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It was only about 150, maximum 200 meters.

That was how far on Friday, August 14, 1964, members of the GDR border troops penetrated West German territory on the Pferdeberg in Eichsfeld.

The operation led to a serious conflict on the inner-German border - and yet it remained unknown outside of the surrounding area.

A similar process in Berlin would have led to an international crisis.

The order of the GDR soldiers: They should set new border markings, exactly along the historical border between Thuringia and Lower Saxony.

However, this line had not been valid for more than 15 years: After the Second World War, the Soviet and British occupying powers had agreed on an exchange of territory.

The SED now wanted to undo this under its own power.

It was a test of strength.

Apparently, the aim was to test whether and how far the Federal Republic, i.e. above all the Federal Border Guard (BGS) responsible for the inner-German border from the west, would go in order to revise an objectively completely nonsensical presumption of East Berlin.

Had the West not responded or responded too weakly, that might have been seen as a precedent.

Two armored personnel carriers

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Of course, those responsible at the BGS knew that, especially Colonel Günter Zugehre in Kassel.

So they reacted: just one day after the attack, the Duderstadt command responsible sent two armored personnel carriers and several trains of uniformed men into the area.

At that time there was still no official border crossing on the road from Duderstadt in Lower Saxony to Teistungen in Thuringia, at that time the GDR district of Erfurt.

The federal police, equipped with light infantry weapons in 1964 like the much more numerous GDR border troops, occupied the mostly 150, in a few places up to 200 meters wide strip between the new markings and the recognized demarcation line.

Behind it ran, depending on the terrain, at a smaller or larger distance, the actual inner-German border: Several barbed wire fences one behind the other and other obstacles, in some places also minefields.

The BGS posts were connected to the task force in Duderstadt, which had access to normal telephone lines, including to the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the British Embassy in Bonn, via a specially placed field telephone.

The GDR uniforms stayed between the barbed wire barriers on the East German side of the disputed area until late in the evening of August 15, 1964, then they withdrew overnight.

Difficult job

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In any case, this was the order given to the BGS officials, they should remain level-headed, in no way provoke, but at the same time make the West German point of view unmistakably clear: the valid limit was that which the British and Soviets had set together.

A conversation between a British officer and GDR officers remained fruitless: the East Germans insisted that they had marked the border that had been established at the time - a claim that a surveyor who was hastily called in could refute.

When the GDR was deployed, it was certainly not about the affected area: two grain fields and some cherry trees.

Much larger, agriculturally more important areas on GDR territory could no longer be cultivated due to the extensive barriers, and it was precisely this fate that would have threatened the soil that was now being used.

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But the decisive and prudent reaction of the BGS caused the SED dictatorship to back off: On August 17, 1964, after a tension-ridden weekend, BGS officials removed the newly and unjustly set border markings and returned them to the GDR via the barbed wire fence -Area threw, the crisis was over.

"Not serious"

The attempt to speak to those responsible about the incident with GDR officials had previously failed: at the communicated time, the West German representatives and the British liaison officer were standing at the gate that blocked the road from Duderstadt to Teistungen - but no East German.

In Bonn, the process was downplayed: It was not a "serious incident".

It was seen differently on site: The population of Duderstadt got excited about the GDR mission.

Especially since the East German state agency ADN indicated that it was a centrally arranged test.

In any case, the news suggested that “aggressive circles” of the “Bonner Ultras” had tried to “thwart” the development of normal relations between the two German states through provocative reports.

The "better identification" of the border serves "exclusively" the purpose of preventing the supposedly "constant border violations" by the BGS and West German residents.

Half a century later this episode has been forgotten at the inner-German border - except in the Eichsfeld borderland museum, located directly on the then controversial horse mountain.

Exactly where the GDR border guards were active on August 14, 1964, there is an information board today;

In the multi-part exhibition there is a room on this and other border incidents.

They are now hard to imagine, because the once murderous border has almost disappeared without a trace.

This article was first published in 2014.