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The Compass: Walking The Iron Curtain : Walking the Iron Curtain: Wild lands reunited

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Walking the Iron Curtain: Wild lands reunited

22/06/2022 GMT

Walking The Iron Curtain

BBC World Service - The Compass, Walking The Iron Curtain, Walking the Iron Curtain: Wild lands reunited

Mary-Ann Ochota meets the people who reunified Germany through nature

Seventy years ago Communist East Germany sealed its border with the capitalist West.  Mary-Ann Ochota travels the former death-zone, now transformed into a wildlife haven.

In May 1952 East Germany sealed its entire border with the capitalist west. Over the next 37 years 75,000 people would be arrested trying to flee the Communist East and hundreds would die in the attempt. Today the barbed wire and machine guns are gone and the old border has been transformed into a protected wildlife zone.  It's a home to lynx, wolf and wildcat and a vital corridor for migrating birds and mammals. Mary-Ann Ochota begins her journey along the old border, meeting the people doing their bit to turn a birdwatcher's fantasy into the world's longest nature reserve.

(Photo: Mary-Ann Ochota walks the route of the Iron Curtain through central Germany)

The Compass: Walking The Iron Curtain 

Walking The Iron Curtain 

Mary-Ann Ochota explores the world's longest wildlife reserve

25 years ago a group of naturalists devised a cunning plan, to create the world's longest wildlife reserve.  The no-man’s land, between Communist East and Capitalist West was a death-strip for humans but an accidental haven for rare birds and mammals.  If it could be kept free of development then this European Greenbelt could help heal the continent’s natural and political divisions.  Mary-Ann Ochota travels the 12,500km length of the Iron Curtain to gauge their success as fear and conflict once more close-in on Europe's eastern borders.

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