page_title: Inner German border
section_title: Fortifications of the inner German border
hierarchical_section_title: Inner German border / Fortifications of the inner German border
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Das Bild zeigt die innerdeutsche Grenze zwischen Thüringen (rechts) und Hessen (links). Vom Grenzmuseum Schifflersgrund (bei Bad Sooden-Allendorf) wird dort ein Teil der ehemaligen Grenze erhalten. Zu sehen ist der seinerzeit mit SM-70-Minen gesicherte Grenzzaun (einreihiger Metallgitterzaun) davorliegendem Kontrollstreifen (Spurensicherungsstreifen) Die eigentliche Grenze befindet sich oberhalb des mittlerweile bewaldeten Hangs entlang der Leitplanken. Im hinteren Teil der freien Fläche ist ein unscheinbares Kreuz zu sehen, das den Todesort des 34-jährigen Meliorationsarbeiters Heinz-Josef Große markiert, der am 29. März 1982 bei einer versuchten "Republikflucht" direkt im Schifflersgrund starb . Als Zivilist war er über Jahre hinweg unmittelbar an der Grenze tätig gewesen. An diesem Tag führte er Erdarbeiten aus. Als sich die bewachenden Grenzposten in einem Geländewagen entfernt hatten, fuhr Große an eine Stelle des Grenzzaunes, an der er den Ausleger seines Frontladers über den mit SM-70-Minen gesicherten Zaun legen konnte. Er kletterte auf den Ausleger, sprang über den Zaun und versuchte, über eine steile Böschung die Grenzlinie zu erreichen. Die beiden zurückgeeilten Grenzposten bemerkten das Fahrzeug und den Flüchtenden. Auf Warnschüsse folgte gezieltes Gewehrfeuer. Heinz-Josef Große wurde tödlich im Rücken getroffen. Die Beisetzung erfolgte in seiner Heimatgemeinde Thalwenden. In der zensierten Traueranzeige durften keine Formulierungen verwandt werden, die Rückschlüsse auf ein unnatürliches Ableben ermöglicht hätten. English: The picture shows the "Inner-German Border" between the States of Thuringia (right) and Hesse (left). A preserved part of the former border will serve as the grounds for the border museum of Schifflersgrund (near Sooden-Allendorf). The border here includes SM-70 mines (mounted on the single-breasted metal lattice fence), a bare strip of ground. The actual border is above the slope along the guardrails. The white cross on the slope marks the location where the 34-year-old worker Heinz-Josef Große was shot for attempting to defect ("republic-fleeing") on 29 March 1982. Große was a civilian who had worked on the border. During a gap in the border patrols, Große drove to a place where he could position the shovel of his backhoe loader over the fence. He climbed the arm, jumped over the fence and tried to climb the hill to the border. Observation towers noted his escape. Following warning shots, he was shot fatally in the back. The funeral occurred in his home municipality of Thalwenden. His obituary was censored of any possible information about the location or cause of his death.
context_page_description: The Inner German border was the border between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990. Not including the similar and physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was 1,393 kilometres long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia.
  It was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of former Nazi Germany. On the eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps, and minefields. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed East German guards who faced tens of thousands of West German, British, and US guards and soldiers. In the hinterlands behind the border were more than a million North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Warsaw Pact troops.
  The border was a physical manifestation of Sir Winston Churchill's metaphorical Iron Curtain that separated the Soviet and Western blocs during the Cold War. It marked the boundary between two economic systems – capitalism and communism.
context_section_description: The East German side of the inner German border was dominated by a complex system of fortifications and security zones, over 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) long and several kilometres deep. The fortifications were established in 1952 and reached a peak of complexity and lethality at the start of the 1980s. The border guards referred to the side of the border zone facing the GDR as the freundwärts (literally "friendward") side and that facing the FRG as the feindwärts ("enemyward") side.
caption: Preserved part of the border between Thuringia and Hesse: the border fence with a mined control strip behind it and a lane patrol road. The actual boundary was located above the wooded slope.
  In the rear of the open area on the slope, a cross marks the place where 34-year-old worker Heinz-Josef Große was shot on 29 March 1982 attempting Republikflucht ("flight from the republic").
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