The European Green Belt Singing

Background & Location

The event took place in the small village of Schlagsdorf in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in the north of the UNESCO Schaalsee Biosphere Reserve. It is close to the former inner German border between West and East Germany. We met in the outdoor area of the Grenzhus Museum. Here visitors can see how the former border fortifications were built. The outdoor installations have been constructed entirely from original parts of the former GDR border fortifications.

Objective 

We hope that the Green Belt Singing initiative will grow and reach many people in the future. Our aim is to sing together and talk about the history of the Iron Curtain, the biotopes that have been created in recent years and how we want to shape our future together peacefully. We would like to invite everyone to take up this idea and join us in singing together for the earth, for peace and for democracy.

Approach & Results 

The European Green Belt Days celebration has been very moving. About 70 people came to the border museum and joined in the singing event. We came together to sing. The celebration was the prelude to the initiative "The Green Belt Singing – for Earth, Peace and Democracy", whose vision is to gather singers from 24 countries from Norway to Turkey to sing together along the European Green Belt, the former Iron Curtain. 

The celebration was so inspiring for many, that another sing-along took place in the evening on the Nieklitzer Moor in the south of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Schaalsee. The team of "Wir bauen Zukunft" organized an open day and invited everyone to join in the singing. 

Photo gallery of the European Green Belt Days celebration