November 6, 2009 5:24PM # Liberty Most Deer By [Ilya Shapiro](https://www.cato.org/people/ilya-shapiro) --- SHARE As a footnote to Chris Moody’s [post](https://www.cato.org/2009/11/05/berlin-wall-anniversary-links/) about Monday’s 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I just came across [this article](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125729481234926717.html) about red deer refusing to cross from Germany into the Czech Republic. This, of course, is a border that was the once heavily fortified dividing line between free West Germany and captive Czechoslovakia. Even deer who weren’t born when barbed wire, watchtowers, and armed guards prevented the natural extension of their happy grazing grounds act as if the Cold War never ended — apparently because they learned their habits from their parents, who learned them from their parents. Still, as with the new generation of Eastern Europeans who have no memory of Communism, some young deer are starting to break the mold, taking advantage of — and even taking for granted — their newfound freedom. I wonder if the grass (and ferns, and whatever else deer eat) is any greener on the other side of the former Iron Curtain. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).