The Gendarms’ Path – A Border Gard Trail

Redaktioneller Artikel
Tourguide
At the end of the ”Feldmark” road, directly at the border crossing, you will encounter the Border Gard Trail (in Danish: Gendarmstien, in German: Gendarmenweg). This 74 km long hiking trail passes through a fascinating landscape, with the majority of the route even running directly along the waterfront.
The name recalls the blue-uniformed border gendarmes, who patrolled along the border from 1920 to 1958. In this idyllic landscape, the task seems very tempting today. Only, in the beginning, the gendarmes were not allowed any shelters at their surveillance posts. They could put up an open tent roof, but in the often adverse wind conditions and especially in winter, this was not very practical. Many gendarmes therefore secretly built shelters themselves. Sporadically, the border gendarmerie directorate requested that these illegal huts be torn down. The gendarmes replied that these huts were the private hunting lodges of certain farmers, and that others were the German border guards' huts, and as such they dared not touch them. In this way they were generally able to save their weather protection.