Along the Wall and Watchtowers

A revealing portrait of reunified Germany in the form of a journey along the former Iron Curtain, from the Baltic Sea to the Czech border, this text is published to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall.

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A revealing portrait of the reunified Germany told in the form of an entertaining travelogue -- an 800-mile journey along the former Iron Curtain from the Baltic Sea to the Czech border. * In recent German history, borders -- and their expansion -- have been central to the fate of Europe. When the Iron Curtain dissolved ten years ago, the faultline that divided West and East Germany also collapsed. But could the so-called 'anti-fascist protection barrier' (or 'death strip') be erased as easily as a pencil-mark on the map? Curious to find out, Oliver August set off on an 800-mile journey from the Baltic Sea to the Czech border. * In his encounters with former border guards, ex-Stasi members turned insurance salesmen, decollectivized farmers, innkeepers, nudists, car mechanics, engine-drivers, foresters, artists and dreamers, the author reveals with a delightful lightness of touch the hopes, fears and regrets of both 'Wessis' and 'Ossis', and listens to the anxieties of those who feel 'colonized' by the West.
* He travels along the Elbe, observing new nature reserves in the old borderlands; visits the unique village republic where for 22 years the inhabitants lived enclosed between two fences; watches the rebuilding of the Bismarck family castle; attends an international gathering of Trabant-owners; explores museums devoted to documenting former life along the border; travels across the dark and sinister Harz mountains which once harboured an underground Nazi concentration camp; and ends his journey in Hof, where minefields have been transformed into golf courses.