DDR border at Marienborn - Die Grenze von der DDR an Marienborn

[mutterschied]

I was there in 1990, and it kept all of an unexplainable... scent of fear, pain and cry.

Don't ask me why, bu those damnedest walls DID talk.

Omg! Socialismus = Paradise?

[mark1simon]

Just like getting into the USA fucking mad in 2011

[MarcB09121992]

3:19 The border at Hoetensleben ;)

[alanheath]

@MarcB09121992 I filmed that as well - you can see three films of mine from Hoetensleben!

[MIXFM1026]

Wow, great piece of work. I've been to the DDR in '87, and I still feel the unnatural atmosphere while we visited and East-Berlin museum and the Schloss Sans Souci.  The moment that our Eastern Berlin guide had to step of the bus is still tatooed in my memories.

Now, I'm flying and driving often to Berlin, and a few weeks ago, I stopped in Marienborn to have a look at the crossing. Again, I felt the strange atmosphere I experienced in '87.

[galanter]

Ausgezeichneter Film! Vielen Dank!

[alanheath]

@galanter Vielen Dank. Ich freue mich sehr!

[OSSI002]

Freiheit liebende DDR ...................loooooooooo­ooool

[slawek57]

Thank you for this nice video and for the explanations

[alanheath]

@slawek57 I am glad you appreciated it. I have more here on the inter German border which may interest you!

[alanheath]

Anyone with a puerile sense of humour mind be interested in going to my channel page for my latest selection of weak jokes, puns in foreign languages and attempts to imitate Viz.

[imalang99]

Ein ausgezeichnetes Video ! Very very well done. Superb. Danke !

[alanheath]

@imalang99 Thank you for your nice comment. I have some more films on the Inter German border...

[LibertaerUeberAlles]

We must try this 'socialismus' again... oh wait, we are.

[galanter]

@LibertaerUeberAlles

There is a gargantuan difference between 'Sozialismus' as to what was in the ehemaliger-DDR and 'social democracy' governments. Not the same thing. Unfair analogy. A better analogy would be to Scandinavia.

The type of former Communist Bloc- Iron Curtain Sozialismus was a giant prison. Anytime you have soldiers of a government shooting their own people who want to leave their country, that is something never to be compared with "Democratic style social programs".Come now!

[LibertaerUeberAlles]

@galanter

One might say that Nordic Socialism was possible only because of Soviet Socialism -- due to the gravitational pull, so to speak. Do you know about the Marxist genocides of ethnic Christians in Russia and Ukraine? Lazar Kaganovich? The Holodomor?

You can watch:

"kaganovich bolshevism"

or:

"Cheka and NKVD Marxist Holocaust"

This is what Germany fought against.

[siwol77]

very interesting

[MrKevin1a]

Very interesting movie. I visited some boarder points the last time I was in Germany, but I love hearing other people's stories and experiences.

[ferkulat]

sehr gut gemacht. jeder bundesbürger sollte das heutzutage mal live erlebt haben. deutsche geschichte!

[alanheath]

Vielen Dank! Ich will keinen deutschen Bürger, dieses wieder zu leben!

[alanheath]

Ich wurde auch am 9 November geboren!!!

[SachsenAnhaltTube]

Hier muss ich einfach mal was rein schreiben, super gemacht das Video. Volle Sterne von mir.

[alanheath]

Danken Ihnen für Ihre nette Bemerkung. Ich habe viele Filme von Deutschland und besonders die grenze von der DDR!

[TEHNIQUE1993]

the boder and the securety didnt saved east europe :< from the west plague

eh I dont understand some people, they want freedom of speach, they want the fucking capitalism... what do they have in it, nothing... normal people have nothing, but little of tham are rich... the rich dont care about the poor, or about the standards of workers, dont care does the worker have money to buy a bread...

that is capitalsm

and we still live in it

you need to be a fathers son to have a future

[alanheath]

I have a collection of VHS cassettes from 1988 - 1992 and there is a lot of material I would like to publish here.

However I am having a lot of technical difficulties. I can record to DVD without difficulty but the problem is in converting .VOB files to .AVI that has both sound and picture or to .WMV that does not use a huge amount of memory.

My PC only has 1MB of RAM. We have professional equipment in the office but it is only mac.

Any ideas of how to do this without incurring too much cost?

[llewesa100]

Did you ever see that film The Day After?

I seem to recal a scene where a radio was playing in the background describing the fighting that had broken out bet ween Nato and Warsaw Pact forces.This particular place was named and I daresay if the balloon had gone up in real life it would 've seen heavy fighting or a possible nuclear incident!

[schaka1977]

Das Titel Lied von Rambo

[alanheath]

Not quite the title but used in the film Rambo 2!

[SabuPtolemy]

That place was bat shit crazy!

We have come along way, baby - here's to freedom for all that seek it!

[alanheath]

I have got some more detailled films of this which may be of interest to glimpse at also!!

I would like to think I could document much more of the inter German border but I know that that is not realistic. But I will attempt to do what I can!!

[choirboyfromhell1]

Then again, has anybody dwelt with the U.S. Customs and Immigration Homeland Security types lately?

Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it......

[choirboyfromhell1]

They had FREAKING MIRRORS between and on the sides of the tracks of the railroad that a guard in a shack looked from above to watch if anybody was riding "the rods" (the undercarriage of rail cars) out of the old DDR.

[shtzi]

but you know, the DDR is no longer Existing, yaeh?

[alanheath]

Really? No-one told me...

[BeephLypz]

Ill never forget the first time I went into the former DDR. It was in 1999 and everywhere I looked(just about) was another restoration project or some construction site. Ive been back in Germany now for almost 3 years and I havent gotten around to seeing the former DDR again. And I also see you are just as fascinated as I am with the DDR.

[alanheath]

I would like to do the complete border one day but totally impossible of course! I was in the DDR several times - and have got several films about it here!

[granskare]

nice film and explanatory details! In 1975 we traveled from Denmark via Berlin to Prague...had to get transit via on the ferryboat and nice Yugoslav travellers advised me, 'vizum, vizum' and the DDR officials were very nice compared to west Germany...thus is was easy to know in which part of Germany one found himself :)

[alanheath]

I also have good recollections of DDR officials (as you will find out if you see my film about the southern crossing point near Eisenach).

I do not blame the people (in general) but the policy!

[BasicModelling]

That was until they found out you were working for the Finnish Intelligence.. :)

[granskare]

there is no such thing as Finnish Intelligence :)

[BasicModelling]

You stole my line...

Did you get my comment re.the Printed Matter?? I may well try and build that Mustang, even though it looks a bit complicated to me.. :)

Thank you again.. :)

[RamonesMania92]

I living in the eastern part of Germany in Cottbus near Berlin. My Girlfriend lives in Stadthagen near Hannover in Western Germany so everytime when I want to visit her I´m crossing the former border and I think it is so wonderful that we are one Germany now. My relationship wouldn´t been possible 20 years ago. Thats what I´m always thinking when I am crossing the former border. Unfortunetely many people in western germany got some bad prejudices about people from the east.

[alanheath]

That is a very nice story to hear. There are some in the west who think like that but they are a small minority in my opinion. I have always had a very high regard for people from Germany and in particular the former East Germany - as can be seen by the amount of films I have from your country!

[SuperLazyLearner]

I went through there a few times, it took between 2 and 4 hours to cross the few hundred meters

Your passport was "borrowed" until you, your car (even its engine!) and your luggage were carefully checked (at the location that looks like a gas station on your photos)

Thanks for sharing those pics!

[alanheath]

If you got through in two hours you were doing really well!

I have got film of this site which I made at a later date which may be of interest.

[RamonesMania92]

I´m from former GDR and we in school are learning that the GDR was a fictitious democratic state. =) I think thats the best way to describe it.^^

[alanheath]

Of course you can always get a second opinion by asking anyone a little older than you what it was like!

[Dudtz]

East Germany wasn't a dictatorship.

[alanheath]

Of course it was not. It was a people's democracy and they had to build that wall to stop people breaking in!!

[Dudtz]

Also,did the Federal Republic of Germany have guards on their side of the fence/wall?

If they did,then they were most likely trying to keep atleast some people in East Germany.

[ruhri0411]

West Germany had guards on their side of the border, but nothing to compare to the east german border troops.

[Dudtz]

Wonder how many people who weren't criminals,no mmajor health issues, who tried to go to the FRG were turned away.

[RamonesMania92]

Yes there have been some guards but only to warn tourists! Many tourists went to the GDR border symbol to make photos. That was really dangerous because this symbol stood on GDR Territory some meters in front of the wall. So it was illegall border crossing! And when the GDR guards have seen you they had the privilege to punish you very hard! (sometimes twenty years in prison when they thought you are a spy)

[Dudtz]

Well,they could have tried a regular entrance.

[alanheath]

In this case the GDR border guards would have been legally in the right although it is a bit harsh.

[Riker1982]

Interesting film of history, thank you for the research and taking those photos! It shows other aspects of the inner German border I didn't have in mind, although I'm from Germany. When the border fell, I was about nine years old.

[alanheath]

I really regret not being there in November 1989. I have got several other films from various other places on the inter German border.

[Riker1982]

it's cool

[mnlwrnr]

eine frage: hat es an diesem übergang erfolgreiche fluchten gegeben?

[alanheath]

Ich weiß nicht, wie viele Menschen entgangen. Einige Personen in Autos geflucht.

[AndyNL]

.

Thanks for posting !

Thanks to you I can show people the way I passed

Marienborg in my way to Poland at the end of the

seventies and beginning eighties.(9 times !)

.

[weareglass81]

I may have 16mm film from this area in 1994. Perhaps I will post someday. I was then researching border conditions for an architectural research project. I recall the interesting change of finding an "Imbiss"

food stand right on a former border- the west at your immediate disposal. Some of these posts were destroyed by mobs in 1989.

[alanheath]

Yes, post it. I was here in October 1992 but did not photograph it.

I have posted here a film of the same place as well as other DDR frontier installations which may be of interest.

[axelosito]

Fine video with music remembering me spy films ... :-)

[LMB222]

Yet another good video.

[alanheath]

Thank you for your comment. This is still one of my favourites of my films. You can also find here the 'remake' - spoken with sound. And on my computer I have another film on the wall I filmed earlier this month but I have not put it together yet!

[octobre59]

very iteresting... thanks for posting!

[moxin99]

ich kann mich nur erinnern, dass meine eltern nach den übeln grenzkontrollen erstmal bei der nächsten autoraststätte hielten und wir was vernünftiges zu essen bestellten und den gewöhnten westliche standard genossen...die grenzkontrollen waren so übelst, schikane ohne ende und mit spiegeln unter dem auto, deutsche gründlichkeit halt..

[Daniel]

Ein netter Film, um sich das ein bisschen besser vorzustellen, wie das früher mal war. :-)

[alanheath]

Vielen Dank. Ich war in der DDR mehrere Zeiten. Dieser Film ist ein wenig eine persönliche Erfahrung!

[flughafentxl]

Fasciniating film!

Great music also! The Rambo theme fits excellently with the context of the video.

[brixmis7]

Nice one Alan,

I was in Berlin when the wall fell. Thanks for the update, it was outstanding.

Ray

[alanheath]

I really regret I was not in Berlin on that day - it was my birthday as well!

I went back to this museum and filmed it, it is on this site if that is of interest!

[philmex1]

Fascinating film, Alan - thanks for posting it! I went to Helmstedt in Sep 1989, so just before the massive changes that took place, then again in 1993. It was amazing how different the area was. It was a strange experience walking along the road the DDR border soldiers used to patrol.

[alanheath]

I am happy that you liked it. The road you would have travelled along then is now overgrown as the motorway is now the former military road.

[colemanite]

Quite a nostalgia trip for me Alan. I was based in an electronic warfare unit close to Helmstedt in the 80's. Can you tell me exactly where the infrastructure 20km from Marienborn is ?

[alanheath]

I am very pleased to hear that you liked the film. I also placed a moving film which I shot in August 2007 although it is not as good as these still photos.

The infrastructure to the south is at Hötensleben. This is less than 20km as the crow flies but is about that in the car.

[osucobra]

have to admit it, i also have an unceasing fascination with the IGB, probably from when I lived near it as an army brat, and later as a soldier in West Germany. Remember walking around E Berlin in 74 being followed by Stasi!! Thanks for posting your stuff, it brought back some great memories. p.s. I was in Berlin when the wall toppled!

[alanheath]

I wish I had been there in November 1989 - it fell on my birthday!

I hope that I will be able to post more things about the DDR as I travel through but there is less and less to see.

I also posted three films from my last visit in August which may interest you!

[frankdefoot]

When you travelled to east germany with train in 1982 did the train stop in east germany ???

[alanheath]

No, that was not possible. It stopped only at Marienborn but normal people could not get on it - only frontier guards. It did not stop before entering West Berlin although it did stop in East Berlin and then Frankfurt, Poznan, Warsaw etc.

[ErAdGr]

Yes it gave Interzonenzuege. They can passed East Germany over Herrenburg, Marienborn, Berlin, Friedland and some other stations near the GDR. I hope you understood my miserable english. Eric

[alanheath]

No problems, I understand. Much better I am sure than many of us write in German!

[alanheath]

I have now posted a three part film of the border control post at Marienborn which may also be of interest.

[zwirl86]

Thx for this great stuff !

JonniDDR shut the F*ck up ... there's no need to make the DDR look bad...everyone knows it was bad and you should know it best if you are an East German

[alanheath]

No doubt the walls were there to stop people breaking in!!!!!

[zwirl86]

LOL yeah the DDR Leader Ulbricht called it once the "antifascist Schutzwall"....just wondering why there were thousands of killed East German fugitives and not one from the West who would conquer the DDR xD

[alanheath]

I think what happened is that they broke in and then remembered they had forgotten something and went back to get it, unfortunately getting spotted and shot in the process.

[alanheath]

I have also posted three films showing the museum at the former Helmstedt - Marienborn border.

[JonniDDR]

imperialist atrocity propaganda to make the DDR look bad, and threatening. Long live the SED!

[alanheath]

With the amount of neo Nazis on this site, it is almost refreshing to hear from a neo communist.

As for this being propaganda - you can see the sites yourself and there are plenty of people to talk to who were in the DDR.

[talnaqib]

wwow--- that was fascination. not been back to berlin by car in ages, kinda makes me want to take that trip down from Hannover again sometime soon to see the old checkpoint alpha

thanks for posting!

[alanheath]

That case you might remember it. The military road is now the motorway whereas the civilian road is now the car park for the service station. I filmed it in August although I have yet to publish it here.

[talnaqib]

that makes sense- i remember the motorway being diverted through the checkpointand back on to the motorway. we used to visit in the 80s, and did visit once in 1992, but wow- so much must have changed since!

will look for more of your videos!

[alanheath]

This will be much clearer in the film I made in August. I will post it when I have time - as it is a film it requires a bit of work!

[alanheath]

For those that like to complain about the poor quality of my films this is your chance to have some input.

My Sony Cybershot - used for all films here but one - has given up on me. I do not want to buy a video camera - just a compact camera which I can carry around in my pocket.

What camera should I buy and why?

[CropredyBill]

Interesting presentation, thank you for posting it. I served with the British Army in Germany and we regularly patrolled that area some 20km south of Helmstedt/Marienborn. In fact, I was on one of the very last patrols before the wall came down in Nov '89. I've always been fascinated with the old inner German border, a geographical "line in the sand" between two opposing ideologies.

[alanheath]

I was here again two days ago and I will be posting the moving film video I made then in a few days time!

[alanheath]

I also have a fascination about the inter German border - even today when I am in Berlin I spend my time wandering around the former demarcation line. The same goes for the border between the DDR and West Germany although the former border is increasingly hard to spot!

[Lemansalter7]

Honnecker knew how to handle them!

[ZPproductions]

Check "Crossing the DDR border"

[LMB222]

Very good. I missed he wall due to my age, and I also missed the museum while going between Berlin and Hannover, so this is a good review of the probably most controlled border.

[alanheath]

I think the inter Korean border is tighter but this was just about as escape proof as they come.

The museum at Checkpoint Charlie I think is still open, I was there in 1987 and they then gave a very interesting pacifist slant to it. In those days it overlooked the wall.

As this is one of my interests I will post such films as and when I can but I do not hang out in the border areas that much and relics are increasingly hard to find.

[dave1261]

That was very interesting Alan. Thank you for sharing as I often wondered what the border was like between East and West Germany especially when it comes to traveling to West Berlin from West Germany.

[alanheath]

Thank you. In 1982 I took a series of photographs crossing the border from East to West Berlin .... after that .. it turned out that the film was incorrectly placed in the camera!!!!!!!

By the 1980s it was quite easy to travel to Berlin from West Germany but much more difficult if you were going anywhere else.