Photo Gallery 'The New Berlin Wall'
A popular footpath along the Griebnitzsee lake outside of Berlin has been blocked off since April. It's the latest salvo in a battle between owners of the villas above the path, who say that it is on their property, and Potsdam city officials, who want the trail to be accesible to the public.
Those hoping for an afternoon stroll have found their way blocked by aluminum fencing and strategically placed shrubbery.
Twenty property owners decided to erect the barricades a couple of weeks after a regional court decided that their land rights extended all the way to the water's edge. The villas themselves have a complicated history, with some originally belonging to Jewish families ousted by the Nazis. Others were comandeered by Communist officials after the creation of East Germany. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the new German federal government began to restore these properties to their former owners.
The path didn't exist when most of the villas were built, before World War II. When Germany was still divided between East and West, the footpath was built as a route for border guards patrolling the line between West Berlin and East Germany. It currently incorporates part of the commemorative Berlin Wall Trail. This part, where a cross and section of the Wall memorialize several people killed trying to escape into the West, is still open to the public.
Bikers, hikers and other members of the public have been enjoying the path since the newly reunited German government began dismantling the Wall in 1990. Grafitti on a blocked section of path reads, "STAY OUT - NO WHINING!! That goes for those on foot, in wheelchairs, and on bikes. Today the fat cats build the wall, before it was the STATE. Rights belong to those who can afford them."
Not all of the lakeside property owners are erecting barricades. At this house, a banner on the balcony reads, "Free the shore path!"
