I crossed the border several times at Helmstedt-Marienborn as a kid in the 80s but I don't remember seeing any short-skirted ladies. Fashion had changed by then, and skirts had probably gotten longer again.

[In a documentary about GDR economy, I heard that the textile industry was glad about the advent of the miniskirt because it meant they could economise on fabrics. Of course, they were much more reluctant to introduce maxiskirts.]

About our visits to the GDR, I do remember waiting for hours and hours at the border to have our passports controlled and our car searched. And there was a compulsury exchange of DM 25 per adult per day, at the official exchange rate of 1:1. But all this didn't apply to transit travellers whose destination was Poland, Czechoslovakia, or West Berlin.

By the way, the Helmstedt-Marienborn crossing will play a vital role in a later episode of D83.

Here's the English version of a great 10-minute documentary about the Berlin wall and the inner-German border, featuring very realistic CGI animation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwQsTzGkbiY

The American narrator sounds like cold war propaganda but the bare facts are 100% accurate.

And here's the making-of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8d4gGOyhCs

In two years the border between the USA and Mexico will look like that, only sunnier.

I thought so too, especially the scenes where Martin went all Action Man with the Asian waitress. I couldn't believe he could break into another room by scaling the walls without being seen by anyone.

My husband spotted the Basic code and saw that it generated random numbers. I thought it was used to encrypt the disc. Watching the show brought back a lot of memories for him of early 80s computers he used to work with. When they inserted the floppy I remembered the sounds our old computer used to make when we inserted a disc and it read it. I don't miss the old printer that used to shake the floor while printing.

His aunt didn't stop lighting up in the petrol station. My husband was aghast to see someone smoking around petrol. Another mistake?

My brother used to listen to short wave radio back in the day. He became a passionate Ham radio user. He still is active in Ham radio. It's still very popular and there are many people trying to contact countries all over the world. It's also very useful for communication in remote countries.

Didn't see him pay for the petrol either

We were more blase in the eighties.

Yes I noticed that. I explained it away in that the gentleman who arrived with his aunt and held up General Edel took it out and also settled the bill.

The books were banned in Communist Eastern Europe.

Great stuff, with some nice tongue-in-cheek moments surrounding the computers, the shop owners' Dobermann & the secretaries cat
Wonder how radical Edel's son will get though?
Very enjoyable series.

I'd hardly say he went Action Man on her - she was kicking his ass until he managed to lamp her with the ice bucket!

I found it hard to believe that Martin managed to win that fight with the Asian lady, seeing how she was an expert fighter and he had only a short amount of training before working for East Germany. My husband fought it hard to believe that the dog didn't chew up Martin or bark its head off. Giving the dog a treat would have distracted the dog for only a moment. I couldn't believe it licking Martin's hand. Then again, I did read about a teenage girl who crossed the Wall in the late 1960s. As she ran across the area between the Eastern face of the Wall and the wall bordering the West, she came across a guard dog. The dog sniffed her but did nothing else- didn't bark, didn't attack her. She was captured just as she was climbing over the top of the Western facing Wall.

... and presumably are all gifts from Martin to his mother, confiscated as they came across the border (both directions) as we saw in the 1st ep where he passed on the Shakespeare books he'd confiscated from those students who'd come across the border to buy them much cheaper with deutschmarks than they could get in the west.

Under the knockabout spy story there's some wry and quite subversive scenes where Martin and the Ostis are mostly depicted as trying to make their way in difficult circumstances, contrasting it with those in the west who are depicted as hippy idealists or cynics who balance the benefits of real coffee and up to date computers against knowing they're going to be the first to get fried if the nutters in the White House start to believe their own BS.

You've got enough material there for a book...."Fifty Shades of Khaki"

Of course they all looked liked standard soviet tractor drivers....

He plays a key role in episode 6, though the subsequent resolution strains credibility somewhat.

Wow you really are a fanatic on continuity mistakes eh?!!

It's surprising how many are made in big screen movies. You can virtually take your pick of any movie and there will be a list of bloopers! Here is one from the latest Bond movie and God knows what the budget is like for those!

http://www.moviemistakes.com/film11259




One of the best preserved examples of the wall i found at a small village, Mödlareuth, which also has an excellent little museum. Also many YT videos on it.
http://moedlareuth.de/

Helmstedt-Marienborn is pretty amazing and some desperate attempts to escape took place there. With the buildings still intact and the A2 Autobahn running past, it's still easy to feel the tension people experienced at that border crossing.

A clip off YT from 1989 with loads of Trabbies chugging through! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ByONgWxXYg Back then they practically gave them away. Now original ones in good condition can sell for around £2-3k with the rare convertible making as much as £5k!

The service area on the Autobahn makes a good stop over plus there is an excellent Restaurant in Helmstedt.

A bit more pre-1989:

I borrowed this book from the library some time before reunification, and my son got it for me for a birthday a few years ago:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Along-Edge-F.../dp/0394523954

An excellent read, I thought: so much so, that my bucket list has me intending to do it for myself.

This neatly ties in with a DVD I have: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Halt-Hier-Grenze/dp/B000AJ9V88 which follows the inner border, but, contrary to the book, goes from south to north. English and German

"Das war die DDR" was on German TV (I watched bits and pieces on MDR), and have a double DVD: http://www.amazon.de/Das-war-die-Kap.../dp/B00030GSP8 German only. I can't remember when or where I got these DVDs but probably in Germany, (or possibly direct from MDR)

Dream on.
Ex-soviet border guard wimmin are still uber-sexy.

Many of these are still easily found in ex-DDR what East German border guards used to patrol along in tracked or wheel vehicles. Usually in country areas, if you spot one it's always worth a drive along.

Yes, we saw one by the Schifflersgrund border museum

It's just the editing making it look that way. He opened the car door simply to put the bag in there. He actually got into the car at the same time as the general. In the intervening time the general had time to take off his jacket and hang it in the back of the car. Ample time to have taken the petrol nozzle out etc. They just didn't show it.

Mmm, I would ask him about that, but he is famous for his selective amnesia.


No, I'm really not, but this blooper was so glaringly obvious that I thought it merited a mention.


I'm not buying that, for a start Moritz was behind the wheel when the general was faffing about, and the general would have seen removing the nozzle as a task for a grunt, not an officer I believe.