Sunday afternoon walk: Deuringer Heath, Western Forests Nature Park at the gates of Augsburg. A serene, peaceful area with numerous paths through lush growth, water-filled pits, oaks of legendary proportions. Filling my lungs with the clean air, taking in nature’s medicine.

At the same time, scattered structures serve as clues to the earlier history of this place: military training ground initially of the German army, then the US (NATO) forces stationed in nearby Augsburg (until the end of the Cold War). Gunfire, tank training, choppers hovering. Echoes of the sounds of the tank training ground it once was, of the thick smoke-filled air.

In the last quarter century, nature started a new life cycle here. ‘Fox holes,’ from where soldiers fired, became swamp holes, an ideal habitat for rare flora and fauna species. The over thirty types of dragonflies are the ones doing the flying now. Families, walkers, school classes come for fitness training and hiking the adventure trails.

A living monument to the history of place.

Past and present. And future…