The post overlooked part of the "Fulda Gap", which would have been a prime invasion route for Warsaw Pact forces had the Cold War erupted into actual warfare.

The memorial is dedicated to keeping it and a nearby section of the inner German border as reminders of the division of Germany and the confrontation between NATO and Warsaw Pact in the Cold War.

Jeeps and helicopters were used to patrol the areas in between, with occasional increased border activity with armored vehicles.

OP Alpha fulfilled NATO defense reconnaissance south of the East German crossroads town of Vacha, regarding its view of Geisa, then the westernmost town of the Eastern Bloc; the Warsaw Pact had counterpart observation posts on their side of the border.

[1]: 34–38 The OP overlooked part of the Fulda Gap from atop a 411-metre hill, lying in the centre of that section of the NATO defence line.

The "Fulda Gap" was considered a strategic location by NATO for a Warsaw Pact invasion as it allowed the easiest access for Soviet tanks to the area around Frankfurt and then to the Rhine.

The name OP Alpha dates to its being the first such point; geography also allowed monitoring Communist radio traffic.

Several American cabinet members, including in 1978 Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance made it a stop on their itineraries when in Germany.

[2] For a 1979 documentary made for the BBC Nuclear Nightmares, Peter Ustinov also visited OP Alpha which he referred to as "a hotspot of history".

An East German border guard captain, Rudi Arnstadt, was on patrol with two other NVA soldiers.

An initial plan to turn it into a center for education was scuppered by the resistance of the Hessian government of the day, which insisted on "renaturalizing" it.

The Verein gained increasing political support for its cause and the site was declared a "listed monument" by the Hessian Denkmalbehörde [de], although work on demolishing it had already begun.

To make use of public funds from Thuringia, a second association was set up in 1997, Mahn-, Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Point Alpha e.V., with its seat at Geisa.

[1]: 57–62 Today, "Point Alpha" is the name of a museum on the road between Geisa (Thuringia) and Rasdorf village (Hesse).

The museum complex covers not only the NATO observation post on the Hessian side, but also a strip of the (largely reconstructed) border protection systems of East Germany, including a visitors' center on the Thuringian side (Haus auf der Grenze, built 2002/2003), which features an exhibit on the inner German border.