The political transition that took place in Germany and Europe when theBERLIN Wall collapsed also has a natural dimension, and nowhere is this more evident than in the so-called Green Belt. Before the fall of the Wall, experts had long been aware that the border strip between East and West Germany was teeming with life. In the 1970s, members of the Bavarian Society for the Protection of Birds systematically recorded populations of bird species along the inner German border zone. The diversity they discovered can be found in only a handful of other places 
in Germany.

The explanation for this is simple: while intensive farming destroyed the habitats of numerous species in East and West alike, farmers were not permitted to enter the border strip. East German security installations, the lack of agriculture in this zone and the resettlement of a large part of the population turned the inner German border into a refuge for endangered species. Once the barbed wire had been removed and the minefields had been cleared, the monstrous border strip that had separated political power blocs and systems was revealed to 
be a “green belt” of interconnected and 
virtually untouched natural environments stretching nearly 1,400 kilometres from the Baltic Sea to BAVARIA.

The historical and political importance of German REUNIFICATION as the consequence of the European epochal shift which took place in 1989 has been stressed countless times. It also has an ecological component, however, which encompasses not only 
the Green Belt, but also another phenom­enon: over the past 25 years, Central Europe has become “wilder”. The proliferation of wolves has been a matter of public concern since the turn of the millennium. The lynx has also been reconquering Germany’s Central Uplands, albeit somewhat more quietly than the wolf. Bears are also finding a home for themselves again in the German Alpine region.

One reason these animals are able to return is the ample availability of prey. Europe is now home to more deer and wild boar 
than ever before. Twenty-five years ago, who would have thought it possible that the beaver would once again populate almost all the river systems of Central Europe? The white stork, which had long ago all but disappeared from West Germany, has again become a familiar sight there in recent years. If we ask how Germany and Europe have changed since 1990, one of the answers must therefore be that important species 
of animals have returned to the European culturalLANDSCAPE.

The trends of the modern age are contradictory: on one hand, we have the market economy penetrating new areas following the collapse of the socialist planned eco­nomy and, on the other, the idea of preserving Europe’s natural heritage has garnered impressive support. While the bureau­cratic-sounding Habitats Directive may have a somewhat amusing ring to it, the political project behind this European Union “Council Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora“ ensured in 1992 that the protection of hab­itats and species became a primary rather than a subordinate goal of European policy.

It is not surprising then that a political consensus was reached soon after the collapse of the Iron Curtain to preserve the former border strip – 50 to 200 metres of land on both sides of the former “patrol road” – as an exceptional natural environment. The Green Belt links protected habitats and as such serves as a prime example of inter­connectedness in European conservation policy. The goal is not to preserve the ­“relics” of pristine or largely unspoilt nature 
in museums, but to naturally revitalise 
our cultural LANDSCAPE. The former “death strip” could hardly make any better contribution to safeguarding the future.

Link : https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/culture/town-country/a-transition-in-nature-too