# The Death Strip Watch Tower



## Derelict-UK (Aug 20, 2011)

This watch tower is located at one point along the 870 mile long Iron Curtain that once divided East & West Germany.

It is interesting to see it in a dismantled state, still in place but not damaged/graffitied, just carefully deconstructed.

We drove to the site along a normal(ish) road but the Death Strip is different, a 2 tracked road, paved only for the wheels of the patrol cars, usually a Trabant. The cars stopped patrolling in 1990, even though the Berlin Wall came down, they were still paid to do their rounds, even though they did not shoot at anyone crossing the border.

The area is now one of the Worlds most interesting nature reserves (as of April 2011), virtually untouched for for over 20 years. 

What a complete watch tower looks like (Hennigsdorf Watch Tower near Berlin)...







1. The Death Strip...





2. Dismantled...





3.





4.







*D-UK
*


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## Blakethwaite (Aug 20, 2011)

Good stuff. Obviously the wall (for want of a better a better word) has mostly gone in Berlin, is there much more of it left out in the country?


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## Derelict-UK (Aug 20, 2011)

Blakethwaite said:


> Good stuff. Obviously the wall (for want of a better a better word) has mostly gone in Berlin, is there much more of it left out in the country?



What I could see from the strip we visited, everything fence wise has been removed, If you search Google though you can find some preservation sites.

In Berlin, there is still the wall at the Eastside Gallery...












And this is what the wall looked like the last time I visited Berlin (in April 1990), I am the small boy on the left next to my mum...


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## night crawler (Aug 20, 2011)

Wondered what It looked like now, I found it rather depressing when I was there back in the 1970's. This is one of the ones I took then.


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## Blakethwaite (Aug 20, 2011)

Have never actually got round to making the trip out to the Eastside Gallery but it seems that much like at Niederkirchnerstraße they've preserved the largely irrelevant part - namely the western side of the wall rather than the eastern side which were the true defences/emprisonments were. Be interesting to see those if they still exist anywhere. Someone who knows a bit more about it than me might hopefully be able to confirm.


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## Blakethwaite (Aug 20, 2011)

night crawler said:


> Wondered what It looked like now, I found it rather depressing when I was there back in the 1970's. This is one of the ones I took then.



Nice pic. At least (as a fairly shallow thought) there was less traffic getting in the way of your photo's then!


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## Pincheck (Aug 21, 2011)

quite interesting i would bet even now there are plenty of these things kicking about will have to remember to look for some when i head to Germany,Nice one


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## Derek (Aug 21, 2011)

Blakethwaite said:


> Have never actually got round to making the trip out to the Eastside Gallery but it seems that much like at Niederkirchnerstraße they've preserved the largely irrelevant part - namely the western side of the wall rather than the eastern side which were the true defences/emprisonments were. Be interesting to see those if they still exist anywhere. Someone who knows a bit more about it than me might hopefully be able to confirm.


Actually the East Side Gallery is a part of the Eastern wall. The actual defences of course were between the two walls, although in Berlin, unlike the Iron Curtain I believe there were no landmines.

Very little of the wall either in Berlin or the Iron Curtain survives though, it's amazing how utterly they eradicated the whole thing, they should have kept a lot more of it.

Derek


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## waley_bean (Aug 23, 2011)

I wonder if that is the tower I saw featured in a television program last week? Some woman had an obsession with the Berlin wall and was granted permission to sleep in the tower over night.


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## night crawler (Aug 23, 2011)

Derek said:


> Actually the East Side Gallery is a part of the Eastern wall. The actual defences of course were between the two walls, although in Berlin, unlike the Iron Curtain I believe there were no landmines.
> 
> Very little of the wall either in Berlin or the Iron Curtain survives though, it's amazing how utterly they eradicated the whole thing, they should have kept a lot more of it.
> 
> Derek



The time I took my photo I drove to Berlin along the corridor. You had to pass through two checkpoints one at the start and one at the end. When you arrived at the first one you were met by barbed wire fencing, watch towers and Machine gun posts. There were armed guards with dogs walking around as well while you qued to have your passport checked. I found the whole thing intimidating and it scared the shit out of me. while driveing there you had to stick to 60mph or you were fined for speeding and I might add there were speed traps along the way. I only did that the ones as the second time I drove there the curtain had come down and most of the curtain had gone.


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