The shadow tanker off Rügen: worry about the eventin

On a gray summer day, the shadow tanker from Rügen appears on the horizon exactly where you would actually want a bit of sky blue and some sunlight.

Instead, anchored there, miles away and yet within reach, is the Eventin: a Suezmax-class oil tanker, 274 meters long, 48 meters wide. “Whenever a storm comes,” says Carmen Kannengiesser, “I am afraid.” Then she quickly looks away again, as if she had seen a ghost.

Kannengiesser is the spokeswoman for a citizens' initiative that is committed to ensuring that the event leaves its anchorage off Rügen as quickly as possible. Like many people on the island, she fears that the ship could break away and, in the worst case, crash into the beach promenade of the Baltic Sea resort of Göhren. Greenpeace also believes the event is dangerous. But no one is allowed to approach the ship. Customs and federal police cruise the area on armed boats. The officers say over the radio: Keep your distance.