Bikepacking the Iron Curtain: A ride through European record

From the stop of Earth War II till the convert of the 1990s, Europe was a continent divided. In the east lay the Soviet Union and its allied states in the west, a assortment of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members and neutral nations around the world. In between east and west lay ‘The Iron Curtain’. The phrase was both a nod to Soviet tries to distance alone from the West, and afterwards, the name of the 7,000 km-very long physical barrier that separated the two worlds.

Markus Stitz is a cycling adventurer and filmmaker centered in Scotland. He grew up in East Germany in the time of the Iron Curtain and was 10 yrs aged when the Berlin Wall fell, paving the way for the reunification of Germany. In his latest film, Markus rides the duration of the Iron Curtain Gravel Path, a bikepacking route that follows a part of the former Iron Curtain as a result of central Germany.


Building a film about cycling the former Iron Curtain was an idea I had on my intellect for a when. There ended up a couple, generally private, causes for that. But it is also risk-free to say that the minimal chances to journey in 2020 encouraged me to last but not least make it occur. Immediately after becoming grounded for a couple months I could combine a prolonged-awaited household check out to Germany with a couple of cycling assignments in Oct, shortly in advance of the 2nd wave of COVID-19 hit Europe. 

Just after two decades away from filmmaking I launched No Stone Unturned in 2019, which prompted Schwalbe, 1 of my long-standing supporters, to commission me for a long run movie. There were no strings attached to the provide, as extensive as I was rolling on their tires. I was totally free to decide on the matter and location of the movie, and experienced a number of suggestions for excursions in Malawi, Norway, Canada, and Australia. But proper at the commence of the pandemic in March 2020 it turned crystal clear that those visits would have to hold out for significantly more time.

When I cycled by means of Kyrgyzstan in advance of the Silk Highway Mountain Race in 2019 I was frequently reminded of my childhood in East Germany. Soon soon after leaving Bishkek I handed by way of a village identified as Rot-Entrance. Started as Bergtal, it was renamed in 1927 all through the Stalinization of the Soviet Union. When I passed, the authentic village identify was displayed once more, albeit in lesser letters. 

Rot-Entrance not only reminded me of the number of villages and cities with German names I experienced passed on my round-the-world journey – like Hahndorf near Adelaide, Australia, or Berlin in Pennsylvania, Usa. This village in Kyrgyzstan had yet another tale to convey to.

Immediately after the close of the Soviet Union, and with the collapse of the collective farms and other condition enterprises, many work were dropped, and ethnic Germans emigrated from Kyrgyzstan to Germany. The German inhabitants was diminished from 900 in the early 1990s to about 500 in 2012. Biking via the village, and viewing the lots of Lenin statues in cities and villages, reminded me of the drop of the Iron Curtain, and the destiny of previous East Germany.

“Here Germany and Europe were being divided until eventually 2pm on November 12, 1989.”

Even though enduring democracy and independence for the 1st time in their lives, most East Germans would shortly come upon financial hardship and the reduction of positions. Several people today still left the villages and towns alongside the former Iron Curtain for function and a much better existence in different pieces of West Germany, predominantly in the south.

The inhabitants of the five federal states that created up East Germany right after the tumble of the Iron Curtain was 14.5 million. Amongst 1991 and 2017 3.7 million men and women left previous East Germany, when only 2.5 million moved there. From 1990 to 1994, the several years straight away soon after the drop of the Iron Curtain, the start level sank by 50% as economic uncertainty settled in. 

In 2019, the calendar year I completed the Silk Street Mountain Race and the 30th anniversary of the slide of the Berlin Wall, matters have been mostly unique in Kyrgyzstan and Germany. When cycling through the former Soviet Union point out I still received reminded of its communist past. Statues, motor vehicles imported from East Germany a lot more than 40 a long time back, and indications on lamposts were being distinguished in towns and villages. Very very little of the communist earlier remained in Germany.

The only factor that mainly still existed was the Kolonnenweg, the concrete monitor that was developed in the 1960s to patrol the border, greatly fortified to cease the mass immigration from East to West Germany because the institution of the German Democratic Republic in 1949.

When speaking to buddies in the British isles (wherever I have lived since 2009) it was frequently explained to me as the previous ‘tank track’. Whilst definitely developed to withstand tanks, the Kolonnenweg was not utilized by tanks, but by the Grenztruppen, the division of the East German Military liable for guarding the previous border. Their auto fleet consisted of motorbikes and a modified variation of the Trabant – the automobile my mothers and fathers owned until eventually 1989 – 4X4s and vehicles, but tanks have been not utilised to patrol the border.

As opposed to Kyrgyzstan, there is small physical proof of the intensely fortified border these days. What remains are the trees that have grown the place the fence used to stand. On some stretches of the Kolonnenweg character has taken back again what was as soon as a fatal strip. The border fortifications continue being in museums, and highway indicators, stones and plaques explain to the several human tales related with the Iron Curtain. Some of the (primarily rundown) watchtowers continue to dominate the attractive countryside.

It’s the gorgeous countryside and my individual reminiscences as a child expanding up quite close to the border that impressed me to style the Iron Curtain Gravel Trail, and to doc my journey in the film ‘Grenzerfahrungen’ (which you can see at the best of this posting). Although the entire Iron Curtain stretches 6,800 km from Finland to Greece, I picked a section that is cycleable in one particular or two months, and is effectively connected to public transport. With gravel bikes starting to be the new gold common in bikepacking, my intention was to layout a route that very best fits gravel bikes. A mountain bicycle of any kind would be equally enjoyable also.

Setting up at the Drei-Länder-Stein in the Harz Mountains, north-central Germany, the Iron Curtain Gravel Path travels along the former border of the Free of charge Point out of Thuringia, where I was born in 1979. The route finishes at the Dreiländereck on the Czech-German border. The route can simply be extended to the north and south, and there are a good deal of intriguing stops alongside the route to expend the day. For an different route, the EuroVelo 13 or the Grenzsteintrophy are value examining out.

The Drei-Länder-Stein at the get started of the trail.

A couple of my particular highlights of the route have been the Kelle Cave in the vicinity of Appenrode, the ruins of Walkenried Abbey, the Sonnenstein skywalk and ruins of Hanstein Castle in the Eichsfeld, the views from the Teufelskanzel and the key Stasi tunnel, and listening to the birdsong on the Dankmarshäuser Rhäden while admiring Monte Kali, an artificial salt mountain and the stunning open countryside and steep hills of the Rhoen Mountains.

Of the museums together the previous border I was most fascinated by the exhibition at Level Alpha around Geisa. It was below that American and Soviet troops were dealing with each and every other instantly through the Cold War, as the Fulda Hole supplied just one of the two noticeable routes for a hypothetical Soviet tank assault on West Germany from East Germany.

The close of the route at the Czech border.

Other highlights consist of the stretches of the route by means of the lovely valley of the Tettau, and the 3 residences in Kleintettau that resisted communist rule the Rennsteig, a person of Germany’s finest regarded very long length paths that was spilt by the previous border the slate lined properties in the Thuringian and Franconian Slate Mountains and the tranquility of biking along the Saale river. 

One point that took me by shock is the remoteness of the route. Lots of persons fled East Germany immediately after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in 1949. The Berlin Wall and the intensely fortified border ended up erected to ‘protect’ the communist regime, but also to put an conclude to the immigration of East Germans to the west. All through the Chilly War settlements close to the border have been flattened, and the economic challenges in the early ’90s brought about extra individuals to go away. In a nation with this sort of a substantial inhabitants density as Germany, the Iron Curtain Gravel Path requires cyclists off the crushed track.

It’s a ‘real’ bikepacking route, the place I had several options to reconnect with character. The small shelters alongside the route give attractive alternatives to spend the night. Whilst wild tenting is forbidden in Germany, resting for a handful of several hours in a sleeping bag is widely acknowledged. The little cities with dining places and resorts give an genuine encounter, considerably off the overwhelmed tourist path.

Among the stunning countryside and the rich historical past there is also a whole lot of hope. Considering the fact that 2017 the populace in the east of Germany is increasing once more. People are returning, discovering not only the normal splendor along the former Iron Curtain, but also the prospects that arise with that.

I moved away in 2006 to dwell in New Zealand and Scotland. I cycled close to the earth and have seen a great deal of astounding destinations, and I was curious what encounter I would have cycling by this sort of familiar territory. It’s safe to say it was a single of the ideal bikepacking experiences of my lifestyle. 

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