The fact that we have a desert in Germany still freaks me out. Like this should not be, but it is.
You canāt just post something like that without telling us where. I want to visit the German desert!Ā
Itās somewhere in Brandenburg in the general area of Cottbus
The Lieberos Heath lies about 20 kilometres north of Cottbus in Lower Lusatia. In 1994 it was transferred from the Bundeswehr to the state of Brandenburg and became a nature reserve, fauna-flora habitat and European bird sanctuary. The biodiversity that can be found here is enormous. Today pines, heather and dry grasses lie quietly in the landscape on 25,000 hectares that was a former military training area.
Within the heath we have the desert everyone is talking about. The Lieberos Desert, also known (also justĀ ādesertā orĀ āLIttle Siberiaā) is a sandy open area of about five square kilometres within the Lieberos Heath.
As late as 1992, many a commuter travelling between Lieberose and Peitz had to stop on the main road. Russian forces were holding their manoeuvres and the road went right through the tank firing range. At least it was closed before the shooting. The area had been a military training ground much earlier. The Nazis had big plans for the Lieberos Heath. When the Waffen-SS began to build up its personnel at the end of 1942, they needed accommodation and training sites. For this reason, the SS Kurmark training area was to be expanded. Forced labourers from all over Europe and concentration camp prisoners arrived in the region. Jamlitz, GroĆ Muckrow, Chossewitz Ullersdorf and 13 other villages were to be forcibly resettled.
The Lieberos Desert was also created during this time. The cause was a large forest fire that left 1700 hectares of bare land behind. Decades of military use, rolling tanks and transport convoys ensured that the open terrain was preserved. At a good five square kilometres in size, it is still the largest desert area in Germany today.
The grandstand on General Hill was built for the WaffenbrĆ¼derschaft manoeuvre in 1970, when 50,000 soldiers from the Warsaw Pact countries moved through the desert and heathland. Leonid Brezhnev, head of the Soviet Unionās party and state, and Erich Honecker watched the spectacle from there. The Russian forces left in 1992. But the traces of the military are far from gone. Thousands of hectares of the area are considered contaminated with munitions. This makes it difficult to extinguish forest fires. The paths leading through parts of the area are safe. In the Sukzessionspar you can wanter through nature and see how it is slowly returning.
At first, mosses and grass grow in the desert sand, small pines and birches advance further and further. The desert becomes steppe, later the pioneer forest becomes a mixed forest. And the animals come back. Spiders and insects, even the Italian grasshopper have already been sighted. Eagles circle overhead, wolf packs feel undisturbed. Inf fact this is where the wolf first returned to Germany, the first pups on German soild were born in the Lieberos Desert. Moose also come over for a visit from Poland.
