Ritter, J./Lapp, P.J. Die Grenze

Ein deutsches Bauwerk

A striking structure of the 20th century - updated and expanded 7th edition.

Jürgen Ritter photographed the barrier installations on the "green border" from the western side for years during the time of German division and built up an archive of over 40,000 motifs. Peter Joachim Lapp, a political scientist with a doctorate from Cologne and a specialist in the border troops of the GDR, researched the exact mechanisms of border security and documented prominent cases of attempts to overcome these deadly installations. Since the first publication of her fundamental work more than ten years ago, the appearance along the inner-German border has changed significantly. The brutally cut aisles across villages and over hilltops have since been built over or overgrown. Often, only a few signs still bear witness to the former division. The updated 7th edition takes these changes into account and also contains a detailed new chapter on border security on the western side. The authors document for the first time how the Federal Border Police, Customs, Bavarian Border Police, West Berlin Police and the Western Allies in turn guarded the border and how they reacted in conflict situations in the event of serious border incidents.