Ms Merkel said Balkan states could be plunged back into war - the first time since the 1990s - if Germany closed it border with Austria.
She told members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union party that erecting a fence to stem the unrelenting flow of migrants would "lead to a backlash".
Referencing the bloody conflicts in the former state of Yugoslavia, she said: "I do not want military conflicts to become necessary there again."
The German leader, giving a speech in Darmstadt, southern Germany, said barbed wire fences along the borders of Hungary and Serbia "will build up fault lines" and threatens to provoke new tensions. » | Tom Batchelor | Wednesday, November 4, 2015
