East Germany: Beware of Cardboard Communists

If appearances can be deceptive, they can also be highly cost efficient, or so the East Germans apparently think. Last week the West German government reported that East Germany has abandoned its attempt to man with armed guards the more than 700 watchtowers along the roughly 850-mile German border. Instead, the East Germans are now using life-size cardboard soldiers to scare off would-be Western invaders--and potential defectors. How many of the tower guards are bogus is anyone's guess. "Sometimes they are placed in the towers for only a few hours," says a spokesman for the West German border police. "The idea is to give the impression that the towers are occupied."

Still, East Germans will not have an easy time escaping to the West. Although East Berlin ordered the removal of fence-mounted shrapnel mines and automatic self-firing devices last year, other obstacles remain. Officials raised the electrified metal fences by more than one-third, to 9.8 feet, installed sensitive alarm devices and deployed a record 1,429 German Shepherds along the border. So far, those measures have proved successful. Only 30 people escaped in 1985, down from 54 a year earlier.