Point Alpha

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US observation tower Point Alpha: The concrete tower was built in 1985.
From the American watchtower, you can see the GDR observation tower , the GDR border systems and the hinterland as far as Thuringia .
US observation tower, GDR border security strips, GDR observation tower ( from left to right )

Point Alpha ( English Observation Post (OP) Alpha ) was next to OP Romeo, OP India and OP Oscar one of four US observation bases on the Hessian inner-German border . Today "Point Alpha" is the name of a reminder, memorial and meeting place on the road between Geisa (Thuringia) and Rasdorf (Hesse) and on the Iron Curtain Trail long-distance cycle path . Due to the similarity of the name, it is sometimes confused with the Checkpoint Alpha ( border crossing Helmstedt / Marienborn ).

description

Point Alpha Friedenswindspiel with a view of the Hessian bowling game
Point Alpha "The house on the border" on the Thuringian side

In the immediate vicinity of Geisa , the observation base “Point Alpha” fulfilled an important observation task in NATO's defense concept until the fall of the Iron Curtain . On the other side of the border there were guard and command towers of the GDR border troops , but apart from these units, no Warsaw Pact troops were stationed directly at the border.

The base was in the center of the NATO defense line " Fulda Gap " (Fulda gap), in which NATO awaited the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in an emergency. The “Fulda Gap” stretched from Herleshausen via Fulda to near Bad Neustadt . The name Point Alpha comes from the fact that it was the first observation point to be built.

The term “hottest point in the Cold War”, however, is misleading. The US Border Observation Points were used exclusively for observation; The crew would have withdrawn from Point Alpha at the first tangible signs of an invasion by the Warsaw Pact states, direct combat operations were not planned. According to recent research results, the area around Rasdorf / Hünfeld would have become one of the first military operations areas in the Fulda Gap in the event of a war.

Point Alpha was also suitable as an observation point because it is located at an altitude of 411 meters on a mountain range and thus offered a good overview of the assumed foremost deployment area of ​​the Warsaw Pact in Ulstergrund . The geographic conditions were also favorable for eavesdropping on radio traffic from the east.

It is erroneously claimed that the border at Point Alpha was also the westernmost point of the GDR . However, this was about 12 km further south-west, in the immediate vicinity of the village of Reinhards (until October 2, 1990 the westernmost inhabited place of the Warsaw Pact ), and today forms the westernmost land point of the state of Thuringia . Geisa , located south of OP Alpha, was the westernmost city of the Warsaw Pact.

history

Border installations - vehicle concrete barrier

In 1965 the site was given to the US Army . In the following years, after the first temporary accommodation, permanent structures were built. The first wooden observation tower was erected in 1968, a steel tower in 1982 and the concrete tower still in place in 1985. First, the base was occupied by the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment ( tank reconnaissance ). In 1972 the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment "Blackhorse" took over this task. In normal service operations, around 40 soldiers were stationed at Camp Point Alpha for four weeks. In crisis situations, the crew increased to up to 200 men. In 1991 the US Army gave up the location.

Notice board near Point Alpha on the country road with a view of Hesse
Former US observation base with accommodation; today: Point Alpha Memorial

Initially, it was planned to demolish the facility as well as the other observation posts on the inner-German border. The then red-green state government spoke out against the maintenance of the facility and its renaturation for cost reasons. At the instigation of the journalist Berthold Dücker , a citizens' initiative quickly formed that wanted to prevent this and, for this purpose, primarily dealt with the Hessian state government. Until the end of 1994 the camp was used as accommodation for asylum seekers and in 1995 it was listed as a historical monument . The Grenzmuseum Rhön Point Alpha e. V. began with the construction of today's memorial and was supported above all by the Thuringian state government.

Today the complex includes not only the American base on the Hessian side, but also a strip of the original border security systems of the GDR and the "House on the Border" with a permanent exhibition on the border regime in the context of the Cold War on the Thuringian side. Parts of the former Kolonnenweg are a hiking trail, the Point-Alpha-Weg and the location of the art installation “Path of Hope”.

On December 28, 2010, the roof of the historic vehicle hall at Point Alpha collapsed due to a heavy snow load. This resulted in a total loss of a former helicopter of the Federal Border Police and an American helicopter. The hall was rebuilt true to the original in 2011/12, the Alouette II of the Federal Border Guard was completely restored; a Bell UH-1 completes the collection.

Since the US Army withdrew in 1991, there has been an annual Last Border Patrol ceremony. Cadets of the high school of the American Department of Defense in Wiesbaden change the American flag and discuss with students from Hesse and Thuringia.

Point Alpha Foundation

Point Alpha Memorial
Inscription on the memorial: “To the victims of the division of Germany . The brave of the peaceful revolution of 1989. The builders of reunification . "

The Point Alpha Foundation has been the sponsor of the memorial, memorial and educational site since 2008. The founders of the foundation are the states of Hesse and Thuringia, the district of Fulda and the Wartburg district , the two municipalities of Geisa and Rasdorf and the existing sponsoring associations. The initial capital is 9.2 million euros. The aim of the foundation is to preserve the former military base - as a contribution to the promotion of political education, to the scientific processing of the history of the division of Germany and to the development, research and preservation of contemporary documents - and to keep it accessible to the public.

The Point Alpha Prize has been awarded by the Kuratorium Deutsche Einheit e. V. (KDE) for special services to the unity of Germany and Europe in peace and freedom. Previous winners have been George HW Bush , Michail Gorbatschow and Helmut Kohl (2005), the former and now deceased Czech President Václav Havel (2008), the GDR citizens' movement in the person of Freya Klier , Ehrhart Neubert and Konrad Weiß (2009), former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (2010), the former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González (2011), Lech Wałęsa (2013) and the former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Németh (2014).

On August 13, 2010, the Point Alpha Foundation and the city of Geisa founded the non-profit organization “Point Alpha Akademie GmbH”. The academy complements the Point Alpha offers with its own seminar and event program. This implements the educational mandate of the Point Alpha Foundation.

In June 2018 the director, Ricarda Steinbach, resigned. Also entered Joachim-Felix Leonhard , founding chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, and several other officials back. The Hessian SPD parliamentary group leader Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel called on the Hessian state government to work with the state of Thuringia to clarify the differences and "get the work back on track".

The foundation maintains intensive cooperation programs with various organizations in the United States. Several times a year teachers from the USA visit the memorial as part of the Transatlantic Outreach Program (TOP). In 2018, for the first time, students from the US military kadaemy West Point visited the foundation for study purposes. On the occasion of the foundation's tenth anniversary, the Prime Ministers of Hesse and Thuringia, Volker Bouffier and Bodo Ramelow , discussed “10 years of the Point Alpha Foundation - balance sheet of a project of German unity and a look into the future as a place of remembrance”.

Movies

literature

in chronological order:

  • Sylvia Grasreiner, Wolfgang Ruske: Hessian border museums. Point Alpha Schifflersgrund (= Focus Hesse. No. 6). Edited by the Hessian State Center for Political Education . Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-927127-71-X .
  • Klaus Hartwig Stoll: Point Alpha: the focal point of history. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-238-3 .
  • Mira Keune, Volker Bausch: From a hot place in the Cold War to a place to learn about history. Point Alpha, 2012.
  • Dieter Krüger: On the edge. The Age of Covenants. North Atlantic Alliance and Warsaw Pact 1947 to 1991 (= Point Alpha series. Volume 1). Parzeller, Fulda 2013, ISBN 978-3-7900-0459-5 .
  • Dieter Krüger (Ed.): Fulda Gap battlefield. Strategies and operational plans of the alliances (= Point Alpha series. Volume 2). Parzeller print & media, Fulda 2014, ISBN 978-3-7900-0486-1 ; 2nd, added and revised Edition. Ibid 2015, with the same ISBN.

items

in chronological order:

Web links

Commons : Point Alpha  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schmidt: At the limit of freedom. The US associations on the Iron Curtain 1945–1990. BoD - Books on Demand, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8448-1547-4 , p. 112 ( limited preview in Google book search)
  2. ↑ Helmut Hammerich : Fulda Gap: A focal point of the Cold War between myth and reality. In: Dieter Krüger (Ed.): Fulda Gap battlefield. Strategies and operational plans of the alliances (= Point Alpha series. Volume 2). Parzeller print & media, Fulda 2014, ISBN 978-3-7900-0486-1 , pp. 12-48, here: pp. 12 ff.
  3. ^ History. History of the Friends of Point Alpha. In: pointalpha.com. Point Alpha Foundation, accessed August 9, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Despite the World Cup: Commemoration of the workers' uprising on June 17th at “Point Alpha”. In: osthessen-news.de. June 18, 2006, accessed August 9, 2018 .
  5. ^ Sar: Point Alpha: Total loss of helicopters ( memento from January 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In Fuldaer Zeitung / Hünstelder Zeitung. January 14, 2011, accessed on June 20, 2018 (on the roof collapse in December 2010).
  6. ^ HZ: Last Border Patrol: German-American school meeting day on Point Alpha . In: Fulda newspaper . April 28, 2017 ( fuldaerzeitung.de [accessed August 8, 2018]).
  7. ↑ Point Alpha Akademie GmbH | Point Alpha Foundation. In: pointalpha.com, accessed June 19, 2018.
  8. ↑ Board of Directors. Point Alpha Foundation. In: pointalpha.com. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017 ; accessed on June 19, 2018 .
  9. ^ Henry Bernhard : Thuringia: Director of the "Point Alpha" memorial must go. In: Deutschlandfunk. Series Germany today. June 19, 2018, accessed on June 19, 2018 ( mp3; 5.1 MB; 5:37 min. ) (On the resignation of director Ricarda Steinbach and his background, on the almost entirely male-dominated bodies (40: 1), on the 2018 point alpha price failed and on the current situation: "The institution 'Point Alpha' has been damaged for the time being.")
  10. ↑ Pitt von Bebenburg: Concern for Point Alpha. Foundation supervision examines the proceedings in the advisory board of the memorial. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . July 16, 2018, p. 7 (online under the title Gedenkstätte. Zoff um Point Alpha. The foundation supervisory authority is reviewing the proceedings in the memorial's advisory board, which has made headlines in recent weeks through internal Zoff. [Accessed on July 28, 2018] ).
  11. ↑ American teachers visiting Geisa. (No longer available online.) In: stadt-geisa.org. August 27, 2018, archived from the original on August 9, 2018 ; accessed on August 9, 2018 (to visit on August 2/3, 2018).
  12. ↑ oz / eg: Cadets from the US Military Academy West Point visit Point Alpha . ( osthessen-zeitung.de [accessed on August 9, 2018]).
  13. ↑ Celebration event 10 years of the Point Alpha Foundation. In: pointalpha.com. Point Alpha Foundation, accessed August 8, 2018 .


Coordinates: 50 ° 43 '26.2 "  N , 9 ° 55' 54.7"  E