My youngest daughter had the great fortune of doing an exchange year in Germany this year. Last year, a young German boy spent a year with us, and this year she gets to spend a year with his family in Hamburg. Such an excellent concept. Naturally, this year, as part of my annual visit to see my mother, I also went to see my daughter!
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I grew up in the deep South of Germany, close to the Austrian border. And thus, it was a very unusual experience for me to arrive in the small Northern German town of Bennin, in the Mecklenburg area of Germany. Even more so, since the area belonged to the formerly occupied German Democratic Republic, ‘East Germany’. The wall had not yet fallen when I left Germany, and thus I would not have had access to this town, even if I wanted to go! What a bizarre thought, isn’t it?
The town is only 10 kilometers from the former border, and its presence is still evident in places: we drove along a road that was fortified to support the tanks that patrolled the border and kept them away from the mines; on a walk, we past a fence built from strong steel mesh, reclaimed when the wall was dismantled. And surprisingly, one positive result of the wall that separated East from West: the forests and wildlife around the border remained untouched. Thus, there is a great variety and quantity of species now. Deer everywhere, stork nests on chimney tops, an amazing variety of trees and greenery. I really enjoyed my time in this gorgeous 850-year old town.
The view is changing now, as I travel Southward by train. Rolling meadows and lush leafy forests are replaced by agricultural production, spotted with beautiful giant wind turbines. The most bizarre view is of fields that seem to be planted with solar panels rather than crops. I really wish I was able to capture this on camera, but the train is moving too fast: fields ‘planted’ with row upon tilted row of shiny black solar panels, harvesting the sun.
And then, finally, in the distance, the mountains appear: I am nearing my home town.
This is a beautifully written article. I wonder how long I’d have to live here to be able to write so poetically in German.