Lapp, P. J. Grenzbrigade Küste. DDR-Grenzsicherung zur See

The central theme of the study is how the Coastal Border Brigade, under the direction of the People's Navy, secured the GDR maritime border, how it cooperated with the other "organs", and what problems and conflicts arose in the process. The publication endeavours to give a strictly factual account of the history of this maritime unit of the GDR border troops on the basis of the evaluation of records from the Federal Archives (Military Archives Freiburg) and from the Office of the Federal Commissioner for Stasi Records (BStU) as well as statements, publications and reports by well-known non-fiction authors and "former" members of the Coastal Border Brigade and the People's Navy respectively. The Border Brigade Coast - consisting of around 2,500 professional and regular soldiers as well as conscripts and operationally subordinate to the People's Navy of the National People's Army since 1961 - fulfilled tasks of securing the Republic on the sea and on land in cooperation with other protection and security organs (People's Police, MfS, Customs) in the opinion of those responsible in the GDR. The core of this security on the Baltic Sea was a deep-rooted observation system consisting of border outposts at sea, border ships and boats on patrol positions in the coastal area, technical observation companies (radar) on land, posts on observation towers on the beach as well as border guards and border reconnaissance officers who were responsible for securing the land side. The main task was to prevent their own citizens from escaping across the Baltic Sea.
Some 6,500 people attempted to flee by sea since the Berlin Wall was built and the inner-German border was mined from 1961 onwards; only about 900 people succeeded by 1989, thousands were imprisoned for months and years for "unlawful border crossing" (Section 213 of the GDR Criminal Code), and about 180 GDR citizens died and drowned trying to reach the West by this dangerous route. Hundreds of "volunteer helpers" of the Border Brigade Coast, parts of the People's Police in the Baltic Sea district, especially in the border zone, which was about 5 km wide, and also vehicles of the People's Navy on standby positions or on reconnaissance trips participated in preventing escapes across the Baltic Sea. In addition, naval helicopters were occasionally used.

The coastal border brigade - consisting of around 2,500 professional and regular soldiers as well as conscripts and operationally subordinate to the People's Navy of the National People's Army since 1961 - fulfilled, in the opinion of those responsible in the GDR, in co-operation with other protection and security organs (People's Police, MfS, customs), the tasks of securing the Republic at sea and on land. The centrepiece of this security on the Baltic Sea was a deeply staggered system of observation consisting of border outposts at sea, border ships and boats on patrol positions in the coastal area, technical observation companies (radar) on land, posts on observation towers on the beach as well as border soldiers and border reconnaissance officers who were responsible for land-side security. The main task was to prevent their own citizens from fleeing across the Baltic Sea.
Around 6500 people attempted to escape by sea since the Wall was built in Berlin and the inner-German border was mined from 1961, but only around 900 people succeeded in doing so by 1989, thousands were imprisoned for months and years for "unlawful border crossing" (Section 213 of the GDR Criminal Code) and around 180 GDR citizens died and drowned while trying to reach the West by this dangerous route. Hundreds of "volunteer helpers" from the Coastal Border Brigade, parts of the People's Police in the Baltic Sea district, especially in the approximately 5 km wide border zone, and also People's Navy vehicles on standby positions or on reconnaissance trips, were involved in preventing escapes across the Baltic Sea. Naval helicopters were also occasionally deployed.