An old watchtower, part of the old border between East and West Germany, is preserved in the village of Mödlareuth. Photo Credit: Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times
EnvironmentSociety Germany30 Years After the German Wall Has Gone: From Death Strip to Green Oasis
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former 1,400 km-long border between East and West Germany has been transformed into a green oasis called the Green Belt, and the German government has vowed to designate the zone a nature reserve.
“I firmly believed that this monster was built for eternity and that I would never see anything change. Reunification was beyond my imagination,” says Kai Frobel, an ecologist who has worked for the BUND, a German nature conservancy, since 1985. “It’s a national nature monument — similar to the Statue of Liberty.”
Environmentalists from East Germany played a key role in the reunification of the country. Their concerted efforts aimed, among other things, at protecting the East’s abundant land resources. Today, the green and lavish area is home to 5,200 different species. Some 1,200 are so rare that they are on a list of endangered species.
