Posted 5 years ago
elanski
(97 items)
Pic 1. Border crossing sign, displayed near crossing points along the border between East and West Germany. In four languages to reflect the languages of the occupying forces, as well as German.
Pic 2. East German (DDR) State sign. These were displayed on concrete posts to mark out the actual border, as the fences were often several meters inside this line. This gave the guards a clear field of fire to target escapees without shots landing in the West and provided a buffer zone where engineers could work on maintaining the outward face of the fence and still be in East German territory.
Pic 3 and 4 photos of similar signs in situ from when they were in use.
Quite considerate of them to try and keep their bullets out of the west.
I crossed the border by train between the two German states in Hof in 1985 as "stateless" person from East Germany. I still have nightmares and quite a few stories to tell about this "adventure". I ended up in Giessen, in a refugee camp, before moving to Duesseldorf, to a kind of asylum, and then to Canada. These pictures cut deep into old wounds.
They also had what was called the one klick zone where signs were posted. I have seen a good many of them in the 60's & 70's. The klick zone is where signs were posted one kilometer before you actually got to the wall or fence, depending where you were. Americans called it either No Man's Land or The Point of no Return. Totally different time in history and having lived it is why I am against Trump's wall. Walls have never in the history of man been effective. Including the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall and the DMZ in Korea.
BTW, the border was such that one could not see when one were finally on the other side. The train would stop, then go, then stop again... nobody on the train would talk or make eye contact out of fear ... it's hard to explain the tension and angst.
Thanks freiheit and fhrjr2, and thanks for the extra info.