The fall of Communism

Cycling the Iron Curtain

Politics

15.10.2009

by Ruth Reichstein

Dossier index

20 years since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc

For nearly 50 years the Iron Curtain divided Europe into East and West. After 1989, in the place where the Curtain used to stand something new was created: 6,800 kilometres of cycle track. Euro MP Michael Cramer has been trying to cycle the entire route.

German politician Michael Cramer is sitting in his office in Brussels and looking through his latest e-mails. But every now and then he glances out of his window – longing for fresh air. Cramer is not a pen pusher, he prefers to be outdoors.

A cycle track with history

Cramer, a member of the Green Party, has just arrived back from a trip that ended on the border between Hungary and Austria. For three days he had been travelling by bike. The politician has been travelling along the cycle route which is his passion: the track along the former Iron Curtain which passes right through the middle of Europe. “This cycle track starts at the Norwegian-Russian border and ends at the Black Sea. It passes through 20 states and 14 of those are EU members states,” Cramer says

Sometimes the track passes other routes, like the cycle path along the Danube or the one along the Baltic Sea. It is a cycle track which follows the former border between Eastern and Western Europe – and it has many links to Europe’s history. Michael Cramer wants to make this route more popular.

From Berlin Wall track to cross-European project

Photo: www.ironcurtaintrail.eu

The project started shortly after the Berlin Wall fell. At that time, Cramer was a councillor in Berlin. “I went on the Zollweg on the western side of the wall in the summer of 1989. It was easy, you couldn’t get lost. One year later, in spring, I went cycling on a track between the two parts of the wall where the soldiers used to patrol. But then a lot of it was destroyed, so we had to find another route,” Cramer explains.

The track grew longer and longer. At first it was just a route along the Berlin Wall, but then cyclists could ride along the whole former border between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. Then it became a cross-European track, passing from the north to the south - the Iron Curtain Trail . The aim of the project was to take cyclists on routes as close to the former border as possible.

The cycle track – more than a sports event

On the German section of the track the cyclists pass about 300 open-air museums and memorials on their way. Cramer also wants to integrate historical features on the borders between Finland and Russia and Austria and Hungary. He does not know how many people have been cycling the track so far, but he is sure that many people use it: “Twenty-five years ago people just wanted to cycle alongside rivers because they didn’t want to have to go up hills. But this attitude has changed. The Camino de Santiago, a cycle track following ancient pilgrimage routes in the hills of northern Spain, is the most popular route today.”

People are not as put off by the difficulties now. They are inspired by all the pilgrims who walked this path before them and they want to experience the same adventure, Cramer says.

“And on this cycling track you can say: This is the place where the continent was divided. It was an evil time. But now Europe is reunited and we can cycle here – either in the Eastern or the Western part,” he adds.

Dismantling mental barriers

Taking a break by the lake

Photo: Michael Cramer

You can buy special guidebooks which show you the way and explain the most important historical events. For example, they tell you how refugees managed to escape from the GDR and in which areas. Over the next few years there are plans to enlarge the cycle track and put up special signposts so that cyclists can find their way more easily. Cramer has already cycled 2,000 kilometres of the track – and he wants to do the remaining 5,000.

For the MEP crossing the former border without any problems is still a special feeling. “When I cross the border in Berlin I always recognise it. Once I went across it while I was asleep in the train – and I woke up at the moment when we reached the border. It was really weird.”

Biologists have found out that animals in the Czech Republic and Bavaria still stop at the place where the Iron Curtain used to be – although they could just go on. But they turn around and go back. These animals still seem to have the wall in their heads. Some people also do. “We hope that the next generations can live without this border,” Cramer says. And the European Iron Curtain Trail could help.