German Green Belt

The Inner German Border was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of Germany. On the eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps and minefields. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed GDR guards who faced tens of thousands of West German, British and US guards and soldiers.[3]

The Allied zones of occupation in post-war Germany, highlighting the Soviet zone (red), the inner German border (heavy black line) and the zone from which British and American troops withdrew in July 1945 (purple). The provincial boundaries are those of Nazi Germany, before the present Länder (federal states) were established.

Despite the extensiveness of the Inner Border, it was the Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) that would serve as the famous and infamous representation of the "Iron Curtain" and the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in November 1989. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.

From the outset, West Germany and the Allies rejected East Germany's legitimacy.[4] The "West" saw the creation of the GDR as an extension of the Soviet Union and an illegitimate heir to German history and culture following World War II. The East German government sought to define the country as a legitimate state in its own right[5] and portrayed West Germany as enemy territory (feindliches Ausland) – a capitalist, semi-fascist state that exploited its citizens, sought to regain the lost territories of the Third Reich, and stood opposed to the peaceful socialism of the GDR.[6]

The GDR side of the Inner German Border had by far a more complex system of fortifications and border controls than the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). 1.393 kilometers (0.866 miles) long and between 50 and 200 kilometers deep, the German portion ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia with the entire "Iron Curtain" extending from the Arctic to the Black Sea. The border fortifications were indeed formidable with visible electrified fences with barbed wire, guard towers, heavily armed guards, and mine fields.

Wachturm Böckwitz-Zicherie

The first area which one would have encountered along the border, traveling from east to west, would have been the "restrictive zone" (Sperrzone). This section was a 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) wide area running parallel to the border to which access was heavily restricted with permits and checkpoints. On the far side of this zone was the signal fence (Signalzaun), a continuous expanded metal fence 1,185 kilometers (736 miles) long and 2 meters (6.6 feet) high. It was lined with low-voltage electrified strands of barbed wire and when the wire was touched or cut, an alarm was activated to alert nearby guards.[7] Behind this fencing came the heavily guarded "protective strip" (Schutzstreifen). This area, that ran adjacent to the actual GDR border, was monitored by guards in large watchtowers constructed at regular intervals along the entire length of the border with almost 700 towers built by 1989. These towers made it possible for East German guards to fire upon anyone attempting an escape.[8]

Annotated diagram of the second-generation inner German border system in the early 1960s

With all of these deadly defensive measures in place, it came as no surprise that this "death strip" of land was referred to as "no-man's land." It would be fitting that the former "no-mans land" would become the future "Green Belt." From a nature conservation standpoint, the Iron Curtain was a blessing, a vast strip of land in which wildlife thrived. Freed for 40 years from disturbance, as e.g. hunting and farming, wild animals and plants prospered.[9]

For four decades the "Iron Curtain" formed an almost insurmountable physical and ideological border in Europe. Soon political change would be instigated in 1989, when on 19 August the "Pan-European Picnic" took place on the Hungarian-Austrian border, close to the town of Sopron.[10] This crucial moment marked the beginning of the end of the GDR and the dismantling of its extensive border. Due to the strong commitment of nature conservationists, the border between East and West Germany became Europe's biggest nature reserve: an 870-mile "ecological treasure trove." It is no longer the Iron Curtain but the Green Belt, and home to more than 1200 rare and endangered species of birds, mammals, plants and insects.[11]

The history of the Green Belt does not just begin with the fall of the Berlin Wall but earlier with the beginning interest of young bird specialists of the BUND in the border region between Bavaria and Thuringia. The creation of the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), part of the larger organization Friends of the Earth was created on July 20, 1975, BUND by Horst Stern, Prof. Bernhard Grzimek, Dr. Herbert Gruhl, Enoch zu Guttenberg, Hubert Weinzierl, Hubert Weiger and 16 other environmentalist.[12] From the Western side of the border, the BUND was able to see different bird species, among other animals, thriving in such a hostile environment. In this way nature conservationists from the Bavarian branch of the BUND have been charting the natural features of the border corridor from the Western side since 1975, verifying the great diversity of species and habitats of the former death zone.[10]

In December 1989, the BUND organised the first all-German meeting with 400 nature conservationists from East and West, at the Bavarian-Saxon border in Hof. Here the concept and name of the "Green Belt" was born, and the first resolution was unanimously made to protect it. 13 years later, during the inauguration by Mikhail Gorbachev of the LandArt project "West-Eastern Gate" in the Eichsfeld, the vision of the European Green Belt was established.[10]

Information board near Gerstungen

Less than a month after the GDR opened its border with the FRG on 9 December 1989 organizers began working to create the Green Belt. The efforts of the BUND early on have spurred collaborations with the federal government to ensure the future of conservation with a reunited Germany. The BUND wanted that the border area "should be protected as the ecological backbone of Central Europe" and to ensure this, help was needed since most Germans wanted to get rid of anything that stirred bad memories of the past.[1]

View along the Green Belt near Sorge

In order to prove the value of the land, the BUND and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) worked in collaboration and began a painstaking inventory of the ecosystems and species along the Green Belt.[1] This included teams of ornithologists, botanists, and entomologists walking hundreds of kilometers recording what they saw and collecting data from locals in each area.

The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation called for the creation of large formal reserves in as many areas as possible along the Green Belt, which would form the spine of a new German-wide system of ecological corridors. The formation of these reserves were crucial to preserving the biodiversity created at the border. With the border being almost untouched by humans, it rapidly turned into a natural wilderness with threatened species of all types living there.[11]

In 2002, Mikhail Gorbachev endorsed the initiative. Gorbachev became the first person to buy a "Green Belt share" which had opened the doors for people to give money to BUND (Friends of the Earth) to purchase land.[1] Those involved in these efforts were relieved when in 2005 German Chancellor Angela Merkel designated the Green Belt as part of Germany's National Natural Heritage and was highlighted in the German government's National Strategy on Biological Diversity. In 2010 the process of transferring federal land comprising part of the National Natural Heritage in the Green Belt free of charge to the various states (Länder) and their nature conservation foundations was completed.[2]

Aerial view of the hiking trail along the Green Belt at the Borderland Museum Eichsfeld in Central Germany.

The German Green Belt straddles the 1,393-kilometer (866-mile) former east–west border and is integral part of the larger former "Iron Curtain" border. It runs predominantly on the eastern side of the former border. Therefore, the Green Belt passes through six federal states (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Saxony) and touches the border section of three more federal states (Schleswig-Holstein, Hessen, Bavaria). It surpasses most of the major land regions in Germany, which makes it the backbone of the green infrastructure and biodiversity network in Germany.

Hiking sign in Thuringia

Further on, environmentalists have been working to extend the Green Belt beyond the German borders to reflect the larger "Iron Curtain" of the former Soviet states. The European Green Belt has evolved along the former Iron Curtain and runs the length of Europe, from the Barents Sea in the north to the Adriatic and the Black Sea in the south. In all, it extends for over 12,500 km along the borders of 24 states.[13]