Waking tour of Brussels under German occupation - 1914-1918

Rainer Hiltermann led a tour of fifteen Book club members in which he shared his period photographs of Brussels under German military occupation during the First World War. Most instructive was the closing off of the area stretching from the Royal Palace, Parc Royale and Grand Assembly. The area was a No Go zone for Belgians, who could only enter with a military pass, much like the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq during the Anglo-American occupation of 2003-2011. In the zone and most important to the German military was the administrative offices of the Belgium National Railroad. German civil and military officer were stationed in it to insure Belgian railroads were operated strictly in the interests of the German military and industrial needs.