Summer has taken a break this morning, but this hardly detracts from the holidaymakers at the Pöhl dam. Although the sunbathing lawns are deserted, several families and couples are waiting at the landing stage for a round trip on the MS Plauen. Others have decided to go on a tour of the climbing forest or take the dog for a walk. The vacations in Saxony are over, but a number of campers from southern Germany are now populating the Gunzenberg campsite. Like Katrin from Baden-Württemberg, who is spending a whole week here on vacation with her two small children in a camper van.
"For me, this is a homecoming vacation," she says - but only wants her first name to be mentioned. She is from the region, adds the young mother. "When I think back to the past, things have developed very well here."
The Pöhl Dam went into operation 60 years ago, and people have sought recreation here from the very beginning. The primary task of the dam is to protect against flooding and to compensate for low water levels in the Weiße Elster. "Tourism has to be subordinate to this," explains Elisabeth Blüml-Fuchs, Managing Director of the special-purpose dam association. But even before the dam wall was completed, wild camping had been practiced here - camping was officially permitted in 1965. Today, the dam is also boldly referred to as the "Vogtland Sea".
