The Green Belt
For more than 30 years, an inhumane border divided Germany from the Baltic Sea to the Vogtland. In the shadow of the death strip and in the area near the border, nature was able to develop largely untouched. Many rare animal and plant species found refuge here. A valuable biotope network system - the GREEN BAND - was created in this way. With its numerous connecting axes, such as watercourses and strips of trees, it extends far into the adjacent landscape areas.
The former border strip with a total length of 1,393 km represents the largest forest and open-land biotope network system in Central Europe - a string of pearls of nature, a GREEN RIBBON of national importance.
At 743 km, Thuringia has the longest section of this GREEN BAND. The Thuringian state government therefore sees itself as having a special responsibility to preserve and develop the GREEN RIBBON as a historical memorial and distinctive natural area