A narrow strip of Belgian territory was created after the First World War along the route of the Vennbahn railway line.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany gave Belgium this 28.5-kilometre corridor between Kalterherberg and Raeren.
Under the agreement, Kalterherberg station was transferred to Belgium, but the village itself remained German. The same happened to Monchau, where the town is in Germany but its railway station (now closed) lies in Belgium. The treaty also created six German enclaves within Belgium including the village of Ruitzhof.
The abandoned railway line has now been turned into a Belgian cycling and walking trail, and almost all traces of the border have vanished. But you can still spot old border stones (marked P for Prussia on one side and B for Belgium on the other), abandoned road barriers and even the occasional Belgian flag deep within Germany.
Almost no one is aware of this narrow Belgian corridor, although it is marked with astonishing accuracy on Google maps where a narrow sliver of land marked ‘België’ sits inside Germany. Since no one lives here, and the land has little value, the strange territory has remained untouched.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
