  We show that the presence of a plastikstufe induces a certain degree of
flexibility in contact manifolds of dimension 2n+1>3. More precisely, we prove
that every Legendrian knot whose complement contains a "nice" plastikstufe can
be destabilized (and, as a consequence, is loose). As an application, it
follows in certain situations that two non-isomorphic contact structures become
isomorphic after connect-summing with a manifold containing a plastikstufe.
