Travel

Backroads of Northeast Germany

Twist, Germany–Geology and geography dominate life here. Twist, on the Dutch/Germany border between Dusseldorf and Hamburg, means “disputed border” in German. First settled in the late 1700s, it was a challenging marshy terrain only somewhat relieved when a North/South Canal was built in the late 1800s.  The Twist bog was once the largest area for cultivating peat moss in Europe.

Today, the East Frisian countryside is a great place to hike, bike, birdwatch, and explore canals and boglands. You might even see a windmill or two.

The International Nature Park Bog straddles the borders of the two countries, offering a wintering stop for migratory birds and a chance to see a peat bog up close. (The next closest spot might just be Siberia, where most of the world’s peat harvesting occurs.) This is the site of what was once Europe’s largest continuous moor. Huge machines tunnel just outside the park, bringing up the peat into long mounded rows on the few patches of land are still permitted to be harvested. The nature park offers trails and views over the bog.

The Moor and Fen Museum in Elizabethfen offers a look into the history of the area. Inside, a relic of the 1950s remains: a huge machine that plowed 7 meters to turn up workable soil. Exhibits show the various hand tools that settlers used and hint at their hard life. Before the 1950s, people mostly hand-turned peat, and before World War II, hand-dug it, too. Men wore wooden shoes to prevent losing toes while shoveling, while woman toiled barefoot, hunched over to turn the peat bricks.