The inner-German border

03.06.1962 - Civilian labour commandos of the Soviet zone began building a wall similar to the one in Berlin in the Thuringian municipality of Vacha on 03.06.1962. As could be observed from the...
315556316

07.08.1962 - Our dpa picture from 7 August 1962 shows a GDR worker erecting or reinforcing the border fortifications near Hünfeld in the district of Hersfeld. He is being watched by six border...
316433132

06.09.1978 - Vehicles pass the newly designed Lauenburg border checkpoint on 6 September 1978. The border checkpoint, which had existed since 1952, was equipped with a new check-in facility and...
313742279

23.05.1969 - Auf der Innerzonengrenze kommt es zu Pfingstbeginn am 23.05.1969 vor dem Kontrollpunkt Babelsberg aus West-Berlin Richtung Westen zu längeren Staus.
405741625

19.12.1970 - View of the Elbe and the riverbank on the GDR side, taken on 19 December 1970 near the town of Hitzacker in the district of Lüchow-Dannenberg in Lower Saxony. One day earlier, two...
382426973

22.02.1973 - Heavily fenced in is the border control post near Duderstadt, recently provided for in the Basic Treaty with the GDR, here a photograph taken on 22 February 1973. Border guards ere...
315273875

11.10.1966 - The survey ship "Kugelbake" of the Hamburg Water and Shipping Directorate sails down the Elbe between Damnatz and Gorleben on 11 October 1966, accompanied by a West German customs...
382426961

22.04.1979 - Our dpa picture from 22 April 1979 shows part of the newly built concrete wall in Dassow near Luebeck near the border to the GDR. In addition to a metal lattice fence and an additi...
315588245

20.02.1970 - An official of the Federal Border Guard stands at the demarcation line to the GDR in Bavaria on 20 February 1970. During a press trip, photographers and journalists were able to ge...
311365139

07.02.1966 - On 7 February 1966, the construction work on the Saale bridge near Rudolphstein in the district of Hof carried out by the GDR construction teams is well advanced. The planned compl...
321291236

20.02.1970 - View of the concrete wall that marks the inner-German border and separates the Federal Republic from the GDR, taken on 20 February 1970 in wintry conditions. Behind the Wall runs t...
313742033

11.10.1966 - The survey ship "Kugelbake" of the Hamburg Water and Shipping Directorate sails down the Elbe between Damnatz and Gorleben on 11 October 1966, accompanied by a West German customs...
382426952

20.02.1970 - Our dpa picture from 20 February 1970 shows a view from a helicopter of the headland of Hirschberg (Thuringia), where the Saale forms the border and the double fence of the "death...
317838806

31.08.1964 - Construction workers drill holes for the planned construction fence in the concrete road surface on the West German side on 31 August 1964. This is to be erected so that the border...
321291233

10.09.1964 - Workers perform final work on the wire mesh fence near the Saal Bridge on 10. September 1964. Since 10 September 1964, a security lock has closed the only door in the over two-metr...
321291242

24.10.1962 - Our dpa picture from October 24, 1962 shows an aerial view of the death strip along the German border between Thuringia and Hesse near Fulda.
315269381

19.02.1970 - This wintry photo taken on 19 February 1970 shows the so-called death strip of the GDR near Coburg/Bavaria, taken during a helicopter flight of the Federal Border Guard.
309948374

03.12.1975 - In Nädlereshorst, east of Lübeck, the former road bridge between Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg, which crosses the Wakenitz, is demolished on 3 December 1975 due to dilapidatio...
313098584

23.05.1967 - Von der sowjetzonalen Nationalen Volksarmee werden fast täglich, wie am 23.05.1967 bei Tann in der Rhön, im Boden liegende verrottete Holzkastenmienen gesprengt und durch neue Plas...
406728493

18.12.1966 - A view of the Bavarian check-in facility at the inner-German border between the Federal Republic and the GDR near the Saale Bridge, taken on 18 December 1966.
321291218

24.10.1962 - Our dpa picture from October 24, 1962 shows an aerial view of the death strip along the German border between Thuringia and Hesse near Fulda.
315393851

12.08.1962 - View of the border building on the West German side of the border village of Herleshausen in Hesse on the inner-German border, taken on 12.08.1962.
315556343

26.06.1965 - For the first time in over ten years, the ten-metre strip (death strip) on the other side of the first Soviet barbed wire fence up to the new Soviet zone cordon is being tilled aga...
315407093

20.12.1969 - Our dpa picture shows the car with State Secretary Dietrich Spangenberg of the Office of the Federal President at the Heinrch-Heine-Strasse checkpoint in East Berlin on 20 December...
382793483

18.03.1975 - Members of the GDR border units search the area for GDR mines that have been washed away in a branch of the Seege River near the village of Kapern on 18 March 1975. On the territor...
313098581

10.09.1964 - The construction fence on West German territory with the door open, which has since been closed. Since 10 September 1964, a security lock has closed the only door in the over two-m...
321291224

30.05.1962 - View of the Bavarian-Thuringian border village of Kleintettau on the inner-German border, taken on 30 May 1962. Three houses in the village are on the Soviet occupation zone. After...
315556337

01.08.1972 - GDR pioneers of the National People's Army replace the old border fence near Gudow with a modern metal mesh double fence in August 1972. In addition, a bridge is built over the Beu...
315571184

14.04.1962 - Our dpa picture from 14 April 1962 shows Volksarmisten (in the back) near Weißenborn (Göttingen district) erecting a barbed wire fence. In the foreground, People's Police guards, i...
315606545

05.09.1972 - GDR pioneers erect a GDR observation tower made of brick at the Lower Saxony border near Reinsdorf (Helmstedt district) on 5 September 1972, presumably to replace the wooden tower...
313752689

20.07.1973 - Blick auf die innerdeutsche Grenze am 20.07.1973 zwischen Ost-Berlin (im Vordergrund) und West-Berlin (Bezirk Wedding) mit dem Wachturm im Gebiet des Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Stadions...
523163339

08.03.1971 - On 08 March 1971, West German State Secretary Bahr and East German State Secretary Michael Kohl meet for an eighth meeting in East Berlin. Bahr (left) is welcomed by a member of th...
382548521

03.06.1962 - Civilian labour commandos of the Soviet zone began building a wall similar to the one in Berlin in the Thuringian municipality of Vacha on 03.06.1962. As could be observed from the...
312072413

13.08.1969 - Two Federal Republic of Germany customs officers look down on the spoil heap of the Harbke lignite-fired power plant near the border in the GDR on 13 August 1969. Two families with...
316233617

03.06.1962 - Our dpa picture from June 03, 1962 shows construction workers inserting the last concrete slab into the previously completed section of the wall that closes off the zoned village o...
312879503

20.02.1970 - View of the concrete wall that marks the inner-German border and separates the Federal Republic from the GDR, taken on 20 February 1970 in wintry conditions. The so-called death st...
313742009

26.09.1972 - Immediately in front of the village of Hötensleben in the GDR, the concrete wall built by GDR pioneers only in the last few days runs entirely along the lines of the Berlin Wall. T...
316233620

26.06.1965 - Our dpa picture from June 26, 1965 shows a female farmer from Besenhausen (district of Goettingen) working in the the field directly at the zone border.
315394787

31.08.1972 - The second round of negotiations on the Basic Treaty between State Secretaries Michael Kohl (l) of the GDR Council of Ministers and Egon Bahr of the Federal Chancellery ends in Bon...
291116468

05.10.1964 - Federal President Heinrich Lübke (M) looks through a telescope at the zone border near Eussenhausen on October 5, 1964. On the left, Bavarian Minister President Alfons Goppel, behi...
265420429

28.08.1963 - A group of People's Army soldiers of the GDR is laying out landmines along the zonal border at Lanze in Schleswig-Holstein, near checkpoint Lauenburg/Horst. Picture form 28 August...
34946498

17.03.1970 - On 03/17/1970, a delegation from the federal government passes the Herleshausen border crossing (Eschwege district) to travel to Erfurt via Wartha, Eisenach and Gotha. The delegati...
281744935

08.11.1972 - State Secretary Egon Bahr (r) and his GDR colleague Michael Kohl exchange the deeds to the newly concluded Basic Treaty between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic afte...
291247457

06.10.1983 - While in other sections of the GDR border automatic firing machines are being dismantled, GDR border guards in the Lower Franconian district of Rhön-Grabfeld are busy renewing and...
309811721

28.02.1986 - The first GDR Culture Days in a federal state of the Federal Republic of Germany take place in Bremen on 28 February 1986. They were opened by the Senator for Culture Horst-Werner...
309096293

08.11.1972 - State Secretaries Egon Bahr (r) and Michael Kohl (l) for the GDR initial the Basic Treaty between the FRG and the GDR in the Federal Chancellery in Bonn on 8 November 1972.
291258101

30.04.1980 - The transport agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR was signed in the GDR Foreign Ministry in East Berlin on 30 April 1980. Afterwards, Bonn's permanent rep...
309096284

19.05.1976 - The first agreements between the Federal Republic and the GDR on the joint use of energy reserves in the border area are concluded in East Berlin on 19 May 1976. An agreement was r...
309096278

14.11.1975 - Gertrud and Wilhelm Wiegand have been living in their house in Kleitettau (background) as citizens of the Federal German Republic for 30 years, which is located only a few metres a...
20255082

12.06.1979 - The border installations near Stapelburg (Harz) at the border to Lower Saxony. Picture from the 12th of June in 1979. The border is getting more dense. Concrete walls of 13 kilomet...
20255080

28.02.1969 - Am Autobahnkontrollpunkt Marienborn an der Grenze zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik haben sich im März 1969 lange Autoschlangen gebi...
2434367

06.07.1963 - Officers of the German border police and swimmers at the zone border at Priwall near Travemuende (Baltic Sea) on the 17th of July in 1963. In the background a watchtower of the Eas...
20255072

22.02.1983 - A member of the British border guard (front) and two members of a NVA (Nationale Volksarmee=National People's Army of the GDR) border patrol oppose each other at the inner German b...
1241006

20.02.1970 - Rudolf Grüner, commander of the South German Federal Border Guard, stands at the border post in front of the inner-German wall in the divided town of Mödlareuth in Bavaria on 20 Fe...
313742021

21.11.1961 - On 21 November 1961, Lauenburg town councillor Heinrich Bollmann (centre right) presents lorry driver Wolfgang Ehrenberg (centre left) with a bouquet of flowers and a picture of th...
313742276

08.12.1961 - A sign with the inscription "Zonengrenze 150 m Straße gesperrt" (Zone border 165 YDS no road), photographed on 08. December 1961, is located in the district of Lüchow-Dannenberg in...
382426967

13.02.1959 - On 13 February 1959, Rudolf Siegmann is the millionth motorist to cross the border between the Federal Republic and the GDR at the border checkpoint in Lauenburg. In his hand he ho...
313742285

24.09.1971 - Our dpa picture from 24 September 1971 shows a "television eye" installed on a six-metre high lattice mast directly behind the demarcation line next to the Hamburg-Berlin interzone...
315594635

10.09.1964 - Since the morning of 10 September 1964, a security lock has closed the only door in the more than two-metre-high construction fence demarcating the Soviet-zoned construction site o...
317844950

15.04.1971 - Our dpa picture shows an aerial view of Moedlareuth from 15 April 1971, taken on the occasion of a border landing flight by the Federal Border Guard. Since 1964, a wall built by th...
309816848

26.03.1961 - A border police officer from the Soviet zone who saved two Lübeck sports fishermen from drowning on 12 March 1961 is to be awarded a badge of honour by the Lübeck German Lifesaving...
382766462

08.12.1961 - The zone border near Gartow in the Ziemendorf forest between Wirl and Ziemendorf, photographed on 08. December 1961. A gap was left between the barbed wire fences, which was provis...
382426949

22.12.1977 - Documents on the expansion of the Marienborn-Helmstedt interzone motorway are exchanged between State Secretary Guenter Gaus (l) and the head of department in the GDR Ministry of T...
302047694

01.01.1900 - The undated photograph shows a sign on the inner-German border between Bavaria and Thuringia with the inscription Stop! Zone border". In the background, undergrowth is being burned...
309919574

02.02.1988 - The inner-German border between the Federal Republic and the GDR runs close to Lübeck-Schlutup. During a flight along the border on 02.02.1988, the border fence and watchtower can...
313098587

01.01.1900 - This undated photo shows the once busy road from Selb in Upper Franconia to Asch in the Czech Republic at the border crossing. In the meantime, Asch can no longer be seen from here...
316281548

01.01.1900 - The undated photograph shows a 130-metre-wide aisle in the forest on the Bavarian-Thuringian border to provide a clear field of fire for escape attempts from the GDR.
309813806

27.04.1977 - View of the village of Philippsthal in eastern Hesse and the inner-German border between the Federal Republic and the GDR, taken on 27 April 1977.
316233602

27.04.1977 - View of the Wall and the so-called death strip on the inner-German border between the Federal Republic and the GDR, taken on 27 April 1977 near the Hessian village of Rasdorf.
316233629

08.12.1961 - View of the railway bridge near Dömitz, destroyed by an air raid during the Second World War, taken on 8 December 1961. As a border river between the Federal Republic and the Sovie...
382426979

22.10.1966 - Construction workers dismantle the construction fence on the Saale bridge near Hof in Bavaria on 22 November 1966, which was intended to protect the work on the Soviet side from un...
321291212

11.02.1960 - Workers of the road construction command of the Soviet zone remove remnants of the so-called death strip near the West German zone border on 11 February 1960. The aim is to repair...
313098563

23.01.1970 - Trucks and tankers stand in front of the GDR checkpoint in Berlin-Staaken on the Interzone Road 5 to Hamburg on 23 January 1970. Time and again, traffic in Berlin between the zones...
313742012

01.03.1960 - At the zone border between the Federal Republic and the GDR in Lübeck-Schlutup on the Bundesstraße 104, the new border checkpoint in the Soviet-occupied zone is opened at midnight...
311400431

28.08.1990 - Seit Öffnung der Grenze zwischen Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der DDR staut sich auf der A 9 der Verkehr am ehemaligen Grenzübergang Rudolphstein - Hirschberg, wie hier am 28.08....
311400443

20.12.1969 - On 12/20/1969, West German State Secretary Dietrich Spangenberg hands over a letter to the East German State Council Chairman Walter Ulbricht in reply from Federal President Gustav...
289315355

15.01.1971 - On 01/15/1971, the East Berlin negotiating delegation headed by State Secretary Michael Kohl – here showing a friendly gesture – arrives at the Federal Chancellery for the third in...
289312631

01.03.1960 - At the zone border between the Federal Republic and the GDR in Lübeck-Schlutup on the Bundesstraße 104, the new border checkpoint in the Soviet-occupied zone is opened at midnight...
311400452

17.02.1971 - On 02/17/1971, BRD State Secretary Egon Bahr leaves back to West Berlin after an almost five-hour conversation with DDR State Secretary Dr. Michael Kohl in East Berlin. According t...
281746615

27.10.1961 - Pioniereinheiten der sowjetzonalen Volksarmee in der DDR beenden am 27.10.1961 unter dem Schutz von Panzerspähwagen und Schützenpanzern den Bau eines Stacheldrahtzauns zu beiden Se...
511762691

19.07.1978 - Blick über die noch zum Bundesgebiet gehörende Autobahhn-Brückein Richtung Marienborn. Aufnahme vom 19.07.1978. Da der alte Wachturm am Grenzkontrollpunkt Helmstedt - Marienborn de...
123423015

25.05.1987 - Dorothee Wilms (3rd from left), Federal Minister for Inner-German Affairs, visits the German-German border near checkpoint Duderstadt, Lower Saxony, on 25 May 1987. Dorothee Wilms...
33043657

18.04.1979 - Der Checkpoint der französischen-englischen und US-amerikanischen Militärpolizei am Grenzkontrollpunkt Helmstedt - Marienborn an 18.04.1979. [dpabilderarchiv]
123423013

27.10.1961 - Pioniereinheiten der sowjetzonalen Volksarmee in der DDR beenden am 27.10.1961 unter dem Schutz von Panzerspähwagen und Schützenpanzern den Bau eines Stacheldrahtzauns zu beiden Se...
511762703

25.04.1984 - Smoke rises from a chimney at the Plankenstein paper factory in the GDR, located directly behind the Wall on the inner-German border in Upper Franconia, on 25 April 1984. The exhau...
311400446

20.05.1987 - A high observation tower on the GDR side dominates the picture of the inner-German border between Mansbach and Aschenbach in Hesse. Taken on 20 May 1987 during a visit of the 11th...
316233611

20.11.1989 - This photo of the GDR border fortifications taken on 20 November 1989 is probably a rarity: It was taken from the GDR side in the village of Boeckwitz opposite Zicherie in Lower Sa...
316292297

07.07.1987 - Our dpa picture shows the inner-German border between Aschenbach and Rasdorf on 07.07.1987, taken during a visit of the 1st Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment of the 5th US Corps in...
312071111

01.03.1960 - At the zone border between the Federal Republic and the GDR in Lübeck-Schlutup on the Bundesstraße 104, the new border checkpoint in the Soviet-occupied zone is opened at midnight...
313098554

20.09.1966 - Top: View behind the construction fence at the construction work on the motorway leading over the Saale bridge on the inner-German border. Below: View of the newly built Saale brid...
321291230

14.04.1962 - Two GDR People's Police officers patrol along the inner-German border near Weißenborn in the district of Götttingen on 14 April 1962. Around 60 People's Army workers are busy erect...
315556310

01.12.1970 - Wegen der Sperrung der Interzonenautobahn durch DDR-Behörden hat sich am DDR-Kontrollpunkt Marienborn ein langer Stau gebildet. Aufnahme vom 1.12.1970. [dpabilderarchiv]
2053434

27.10.1961 - Pioniereinheiten der sowjetzonalen Volksarmee in der DDR beenden am 27.10.1961 unter dem Schutz von Panzerspähwagen und Schützenpanzern den Bau eines Stacheldrahtzauns zu beiden Se...
511762634

27.10.1961 - Pioniereinheiten der sowjetzonalen Volksarmee in der DDR beenden am 27.10.1961 unter dem Schutz von Panzerspähwagen und Schützenpanzern den Bau eines Stacheldrahtzauns zu beiden Se...
511762670

01.01.1900 - Federal Border Guards at the German borderline of the GDR near Duderstaft (Lower Saxony, Germany) (date unknwon).
20311676

20.02.1979 - The picture shows the inner German border area during the snow disaster on 20 February 1979 in Schleswig-Holstein.
5061632

30.07.1964 - Federal President Heinrich Lübke (front right with hat) looks from Siechenberg in northern Hesse across the border fortifications on the inner-German border to the small town of Va...
265420330

01.12.1970 - Stoppage of the interzonal traffic by GDR frontier posts at Marienborn (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany) on 1 December 1970.
20311668

31.10.1967 - Bright lights illuminate the death strip at the German-German border near Heinersdorf, in November 1967. The new lights are aimed to improve GDR border forces' surveilleance of the...
1890226

16.05.1979 - A citizen of Stapelburg puts up her laundry on the 16th of May in 1979. She is behind a metallic fence and a concrete barrier wall of the zone border. It is only seldom possible to...
20255134

13.01.1976 - Auf der Brücke der Grenze in Rudolphstein zwischen der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (DDR) und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist über dem Schild "Herzlich Willkommen in der DD...
13259570

15.05.1986 - Trappers Günter Strätz and Otto Anersch are allowed to carry out their profession and hunt muskrats twice a year in spring and autumn in the course of "inner-German contentment". T...
20322273

23.10.1980 - Gertrud und Wilhelm Wigand am 23.10.1980 auf ihrem Grundstück direkt an der Landesgrenze zur DDR. Das Paar hatte sich über Jahrzehnte geweigert, ihr auf dem Gebiet der DDR liegende...
12642342

01.01.1900 - Eine Familie blickt von einem Aussichtspunkt auf die Mauer und einen Wachturm auf dem Gebiet der DDR (undatiert). Foto: Wolfgang Weihsa +++(c) dpa - Report+++ [dpabilderarchiv]
6946166

31.03.1983 - A second barrage was built for the first time in the range of the Thuringian Hirschberg, two kilometres east of the Bavarian border checkpoint Rudolphstein. Picture taken on 31st M...
20255138

27.10.1961 - Pioniereinheiten der sowjetzonalen Volksarmee in der DDR beenden am 27.10.1961 unter dem Schutz von Panzerspähwagen und Schützenpanzern den Bau eines Stacheldrahtzauns zu beiden Se...
511762631

26.05.1988 - At the invitation of the Federal Ministry for Inner-German Relations, foreign diplomats from Bonn travelled to the inner-German border near Coburg in Bavaria on 26 May 1988. They w...
311400425

13.05.1963 - View on felled trees on the death strip of the zone border near Braunlage on 13 May 1963. Written on the sign (translated): 'Germany is still devided here, over there is also Germa...
34322118

26.07.1984 - A public bus stands at the inner-German border near Lübeck-Schlutup on 26 July 1984 and is checked by border guards of the Federal Republic. The bus route was established in July 1...
313098596