EAST-WEST: Life Along the Death Strip

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An 856-mile German frontier of guns, mines and attack dogs

While the labor crisis in Poland was making headlines nearly everywhere else in the world, the nervous Communist regime in neighboring East Germany pointedly minimized the news in its state-controlled press. At the same time, observers along East Germany's border with West Germany noted signs of stepped-up security, presumably to prevent the escape of any East Germans who might be infected by the unrest in Poland.

Today, more than ever, that border is a formidable and repelling obstacle, marked by a heavily fortified wire mesh fence 856 miles long. For nearly 20 years, it has stood as the means by which East Germany has effectively sealed off its 17 million people from the West. The fortifications have been progressively extended, and new security devices are constantly being added. TIME Correspondent Lee Griggs visited the West German side of the bristling barrier and flew a 40-mile surveillance mission in Army patrol helicopter. His

Grim steel watchtowers equipped with machine-gun ports and studded along the frontier within sight of each other monitor every yard of the fence and the barren strip of no man's land behind it. The nine road, eight rail and two canal crossings are tightly guarded and brightly floodlit at night. Traffic is minutely inspected to foil escapes. Heat-sensitive devices are used to detect persons hidden in vehicles and barges, and trained German shepherd dogs roam underneath all trains to sniff out would-be escapees clinging to undercarriages.

At Grusselbach the wire fence is 9 ft. high and anchored 3 ft. deep in the ground to prevent tunneling. It is topped with specially sharpened mesh so fine that a fingerhold is impossible. It is hung with powerful fragmentation mines at head, chest and knee level that can be triggered automatically by trip wires or detonated from nearby guard towers. For 547 yds. back into East Germany, all vegetation has been cleared, and the ground is raked regularly so telltale footprints will show. Farther back runs a deep trench that prevents vehicles from reaching the fence. Nearly a mile inside the border is a second fence, equipped with detection devices and automatically triggered shotguns.

East Germany keeps its citizens well back from the fence. Those permitted to live within three miles of the frontier must have special permits. These are mostly farmers, who work their fields from one hour after sunrise to one hour before sunset, usually under armed guard and sometimes with other guards guarding the guards to discourage escape attempts.

There is no doubt why the fence is there. East Germany claims the fortified frontier is purely defensive, but many watchtowers do not even afford a view of West Germany. All, however, offer a clear field of fire back to the east. Fortifications are being refined and modernized continually. According to Western estimates, the East Germans have invested well over $7 billion in building and maintaining the barrier. "They now have third-generation equipment in place," says Major Karl Ball, deputy commander of the Bundesgrenzschutz, West Germany's border police, in the central sector. "It has always been difficult for people to escape. Now it is nearly impossible."