The Green Band

The 1,400-kilometer (870-mile) border between former East and West Germany didn't just divide a nation, but also families and regions. Among them are the Harz, a mountain range that runs through the middle of the country.

Friedemann Schwarz's house stands just a few hundred meters from where the so-called death strip used to be - a 50- to 200-meter wide collection of barbed wire, concrete walls, watch towers and shooting ranges which separated the West German town of Hohegeiss from its eastern neighbor Benneckenstein.

Schwarz said he remembers a time when this strip turned a rare visit between relatives into an odyssey filled with buses, trains and harassment from border guards.

While the towns are only three kilometers apart, Schwarz said the first time he went from his home in Hohegeiss to the neighboring village in 1972, the trip took 13 hours and covered 300 kilometers.

A silver lining

While this division meant separation and personal pain for the people living in the area, it was actually a stroke of luck for the animals and plants of the area.

According to Kai Frobel, a naturalist who has been working in the area since before reunification, there are 17 different biologically diverse areas - from pastures to mountain forests - flowing into one another.

Frobel, who's known by the locals as Mr. Green Band, is especially adamant about the conservation of this strip of land, as unpopulated areas are few and far between in Germany.

The long green strip

Some 85 percent of the green band still exists in its natural state. And in most places, the wild grey-brown grass and bush-covered landscape, which twists its way from the beaches of the Baltic Sea down to the mountain range along the German-Czech border, can still be seen.

However, intensive agriculture and the building of highways and railways are threatening this strip of wilderness and the animals and plants that live there.

All told, some 600 endangered animal and plant species call this place home, from birds - from the small whinchat and the large black stork to tree frogs, wild cats, small insects and a wide variety of plants, including many species of heather.

Tourism gets a boost

Though biological diversity in Germany has always been a draw for tourists, the sector is lacking in this area - despite its historical significance.

However, evidence of the region's important historical role has been removed from the landscape: A large percentage of the 850 watch towers and the 3,000-kilometer barrier have been destroyed, which is problematic not only for tourism but also for the nation's collective memory.

To promote the area, Frankenwald's tourism association has recently developed more programs for children and youth.

The head of the association, Stefan Fredlmeier, said kids are invited to, among other things, build bridges and rafts to cross the nearby rivers.

While the kids are busily immersed in their adventures, Fredlmeier takes the opportunity to explain the region's history to them. He says it's important for them to know that they couldn't have crossed the rivers so easily 20 years ago because the Cold War was going on.

For him, getting young people excited about history is just one more step toward making them enthusiastic about conservation.

Author: Richard Fuchs (mm)

Editor: Kate Bowen