After three decades abroad, Kerstin Lange traces the remains of the 1,400-kilometer-long border that divided her native Germany during the Cold War. Using the former border as a prism and a compass for a journey by bicycle and on foot, she investigates the human, societal, and ecological stories surrounding the former German borderland. What was it like to live next to one of the world's most draconian border systems? How come over 1,200 rare animal and plant species found refuge in the highly militarized border strip-today's Green Belt? What echoes reverberate in today's Germany from the time of the division and the time following the fall of the Berlin Wall and Reunification? Pivoting to the present, the book addresses questions of migration, identity, and belonging in light of the proliferation of militarized borders today. Lange concludes by pointing to the glimpse the Green Belt offers into much older landscapes for clues about the ecological dimension of home.
"This book combines adventure, history, and a narrative of how people lived confronted with the post-WWII environment in Germany. Lange explores consequences and lessons that continue to the present day. Phantom Border tackles the larger issues, the importance of home, and its offshoot into conservation biology and ethics. With verve and clarity, it serves a rich fare for a wide readership. It is a great read." -Bernd Heinrich, author (Mind of the Raven, The Trees in my Forest, The Snoring Bird, Bumblebee Economics, Winter World, A Year in the Maine Woods, The Homing Instinct