Twenty-five years ago, not only was the Berlin Wall breached, but also, by extension, was the Fence along the Inner German Border separating East Germany from West Germany rendered an anachronism. Even in the time after the (accidental) opening of travel from East to West Berlin, getting past the Fence wasn’t quite as easy as much of it was protected by land mines planted in the ground around it.
I took this picture in 1979, 10 years before the beginning of the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. During my husband’s assignment to the American military community near Fulda, we lived about twelve miles away from “the fence.” Had there been hostilities, the front lines would have, again, overtaken the homes, gardens, driveways, farms and fields of ordinary people.
A view near Fulda of the inner-German-border fence constructed by the East German government.
Other links:
- A Nation Divided, Zeit Online
“In the early euphoria following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Germany moved quickly to erase the scars of its Cold War division. But East Germany’s legacy remains visible in statistics.” - 25 Years Later: Traces of the Inner German Border (video of aerial images of the border)
- Hirsche stoppen am früheren Eisernen Vorhang (Deer stop at the earlier Iron Curtain)
German article on how the deer herds that were separated during the years the Iron Curtain was in place still do not mingle with each other. - The Inner German Border, Then and Now
- German Inner Border 1961 – 1989
- Remembering inner-German border victims
Valerie Bonham 