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Restricted Zone!

The pinewoods and the moorland of Fläming, Germany, are very popular among nature lovers. Hikers and people searching for mushrooms will love it here. But appearances are deceiving! Many forests in Fläming and huge parts of the Märkische Heide are prohibited to enter.
The reason for this is just visible while taking a closer look at the large sized landscape photos. In this idyllic moorland, tank fists, grenades and machine gun shells are hidden all over the ground. The landscape is polluted with explosive ordnance and explosives. At the moment 1/3 of the total ground of Brandenburg is polluted with old munitions. This is due to the fact that military bases of the Wehrmacht were located here. Battle lines ran through here during the Second World War. Later on, the Russian army set up military complexes and training areas for soldiers. After the German reunification and the departure of the Red Army, the former exclusion zones were closed down. What is left now, are the military complexes and the old munitions. The clearing will take decades, as monies are scarce and the fields are huge.