The best walks and hikes around Gresse

Not passable with a touring bike, at most with a mountain bike.

The estate, including the school building for the surrounding villages, stood here. In 1963, the entire area was demolished during the "Verziefer" (pesticide) campaign, and all the buildings were destroyed because it was considered too close to the border by the GDR regime.

If you want to know more about the museum and the horrendous events surrounding the "execution" of Michael Gartenschläger during the GDR era for dismantling automatic shooting devices, you can find them in my book https://shop.tredition.com/booktitle/Zwei_R%3fder_ein_Land/W-1_136034, on the cover of which I can be seen in front of the museum.

At midnight between April 30th and May 1st, 1976, Michael Gartenschläger is killed by East German border guards. He is shot by a special Stasi commando as he tries to approach the border to the west. Gartenschläger has carefully planned his action at the border of Schwarzenbek in Lauenburg. The GDR Foreign Minister, Oskar Fischer, denies that there are automatic shooting devices at the border. Gartenschläger wants to prove that this is a lie. In March and April he crawls to the border and dismantles two of the SM70 automatic shooting devices. He shows these to the magazine Der Spiegel and in this way the GDR leadership's fraud is exposed. When Gartenschläger knows that new SM70s have been installed, he sneaks back to the border on the evening of April 30th. Together with two helpers, he wants to get one of the new automatic shooting devices that is to be exhibited in West Germany. But he does not know that the East German border police have been tipped off. This is why a special commando from the Ministry for State Security is able to take up positions. They are prepared to shoot Gartenschläger, who is now a thorn in the side of the GDR government. In the following years, Michael Gartenschläger becomes a symbol of the inhumanity of the GDR. A cross is erected shortly afterwards in the village of Bröthen: the Gartenschläger Cross. Today there is a memorial here. www.vimu.info/fb.jsp?id=for_1_9_17_fb_gartenschlaeger_dk_doc&lang=de&u=general&flash=true

A nice little open-air museum about a dark German chapter. With seating.

Gate 21 - End of the world?

The Bretziner Heide nature reserve is a 32 hectare nature reserve in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, eight kilometers northeast of Boizenburg. It is one of the last dry dwarf shrub heaths in West Mecklenburg. It was declared a protected area on April 16, 1974. The area is in good condition, as the invasion of woody plants has been slowed down by ploughing and sheep grazing. Surrounding towns are Bretzin, which gives the area its name, not far to the south, and Wiebendorf. The nature reserve is located in the Mecklenburg Elbe Valley Nature Park. The areas can be walked on existing paths. There is a visitor parking lot in the southern area. http://www.traumziel-mv.de/wandern/touren-in-der-region/lewitz-mecklenburgisches-elbetal/tourendetails/bretziner-heide.html

To commemorate the division of Germany, an open-air border museum was set up at the outskirts of Leisterförde. Gate number 21 stood here until 1990 - one of the few passages in the "signal fence" that bypassed the last GDR village before the Iron Curtain and crossed the street. The gate could only be opened by members of the GDR border troops. Visitors can find out these and many other informative things about the border system on a tour. Among other things, about the border history, the border signal fence, the dog run, the observation tower, the border communication network (GMN), the tire killers, the column path, the control strip, the vehicle barrier ditch, the SM 70 splinter mine and the actual border fence.