Inner German Border - Views of The Border

Views of The Border

The East German view: the border depicted as a defensive line against military aggression from NATO.

The two German governments promoted very different views of the border. The GDR saw it as the international frontier of a sovereign state – a defensive rampart against Western aggression. In Grenzer ("Border Guard"), a 1981 East German Army propaganda film, NATO and West German troops and tanks were depicted as ruthless militarists advancing towards East Germany. Border troops interviewed in the film described what they saw as the rightfulness of their cause and the threat of Western agents, spies and provocateurs. Their colleagues killed on the border were hailed as heroes and schoolchildren in East Berlin were depicted saluting their memorial.

However, West German propaganda leaflets referred to the border as merely "the demarcation line of the Soviet occupation zone", and emphasised the cruelty and injustice of the division of Germany. Signs along the Western side of the frontier declared "Hier ist Deutschland nicht zu Ende – Auch drüben ist Vaterland!" ("Germany does not end here: the Fatherland is over there too!")

Whereas the GDR kept its civilians well away from the border, the West Germans actively encouraged tourism, and locations where the border was especially intrusive became tourist attractions. One example was the divided village of Mödlareuth in Bavaria. The Associated Press reported in 1976 that "Western tourists by the busload come out to have their pictures taken against the backdrop of the latest Communist walled city the concrete blockhouse and the bunker-slits protruding from the green hillock where a collective's cows were grazing."

At Zimmerau in Bavaria, a 38-metre (125 ft) observation tower (the Bayernturm) was constructed in 1966 to give visitors a view across the hills into East Germany. The inhabitants of the East German village of Kella found themselves becoming a tourist attraction for Westerners in the 1970s and 1980s. A viewing point, the "Window on Kella", was established on a nearby hilltop from which tourists could peer across the border with binoculars and telescopes. To the amusement of many, a nudist beach was opened on the Western side in 1975 immediately adjoining the border's terminus near the Baltic Sea port of Travemünde. Visitors often sought to have a nude photograph taken below a looming East German watchtower; the West Germans noted "a lot more movement on that watchtower since the nudist beach opened."