Is this weird area on the Belgium-Germany border a walkway or something different?
As you can see on the image above, Belgium and Germany have a weird border near the Oostkantons. It seems to be some kind of path east of the "real" border. Does anyone know more about this strange path and can you walk on it?
Best Answer
It's a former railroad line called the Vennbahn.
It appears that way on the map because the former railroad and right-of-way were and still are Belgian territory. That creates the two exclaves of Germany within Belgium in the picture, though there are currently 5.
Seems the trackline has since been removed and paved as a cycle path.
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Why is the German Belgian border so weird?
The Vennbahn thus became a Belgian railway running through German territory. This created a peculiar border situation, because wherever the railway tracks left Belgian territory and entered German's, it split the German territories into exclaves of Belgium.Why are there German enclaves in Belgium?
Following Germany's defeat in WW1 the areas of Eupen and Malmedy were added to Belgium in 1920 and 1921 through the Treaty of Versailles. In order to manage this now cross border railway the railway track was ceded in perpetuity to Belgium, thereby creating German exclaves cut off from Germany by the railway.Does Belgium and Germany have a border?
At 167 km in length, the German-Belgian border separates the Belgian region of Li\xe8ge and the German regions of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.Why is Baarle-Nassau so weird?
The Dutch municipality of Baarle-Nassau is home to more than 20 Belgian enclaves, some of which contain Dutch enclaves. In a quiet corner of northern Europe there exists a geopolitical anomaly, where many buildings have an international border running right through them.Vennbahn: The World's Weirdest Border?
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Images: Erik Mclean, Erik Mclean, Enric Cruz López, Maria Orlova