If you’re interested in history and you’re traveling around Germany, you’ll need lots of time to visit all the landmarks in the country, principally if you want to learn about the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War.
I remember reading a book I picked at my grandparents’ house when I was about 11 years old. As a matter of fact, it was a love story which took place in Berlin during the Cold War when the city was divided into two. The main character, the hero of course, was a very courageous and skilled man who helped people escape from East Germany into the West. By then I didn’t know much (almost nothing) about the WWII or the Cold War, but got very curious about the topic and started asking my mom questions. The story gave lots of emphasis to the fact that families were suddenly split with the construction of the Berlin Wall. I couldn’t believe it! How come? How could people be forbidden from visiting relatives and friends? How come people were not free to decide where to go? Hard enough for an adult to understand, almost impossible for a kid.
In Berlin I was very excited about the Check Point Charlie (the most famous crossing point between east and west Germany) and the Wall Museum, where I could see pictures and read about the different strategies (some successful, some unfortunately not) people used in order to trick guards and escape to the west.
Last year, on our way back home from our weekend in Nuremberg, we stopped at Point Alpha, an observation point between east and west, but this time between Rasdorf in Hesse and Geisa in Thuringia. At Point Alpha you can see how the border control was intensified as a way of hindering the escape attempts from people trapped in the GDR (East Germany). Looking at the pictures you can see that people had to be extremely creative in order to flee. I just wonder how much creativity one would need…
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- At first there was just a light obstacle, which was followed by a barbed wire fence.
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- The single barbed wire fence was followed by a double fence.
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- The dogs came later. The guards made sure they had as little contact with humans as possible to keep them sharp!
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- They also built barriers to avoid vehicles from crossing the border.
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- There were also some hidden observation points from where guards could shoot at anyone attempting to escape.
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- And paths for guards to drive along the border.
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- The white poles with the red tips mark the official border. However, lots of people were tricked by the black red yellow poles which were beyond the border and were arrested as spies.
