal blow to the industry in 1990, and now Rostock’s harbor provides mooring for cruise ships, a cruise-ship hotel and small pleasure yachts. The Neptun name still denotes prestige in the form of a deluxe Swedish-owned hotel in Warnemunde, a beach resort less than 10 miles from Rostock that caters to wealthy West Germans, many of whom have invested in the local economy. On weekends, the hotel’s enormous parking lot is packed with cars with license plates from Hamburg, Lubeck and Berlin. The holiday crowd dines in one of the Neptun’s restaurants, dances at its disco, strolls its seemingly endless white-sand beach and gazes at the Baltic from the shelter of colorful hooded beach chairs.

Warnemunde is a popular port for Northern European cruise lines. San Francisco-based Royal Cruise Line’s Royal Odyssey began serving Warnemunde last year, using it as a jumping-off point for daylong shore excursions to Berlin. Some of those passengers who opted to stay and explore the beach and surrounding countryside discovered they were the first Americans the the under-30 population had seen in person.

Ulrich Kuntz, a young representative of the Rostock Tourist Office, expressed surprise that not all Americans looked, dressed or sounded like the actors he’d seen on “Dallas.”

“We were able to get West Berlin on our TV sets,” he explained. “It wasn’t permitted, of course, but a lot of us did it.” Many of the young adults we met told how they had grown up “with two faces. At home and with our friends we led one life; at school we said what our teachers wanted to hear.”

After a round or two of a drink called Love from Siberia (a cheery blend of gin, orange juice, red wine and apricot juice with a garnish of orange slice and maraschino cherry), the house drink at the Troika Restaurant in Rostock, our new friends offered insight into the East Germany few Americans know.

This part of Germany, too far from the shadow of East Berlin for East German propaganda purposes, had always been shortchanged in government funding, they said. East Berlin had seemed as “foreign” and privileged as West, so when the Berlin Wall came down, few had the means or motivation to join the celebration at the site. But all were eager to share in the new joy of spending.

“We had to wait up to 16 years for a car, not because we didn’t have money but because there were few cars available,” Kuntz said. “The first thing I did was buy a BMW and some fashionable clothes. I wrecked the BMW within two weeks. At least I still have my new clothes. I can’t buy any more because I’ve spent all my money.”

Income tax and sales tax were new concepts in what had been a socialist regime. Kuntz and his friends considered the 14% tax on tobacco a terrible burden. (Heavy smokers are in the great majority. Abandon hope of finding a “No Smoking” section in Baltic German restaurants.)

Downtown Rostock sparkles with fresh paint. The old town marketplace is surrounded by gabled houses restored to reasonable facsimiles of elaborate cakes, and shoppers come and go on toylike, cream-colored electric trolleys with red trim. A flower shop with a rainbow-hued display of blooms may brighten a street corner torn up for cobblestone repair, but most money changes hands over folding-table displays where peddlers offer everything from honey to fresh fruit juice, cheap wallets to home-baked bread.

Selection in the shops is so limited, souvenir hunters among us had to settle for things such as dry ingredients for rote grutze , the fruit pudding that showed up on almost every restaurant menu.

In Wismar, we saw a totally different approach to economic recovery. Much smaller than Rostock, but with its own blueprint for a future based on tourism, Wismar takes things one step at a time.

Gerd Zielenkiewitz, president of the Wismar City Council, said his first priority is to clean up the environment. Industrial waste is a major problem; so are sewage and water purification. Those issues must be solved before the city can use the beach as a lure for tourists.

There is also the problem of would-be hotel builders obtaining clear title for land, he said. Pre-1949 owners have come back to claim property confiscated by the GDR. Some have agreed to sell or lease the land to locals. Others are holding out for the highest bids from elsewhere.

Luncheon at the Gaststatte Reuterhaus, overlooking Wismar’s medieval marketplace (at two acres, one of the largest in Europe), lived up to our expectations. Thick, flavorful soup. Pork, sauerkraut and boiled potatoes. Apple slices were served in a chocolate sauce for dessert. Dry white wine was from the Dresden area. Coffee was strong and black. It was a bit on the heavy side for summer sustenance, but was in keeping with the dark paneling, parqueted floor, brass chandeliers, starched linens and sparkling windows.

Ute Debold, a 27-year-old schoolteacher and part-time guide, one of the few guides fluent in English in this part of Germany, led us through the market heavy with shoddy goods from China, North Vietnam and other Asian countries. In the old days, she said, the GDR imported North Vietnamese factory workers to help North Vietnam gain hard currency.

Currency is becoming more and more of a problem in Wismar, she said. And she worries about the high cost of living in the 2 1/2-room apartment she shares with her husband and two preschoolers. The rent shot from about $21 to about $120 a month. Day care for the children, once free, became about $200 a month. “My monthly salary is about $575, so there’s nothing left to save,” she said with a sigh.

Traffic moves at a snail’s pace in Stralsund, giving us time to marvel at the plethora of signs and banners advertising new and rental cars--more from Japan than Germany, none that we saw from the United States. No longer a base for naval training or shipbuilding, with major problems in unemployment and a shortage of housing, Stralsund is building its future on urban renewal. Inner city buildings that date back to the 16th and 17th centuries are blooming again under the expertise of a crew of 20 Polish restoration specialists.

Given enough time, the Poles and the populace may transform Stralsund into a swan. Meanwhile, it’s still a down-on-its-luck ugly duckling with a pedigree. Advice from one who’s been there: Rugen is close--at the other end of that causeway northeast of town. Keep moving.

GUIDEBOOK

Exploring Baltic Germany

Getting there: Hamburg International Airport is the closest gateway to the Rostock-Rugen area. Midweek round-trip fare from Los Angeles to Hamburg, with 30-day advance purchase and stays of seven to 21 days, is $878. Delta flies nonstop to New York, then changes planes for Hamburg. Lufthansa flies direct to Hamburg via Frankfurt. British Airways and United fly LAX to London Heathrow, then change planes for the flight to Hamburg. SAS flies nonstop to Copenhagen, where a change of planes is made for Hamburg.

Inter-city train service is available from Hamburg to Rugen (about 4 1/2 hours), with stops in Wismar, Rostock and Stralsund. Rental cars are available in Hamburg, Berlin and Lubeck.

Where to stay: Lodging is limited. Luxury hotels include the Neptun in Warnemunde (Seestrasse O-2500, Rostock/Warnemunde; telephone 011-37-81-5371) and the Cliff in Rugen (Siedlung am Wald 22, 0-2356, Sellin auf Rugen, 011-37-82793-555) are about $125 for a double. Less expensive accommodations are scarce and must be reserved months in advance. A hotel in a cruise ship anchored at Rostock harbor: the MS Maxim Litvinov, Stadthafen, 0-2500 Rostock, 011-37-81-454042, fax 45-40-43; about $60 single, $80 double. More cruise ship hotels are expected to be in service by the summer.

Vacation houses on Rugen: Contact Michael Schuster, Holiday Island, Dorfstrasse 23, 2331 Alt Reddevitz, Rugen (no telephone).

Where to eat: Food is ample and good, if not epicurean ($30 per person for three-course dinner and wine in a good restaurant). In Rostock: The Troika, Alte Warnermunder Chaussee 42; 011-37-81-717970. In Wismar: Reuterhaus, Am Markt 19 (no telephone).

For more information: Contact the German National Tourist Office, 444 S. Flower St., Suite 2230, Los Angeles 90071, (213) 688-7332. In Rostock: 011-37-824-2958. In Wismar: O11-37-81-25260.