A peep behind the Iron Curtain, a photo from Bayern, West

Photographer's Note

New Year 1984 - at the border!

In the times of antagonism between Warsaw pact and NATO, the iron curtain between FRG and GDR or CSSR was almost impassable. Some sites could even be regarded as curiosities. The railway station at Bayerisch Eisenstein counted among them.

The border went straight across the long common station building and divided the track installations. There was no railway traffic on the Czech side. The German Bundesbahn stopped their trains immediately before the buffers wearing a red rectangle, just in front of the border fence.

Since the breakdown of the Warsaw pact, this line has been reopened. You simply change from a German to a Czech train without any border control, and there are even express trains that reach Prague in less than 2 hours.

Taken on film with Canon A1, professionally digitalized.

ikeharel, ktanska has marked this note useful

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emka (152314) 2020-11-30 23:57

Hello Sven I have lived behind the Iron Curtain for a bigger part of my life so I remember well how it was. The crossing of a border was always an experience, sometimes you had to wait for hours. And now you sometimes do not know that you have found yourself in another country. The young people do not appreciate it. Nice picture.
Best regards Malgo

ikeharel (105953) 2020-12-05 6:12

Hello Sven,
First, an interesting note about the W-pact and what was before 1989. Than, realized you have to change the date when taken this picture, 1984 not 2019.
The scanned photo preserved its natural colors, cherrs for that.
Ike

ktanska (40125) 2020-12-07 9:53

Hi Sven,
That is indeed quite surprising place. Border between Czechoslovakia and Germany is not at all recognizable. And still there must have been someone keeping a close watch. I checked the map of this location. Quite interesting.
Kari