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Picture: Vehicle traps and gate- DDR border memorial at Hötensleben » Filename: DdrHoetGate7825.jpg

We are standing in the 'Todesstreifen' or death strip looking towards the outer wall. Vehicle traps made from old railway lines prevent the wall from being rammed by a vehicle.

On the left is the section of concrete wall similar to that used on the Berlin Wall. On the right is the fence topped with barbed wire which was used on most of the length of the GDR border which ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia. Between them is a gate secured with a padlock. Through this gate, GDR solders would go occasionally to carry out maintenance of the border on the western side. Beyond the border was a strip of east German territory until the actual border with the Federal Republic, or West Germany. At Hötensleben, the strip was a little wider, and there was a section of wall. The reason was to screen off he village of Hötensleben on the eastern side, making any contact across the border, e.g. people waving, more difficult. The GDR border was finally opened in 1989 and ceased to exist in 1990 after reunification.

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