Behrungen border memorial sites
- An ensemble of relics of the former "Iron Curtain" in Germany, i.e. the border between East (GDR) and West (FRG) during the Cold War, now the border between Thuringia and Bavaria.
There are two GDR border watchtowers (now havens for bats and thus not accessible for visitors), remains/reconstructions of various border fortifications, a former border guard vehicle, border markers, and in the town of Behrungen (Thuringia) itself the buildings of the former border police barracks.
At the border a stone with a plaque marks the spot were a 10-year-old boy found a left-over landmine in 2001 – a dangerous late find of such a deadly relic! Fortunately neither he nor anyone else got hurt.
The open-air sites are freely accessible at all times.
Location: in the south of Germany, between Rappershausen (Bavaria – with a former border information point), Behrungen and Berkach (Thuringia), some 10-15 miles (20-25 km) south of Meiningen. The main open-air museum part is about a mile east of Behrungen, off Römhilder Straße (K2529). A rather forlorn looking old watchtower can be found right by the road between Berkach and Sondheim, not far from the A71 motorway.
Google maps locator:[50.396,10.438]