page_title: Crossing the inner German border during the Cold War
section_title: The crossings
hierarchical_section_title: Crossing the inner German border during the Cold War / Crossing points / The crossings
context_page_description: Crossing the inner German border remained possible throughout the Cold War; it was never entirely sealed in the fashion of the border between the two Koreas, though there were severe restrictions on the movement of East German citizens. The post-war agreements on the governance of Berlin specified that the Western Allies were to have access to the city via defined air, road, rail and river links. This was mostly respected by the Soviets and East Germans, albeit with periodic interruptions and harassment of travellers. Even during the Berlin Blockade of 1948, supplies could be brought in by air – the famous Berlin Airlift – and Allied military convoys could pass through East Germany en route to Berlin.
  The border could be crossed legally only through a limited number of air, road, rail and river routes. Travellers to and from Denmark, Sweden, Poland and Czechoslovakia could also pass through East Germany. Access rights for non-Germans were otherwise very restricted.
context_section_description: By 1982, there were 19 border crossings: six roads, three autobahns, eight railway lines plus the Elbe river and the Mittellandkanal.
  Road crossing (East/West checkpoints, from north to south)
  Selmsdorf/Schlutup
  Zarrentin/Gudow
  Located on Bundesautobahn 24 between West Berlin and Hamburg.
  Horst/Lauenburg
  Salzwedel/Bergen
  Marienborn/Helmstedt
  Largest crossing, on Bundesautobahn 2 between Hanover and West Berlin. Used as main transit checkpoint for those going to or coming from West Berlin. 
  Worbis/Duderstadt
  Wartha/Herleshausen
  Meiningen/Eussenhausen
  Eisfeld/Rottenbach
  Hirschberg/Rudolphstein
  Railway crossing
  Herrnburg/Lübeck
  Schwanheide/Büchen
  Oebisfelde/Wolfsburg
  Marienborn/Helmstedt
  Ellrich/Walkenried
  Gerstungen/Bebra
  Probstzella/Ludwigsstadt
  Gutenfurst/Hof
  Water crossing
  Cumlose/Schnackenburg
  Ruhen/Buchhorst
  The largest crossing point or Grenzübergangsstelle (GÜSt) between East and West Germany was at Marienborn on the Hanover–Berlin autobahn. It was originally a set of simple huts straddling the border, where British and Soviet military police checked travellers between the eastern and western zones. In 1971–72 the East German government expanded it into a 35 hectares (86 acres) complex through which 34.6 million travellers passed between 1985–89. The British, French and Americans worked alongside the West German Bundesgrenzschutz and Customs to maintain a corresponding checkpoint near Helmstedt. Codenamed Checkpoint Alpha, this was the first of three Allied checkpoints on the road to Berlin. The others were Checkpoint Bravo, where the autobahn crossed from East Germany into West Berlin, and most famous of all, Checkpoint Charlie, the only place where non-Germans could cross by road or foot from West to East Berlin.
  On the other side of the border at Marienborn, over 1,000 East German officials worked around the clock to process travellers. A large proportion of the staff were officers of the Stasi, the much-feared secret police, although they wore the uniforms of the regular Grenztruppen. The real Grenztruppen were also present to provide military backup, as were East German customs officers and Soviet military officials who were responsible for inspecting Allied military vehicles entering East Germany. The main functions of the staff at Marienborn and other border crossing points were to combat smuggling, to "defend the state border" – by which was meant preventing escapes from East Germany – and to stop any items deemed politically or socially unacceptable from entering or leaving the country. A wide variety of items were forbidden to be imported or exported. Western magazines and newspapers, recorded materials, films, radios and medicines were among the more predictable prohibited items, though it was unclear why items such as eels and asparagus could not be brought across the border.
  The prevention of escapes was a key priority at crossing points such as Marienborn. It was not possible to simply drive through the gap in the border fence that existed at crossing points, as the East Germans installed high-impact vehicle barriers mounted at chest height. These could (and did) kill drivers who attempted to ram through them. As a last resort, massive rolling barriers (Kraftfahrzeugschnellsperre) 11 metres (36 ft) long and weighing six tons apiece could be catapulted across the carriageway using hydraulic rams. They were capable of stopping a 50-ton truck travelling at 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph). The guards at border crossings were, as elsewhere, authorised to use weapons to stop escape attempts.
  Vehicles were subjected to rigorous checks to uncover escapees. Inspection pits and mirrors allowed the undersides of vehicles to be scrutinised. Probes were used to investigate the chassis and even the fuel tank, where an escapee might be concealed, and vehicles could be partially dismantled in on-site garages. At Marienborn there was even a mortuary garage where coffins could be checked to confirm that the occupants really were dead. From the late 1970s, East Germany also installed concealed gamma-ray detectors ("gamma
caption: East German stamps from the Marienborn crossing.
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