Eckertal

Eckertal is a hamlet of about 160 inhabitants on the eastern rim of the municipal area of Bad Harzburg in Lower Saxony, just north of the Harz mountain range. Its nearest neighbour is the village of Stapelburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Its parish is bordered to the north and west by the Schimmerwald forest and to the east by the River Ecker.

History

In the course of the German re-armament, the Luftwaffe in 1936 had an aircraft munitions depot (Muna) built in the woods northwest of the village. On 10 April 1945 it was totally destroyed when retiring German troops blew it up. The force of the blast even destroyed window panes in the station at Bad Harzburg 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) away. On the munitions site, which had an area of 240 ha, there were over 120 bunkers and a large number of bomb craters with a diameter of up to 60 metres (200 ft). Even today (2009) the Lower Saxon bomb disposal service continues to work at Eckertal.

During the period of the post-war division of Germany, Eckertal was the site where the Inner German border along the Ecker interrupted the Bundesstraße 6 and the Wernigerode–Ilsenburg–Bad Harzburg railway. The tracks were finally dismantled in the 1970s. A restaurant and an observation post overlooking the border installations were a popular destination for day-trippers. When the Wall was opened on 9 November 1989 in Berlin, it was only a question of time before the Inner German Border followed suit. On 11 November 1989 around 4.30 pm the highway was re-opened between Eckertal and Stapelburg. From a historic point of view this was the first new border crossing between East and West Germany in the process of reunification. Today a monument commemorates this event. It bears the inscription "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit für das Deutsche Vaterland" from the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied.

See also

• Ahlsburg (castle)
• Luvos