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<\/p>\n Cheiner Torfmoor, Germany
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Germany\u2019s most peaceful landscape owes its existence to one of its most paranoid.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Gr\u00fcnes Band \u2014 the Green Belt threading 860 miles along the former border between West Germany and communist East Germany \u2014 is now a sweep of orchids, wetlands and bird-rich moorland.\n <\/p>\n
\n It began life as a fortified no-man\u2019s land, wired with mines and patrolled day and night to keep citizens in the East from escaping.\n <\/p>\n
\n Walk it today, and the Cold War feels impossibly far away. There\u2019s birdsong, frogs and a boardwalk over the Cheiner Torfmoor\u2019s marsh orchids.\n <\/p>\n
\n But the quiet is only possible because people were once forced to stay out.\n <\/p>\n
\n Today, in the northern regions of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, roughly between Hamburg and Berlin, the Cheiner Torfmoor, or Cheiner Heath, is one of the country\u2019s most famous wetlands.\n <\/p>\n
\n In spring and summer it becomes a mosaic of moorland, wetlands and swamp forests, filled with birds and croaking frogs. In March and April, the moor blazes with color when around 6,000 orchids erupt into bloom, including the rare violet-colored marsh orchid. A boardwalk means that visitors can immerse themselves in the display without damaging the flowers or the rich soil beneath.\n <\/p>\n
\n The sobering origins of this unspoiled biosphere belong in the Cold War. From 1949 until 1989, this was part of the so-called Innerdeutsche Grenze, or inner-German border \u2014 the frontier that separated West Germany from the communist German Democratic Republic in the east.\n <\/p>\n
\n On the GDR side, it was a place of barbed wire, minefields, watchtowers and automatic firing devices \u2014 not to repel invaders, but to stop citizens from escaping. Around three miles wide, the GDR\u2019s militarized restriction zone, the so-called Sperrzone, ran the length of the Innerdeutsche Grenze, and was patrolled around the clock.\n <\/p>\n
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\n The regime called it the Antifaschistischer Schutzwall \u2014 the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier \u2014 but the purpose was unmistakable: keep GDR citizens in.\n <\/p>\n
\n Beyond the central strip, the outer approaches of the Sperrzone were cleared of settlements and civilian activity, creating a no-man\u2019s land \u2014 and, unintentionally, nature reserve.\n <\/p>\n
\n Approaching the border with binoculars was prohibited. Yet despite the risks, the area soon drew the attention of birdwatchers on both sides.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe discovered that over 90% of the bird species that were rare or highly endangered in Bavaria \u2014 such as the whinchat, the corn bunting and the European nightjar \u2014 could be found in the Green Belt,\u201d says Kai Frobel, who who was born in Hassenberg, around 200 miles south of the Cheiner Torfmoor, in 1959. \u201cIt became a final retreat for many species, and it still is today.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Today Frobel is a professor for environmental ecology, but growing up in the shadow of the border he was an avid birdwatcher when the Sperrzone was in place.\n <\/p>\n
\n From a nature conservation standpoint, the Iron Curtain was a blessing \u2014 a 40-year accidental wildlife sanctuary. So it was no surprise that in December 1989, a month after the Berlin Wall came down, Frobel initiated a meeting in Hof, another border town south of the Cheiner Torfmoor, to discuss the future of the accidental nature reserve.\n <\/p>\n
\n Four hundred conservationists from both sides of the border turned up. This is where the name and the concept of the Gr\u00fcnes Band were born. The participants unanimously accepted a resolution to protect it under the umbrella of the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation, also known as BUND. (Later, Frobel would become spokesperson for the Green Belt project of its its Bavaria branch.)\n <\/p>\n
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\n The first step towards preservation was to establish what there was to preserve. A formal survey of the ecosystems and species along the Gr\u00fcnes Band was quickly begun, carried out by ornithologists, botanists, and entomologists on behalf of BUND. In 2001, the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation called for the creation of formal nature reserves in as many areas as possible. The intention was a Germany-wide system of ecological linkages \u2014 but the newly reunified government preferred to return land to previous owners.\n <\/p>\n
\n The pushback ended in 2002, when none other than Mikhail Gorbachev, the USSR\u2019s last-ever president, endorsed the initiative by becoming the first person to buy a \u201cGreen Belt share,\u201d a promotional tool created by BUND. His support brought wider public backing.\n <\/p>\n
\n In 2005 German Chancellor Angela Merkel designated the Gr\u00fcnes Band as part of Germany\u2019s National Natural Heritage. This ensured that land still owned by the German government along the Green Belt was transferred free of charge to the various regional states as nature reserves \u2014 clearing the way for what Frobel and his colleagues had voted for 16 years earlier. In 2017, Frobel and the then-chairman of the Nature Conservation Union Hubert Weiger received the German Environmental Award, Europe\u2019s most prestigious environmental prize, for their activism.\n <\/p>\n
\n Today, the Gr\u00fcnes Band covers all the former border land, passing through six German states. It links wetlands, forests, grasslands, and river meadows, and harbors more than 1,200 rare and endangered species of insects and animals \u2014 Germany\u2019s longest biotope network. In 2024, it was submitted for consideration for UNESCO\u2019s World Heritage list.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe must tell the story of why there is no longer a border there today,\u201d says Olaf Zimmermann, managing director of the German Cultural Council, who was instrumental in getting it onto Germany\u2019s list of proposed UNESCO sites. \u201cThat the citizens of the GDR managed to bring down this border with a peaceful revolution, without a single shot being fired.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n Sadly, this fascinating story does not mean that the Green Belt will be safe in perpetuity. Although large parts are protected, politicians can also redefine its usage \u2014 as happened in the state of Hesse in 2024, when the local government reduced the land designated for its nature reserve, following protests by local communities, hunting and farming associations.\n <\/p>\n