Border guards of the inner German border

In 1946, the Soviets established a locally recruited paramilitary force, the German Border Police (Deutsche Grenzpolizei or DGP), under the administration of the Interior Ministry for Security of the State Frontier (Innenministerium zum Schutz der Staatsgrenze).

[1] The DGP became increasingly militarised as the East German government decided that protecting the border was a military task.

Their marksmanship was expected to be substantially better than that of regular NVA troops; they were required to be able to hit two moving targets at 200 metres (660 ft) with only four shots, by day or night.

[4] The East German regime's distrust of its own citizens extended to its border guards, who were in a better position to defect than almost anyone else in the country.

[7] As a further measure to prevent escapes, the patrol patterns of the Grenztruppen were carefully arranged to reduce any chance of a border guard defecting.

This included carrying out repair work, looking for evidence of escape attempts, examining the area for signs of suspicious activities and so on.

During the final years of the East German state, the lack of manpower was so severe that cardboard cut-outs of guards were placed in towers to present the illusion that they were occupied.

They were tasked with patrolling the strip behind the border defences, assisting at control checkpoints and reporting any unusual activities or strangers in their area.

The original Soviet version fostered a cult of the border guards, promoting slogans such as "The frontier runs through people's hearts.

[13] Its numbers were later expanded to 20,000 men, a mixture of conscripts, drafted for the mandatory border guard service and volunteers equipped with armoured cars, anti-tank guns, helicopters, trucks and jeeps.

The BGS had a reputation for assertiveness which made it especially unpopular with the East Germans, who routinely criticised it as a reincarnation of Hitler's SS.

They carried out regular policing tasks with the power to arrest and search suspects in their area of operations (with the exception of the section of border in Bavaria).

By the 1970s it was carrying out only one patrol a month, only rarely using helicopters or ground surveillance radar and erecting no permanent observation posts.

A heavily reduced BFS remained in operation to serve as a liaison between British military and political interests and the German agencies on the border.

[21] The United States Army maintained a substantial and continuous military presence at the inner German border throughout the entire period from 1945 to after the end of the Cold War.

They also used a variety of technical measures such as ground surveillance radars to monitor Warsaw Pact troop movements across the border.

During the 1960s the state of Hesse refused to grant U.S. forces land rights to its observation points or allow them to install paved access roads, electricity or telephone lines.

As a Bayerische Grenzpolizei report of 1968 noted, "the conduct of the Soviet zone [i.e. East German] border troops continued unfriendly and uncooperative.

"[27] There was very little official face-to-face interaction between the two sides on the ground, as the East German border guards were under orders not to speak to Westerners.

'"[29] After the initiation of détente between East and West Germany in the 1970s, the two sides established procedures for maintaining formal contacts through fourteen direct telephone connections or Grenzinformationspunkt (GIP, "border information point").

[30] For many years, the two sides waged a propaganda battle across the border, erecting signs with slogans promoting their respective ideologies.

Some leaflets depicted dead and dying refugees alongside captions such as "The world knows that the overwhelming majority of the People's Army soldiers are decent young men who would not dream of committing murder."

Reasons advanced for taking the risk included trying to find out the true facts, affirming solidarity with West Germany, the thrill of doing something forbidden, demonstrating secret opposition to the regime, and simple curiosity.

A common theme was the allegation that the Bonn government was threatening European peace and security by its supposed "revanchist" aim of restoring Germany's 1937 borders.

West Germany's moral values were also criticised; one leaflet accused the government of corrupting its people with "pictures of playgirls and naked female legs".

NATO exercises in Germany were denounced as "warmongering" and the stationing of nuclear weapons on West German soil was condemned.

Bonn's claimed continuity with the former Nazi regime was also a theme of East German propaganda, as was the emergence of the far-right National Democratic Party.

[32] The "leaflet war" was eventually ended by mutual agreement in the early 1970s as part of the normalisation of relations between the two German states.