before i start talking about point alpha a bit, i wanted to share a few pictures that i made on a day that involved a short bicycle tour & lazying around afterward, because i was so sore from this bumpy ride ;)
i took a small ride around our village, it was quite a little odyssey as i was choosing pathways that were really bumpy. i even ended up on a field because the path ended abruptly. i took the field road, but it was not funny or comfortable to ride it, haha. but i continued to do so, as there was a tractor on the field and i was afraid that he'd stop me and scold me for taking a ride over crop fields '_';
i escaped successfully, scaring some deer in the nearby fields away. when i think back now, it's kind of funny to me - i'm still seeing the startled eyes of those poor deer as they realized there was an intruder in their district who sped at full tilt past them. on this picture i took a break after that very bumpy ride at a little nature preserve area.
and on i went, driving past wind mills and fields. when i got home i was quite sore, but actually pretty hyped about the whole experience. riding a bike is one of those things i rarely do ( i don't have a bike where i live ), but when i have the chance to do so, it is always a good feeling.
my fat cat shadow being lazy. the woes of pregancy. we ended up napping on the balcony - me lieing on the deck chair, the cat on a different one next to me. i think it might've been a peaceful scene for other eyes.
our little magnolia bush was blooming wildly.
more peach blossoms. i don't like the colour pink very much, at least when it comes to clothes or interiors, but outside in nature it is the most beautiful colour.
concrete & blossoms.
on one of the last days of my vacations my parents and me decided to visit a little bit of a historic place. point alpha was a us observation post during the cold war - it stood near the borders of the german democratic republic - to, yes, you guessed it, observe the activities on the other side of the inner german border. it is situated in the scenic landscape of the biosphere reserve rhön mountains - an undulating territory in the middle of germany. i never visited an original site of the inner border outside of berlin yet, so it was especially interesting to me. my parents, who were citizens of the gdr, also took great interest in all the informations the memorial had to offer on its many exhibitions. they never had problems living in the gdr, they knew that the stasi observed people, but it never affected them too much. ( they were observed, too, for a little while, even though they did nothing of interest. the observing was soon stopped, as they could not find any misconducts, except of maybe not engaging too much in political activities.) they lived in the middle of thuringia - were there were no borders - so they never got near them. i guess you could say, that they just lived their life without thinking too much about the state they were living in, especially as they were pretty spotless when it came to their world views. they also concentrated mostly on founding a little family ;)
i still cannot imagine how life was for them back then, they insist that they didn't have problems with the regime, even though they knew by hearsaying that people went lost or were silenced. they always tell me of a carefree time - they were young and enjoyed life in many ways within all the boundaries they were given.
they also say, that not everything was bad in east germany, they had jobs and they had a feeling of a close society - their relationships with neighbors were much deeper than they are now. and even though they didn't have as many consumer goods than in west germany, they still had everything they needed to have. who needs fucking bananas anyways? they're not even growing in germany. i think the lack of exotic goods also contributed to a rich creativity when it came to doing things on your own. my father built a house on his own and he still does most of the incoming repairs himself.
between all of that, it is a fact that the gdr was an unjust state, no matter if you had problems or not. i think it was also interesting for my parents to see how life by the border was like and to read informations on the cold war and the problethe hms it caused. my father said, after we looked at the exhibition in house on the border, that it was a scary & upsetting time and that he was glad that these times were over when the border went down. even though they lived a relatively peaceful life, they never liked the borders around them and being cooped up like a hen in a cage and the thought that a third world war could happen anytime was always lingering over their heads and making them uncomfortable at times.
without the fall of the borders, i wouldn't have experienced the things i have, which i'm grateful for. i could not imagine living behind such closed doors and never getting a peek into the outside world, except in imagination. i'm glad that i can pass borders without being arrested. and i'm thankful for getting to see the world without such a border.
the border patrol road with a gdr observation post on the right side and point alpha on the left side.
the reconstruction of the border area. dogs were trained to scare possible border crossers away, but that was only one of the more harmless possibilites to keep them off the borders. they also installed little boxes on the fences which housed mines - as soon as you touched the fence they exploded and if you weren't dead or hurt by them yet, little shrapnels inside the mines were spreading themselves everywhere which could cause either death or very severe injuries to knock out the crossers.
gdr observation post.
the oberservation tower of point alpha. the americans were deployed here as it was a strategically important area ( it belonged to the fulda gap - which was the focal point of the nato defense lines - it was said that in this region getting attacked by the russians would have the most impact and could've lead to the beginning of a third world war. )
soldiers who had to serve here didn't have a good time. as the camp was so important to the nato the constant fear of getting attacked was lingering in their minds - all the time. they even had to witness several border crossers being hurt by the mine installations and gdr soldiers carrying the wounded away - they were not allowed to intervene.
there were several helicopters on the site, like this federal border guard helicopter.
the kolonnenweg ( patrol road ) was very important, they were installed to have a better control over the borders. those roads are widely intact today, but the surroundings surely have changed since the fall of the borders. nature claimed back a lot of the constructions.
we ended up doing a little walk on parts of the former patrol road, venturing out into the bordering woods.
here you can see how much the erection of the borders intersected into nature.
to walk these border roads gave me some kind of freedom that i cannot explain. it is a strange feeling to walk on roads that once weren't accessible for normal citizens.
we met a 'death zone' cat. i don't know where she came from, but she was a very cheeky and curious little thing that loved to be petted. i adore it when i meet cats that immediately run to me as if i was their owner and are sweeping around my legs for tender loving care :) look how she rolled around in the grass, showcasing her beautiful soon to be petted belly ;)
we returned to the memorial and had a look at early border fences.
in the house on the border there was an exhibiton on the life of the gdr citizens who were directly confronted with the borders. comtemporary witnesses told their stories about their life here, you could also read about the life of the soldiers, the history of the errection of the borders and there was a section about freedom of opinion, too. it was all pretty intense and deep information, we were a bit dizzy afterwards. i loved the quotes on the roof.
'the freedom of opinion implies that one has to have one.' -heinrich heine
'freedom does not primarily consist of privileges, but of responsibilities.' - albert camus
'the nicest dreams of freedom are dreamt in prisons.' - i cannot decipher the source anymore, sorry, but i think it was friedrich von schiller who said that.
a border trabant ( it's THE cult car of east germany )
those who give up a freedom for safety will lose both in the end. - benjamin franklin
because an excess of freedom reverts to an excess of slavery - from single individual to the nation. - platon
the kind-hearted is free, even if he's a slave. the evil is a slave, even if he's a king. - augustinus of hippo
freedom mean responsibility, that's the reason why most people fear it. - george bernhard shaw
outside of the museum there is the path of hope, a sculpture path with the works of dr. ulrich barnickel. it's the ordeal of jesus you can see here, but even if you're not religious you can understand the connection to the victims of gdr repression. the sculptures are made out of remains of the border installations. i think i let the pictures speak of themselves and won't add any remarks.
the beautiful landscape of the rhön. i just recently discovered this region when i traveled here for one day because of work. i had the chance to visit an organic farm & a coldcuts manufacture. while we drove around in the area i decided i'd have to return and so i cajoled my parents into our trip there ;) we will come back again, because there is still so much to discover.
on the way back home again.
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