The Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain: Germany 35 Years Later

When the Berlin Wall fell under the pressure of peaceful protests in November of 1989, the 900-mile-long border that divided Germany during the Cold War – the Iron Curtain – also became obsolete. A wave of euphoria swept the world.

Thirty years after the momentous events of 1989, Vermont author Kerstin Lange embarked on a bicycle expedition along the once-deadly “German-German” border. Her book Phantom Border tells the story of that journey and of the border itself: What were its impacts on the land itself and on the people who lived next to it? How could over a thousand rare and threatened plant and animal species find refuge in the highly militarized border strip? How are the reunited Germans doing today?