In the district of North-west Mecklenburg alone, no fewer than thirteen separate villages were destroyed during the later decades of the East German state in order to clear a strip of land beside the Inner German border. This was done to create a larger territory of a "no-go area" closest to the border to West Germany after the east became concerned about the extent of emigration to the western state. Other nearby destroyed villages included Lenschow, Wahlstorf (Lüdersdorf), Lankow (Mustin) and Neuhof (Gadebusch).