emily at the edge

The last weekend in November, I went to visit the Inner German Border, the land in the middle of nowhere that was the dividing line between the West and the East.

And when I say the middle of nowhere, I really mean it.  There's nothing there.  Even now, twenty years after reunification, there's nothing there.  The towns are small and away from the border; the trains don't run anywhere near the Grenzland.  We had to rent a small tour bus in order to see anything, given that NOTHING goes there.

Our first stop of the day was at an old (13th or so century.  German version of old.  Not American version of old.) fortress.  It was kind of fitting for there to be a fortress near the border, given how heavily fortified it was, but kind of amazing as well.  The reason there's nothing left near the border is that the DDR tore it all down.  The fact that this fortress was spared from this complete destruction is kind of amazing.

Next stop was lunch at a tiny Rundlingsdorf, a circular village.  Very, very tiny and very, very circular.  Food was good.  That's really all I have to say about that.

Next we went to Stresow, a town that is no more.  It lied along the Elba river for at least 6 centuries, but once the Elba became the border between the BRD and the DDR, it was destroyed.  Buildings are good things in which to hide, and the DDR couldn't have people hiding anywhere near the place they could escape.  While we were at Stresow, we met a very old man who was visiting the memorial site with this family.  He told us that he was born in Stresow; he walked us to the very spot his house had once been until the DDR kicked them out.  An entire village with an entire history gone with the exception of the few still living to remember it.

After we left Stresow, we went to see an old DDR watch tower, one of several scattered along the German countryside.  Though the fences it overlooked are now torn down, the nothing-ness they ran through still remains.

I am quick to explain to you just how EMPTY this entire area is.  There's nothing there.  We can see rivers and monuments and watchtowers, but that's it.  But there is one good thing to come from the nothing.  Because no people were allowed or dared to get anywhere close to the former border, plants and animals flourished.  Not just in Germany, but along the entire formed Iron Curtain.  The region now forms what it called the Grüne Band, a wildlife reserve from Norway to Turkey.  One can walk or ride a bike through beautiful territory dividing the former chunks of Europe.  And it is pretty.  Quiet, and peaceful, and pretty.  But just like Neuengamme, its serenity comes with a grain of salt.