Chapter 1: Car drive along the Bavarian border to the GDR
“While driving along the border between Thuringia and Bavaria near Lichtenhau/Tettau, parts of the notorious 'Spurenstreifen' (a smoothed pebbled strip in which any eventual tracks could be easily spotted) come into view. The 'Rennsteig' hiking trail has been freshly asphalted and I come across a few hikers.
The view from the bridge across the Berlin-Munich autobahn has been utterly transformed with roaring non-stop traffic in both directions. The border facilities are deserted and ready for demolition, they had always been an obstruction.”
Chapter 2: Car drive along the inner German border
“The town of Hirschberg used to be cut-off from its surroundings and was fenced in along the Saale River by the Wall. It is now starting to come out of its ‘Sleeping Beauty’ like sleep. They ought to leave the Wall however, as it conveniently blocks out the view of a bleak factory site.
The nearby village of Venzka is a desolate sight. There are just islands of asphalt where the street used to be. But the freshly painted grocery store is like a ray of sunshine among the gray houses.
Contrast in the forest: The empty border troop barracks with drill equipment for the capture of ‘border violators’. A well-tended monument bearing the inscription, ‘In memory of the murdered border guards’, without listing any names.
Another length of Wall in Mödlareuth, the once divided village – a small version of divided Berlin. What was even worse here however was that the voices of relatives could be heard in the quiet of the village, drifting over the Wall that was meant to block the view. For 28 years they weren’t allowed to talk to or visit one another. And now it’s finally over. They left a few meters of the absurdity as a monument, delivering the incomprehensible to posterity.
By the border near Spechtsgrün I come across a group of seismic drillers from the GDR who are finally able to catch up on measurements they had been unable to do until now.”
Chapter 3: At the former border triangle in Regnitzlosau
“I’ve reached my ultimate destination, the border triangle, formerly a neuralgic point in GDR security, as this has long been the place where the Frankish hiking trail ran along the Czech border, and never had the awful appearance or demeanor of a typical East German border. It was important to manage security as discreetly as possible here. Nothing remains except for an old border stone bearing a chiseled and whitewashed ‘S’ for Saxony which has ‘DDR’ (‘GDR’) written in black paint above it – seemingly not made for all eternity as they had refrained from engraving it in. Another stone alongside it bears the inscription ‘DB 1844’. This means that the marker had been placed there by the German Confederation (1815-1866) while the kingdoms of Saxony, Bavaria and Bohemia still existed. Nostalgia at a place steeped in history. And from a not so distant past, the grave of an unknown German soldier who ‘died in July 1945’ serves as a memorial.”
Chapter 4: Car drive along the Czech border
“My journey isn’t quite finished. I want to find out where the military border fortifications finally end. I keep driving along the concrete slab road, mile after mile. On my right, it has been Czech territory for miles now, the former ‘brotherly-socialist border of peace’. Eventually I get to the last watchtower, the tank trench comes to an end and after a while the concrete path becomes a dirt track. I’m told that earlier, fugitives who crossed this open border imagined they had made it to the West, only to be extradited to the GDR by the then Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
I arrive at a closed border crossing in Pabstleithen. Two Czech border guards greet me cordially but do not let me pass, not even on foot and in spite of my passport. I show them my video footage of the GDR border. They are in total amazement due first of all to the miraculous device itself (with its ability to show the footage instantly) and secondly as they had never yet seen the inner German border in all its dreadful detail.”
Hans Dieter Kiemle
(4 rankings) 
