and globetrotters steve painter sends us regards from durban in south africa. i'm heading south all the way along the border between hess and tooling and until i reach the. 3rd cities and towns meadows and feels quite unimaginable that this region was once marred by the cold war and cut into by the iron curtain i want to find out what things were like back in the day and head over to point alpha a former u.s. observation post at the inner german border. takes me around the premises 1st he shows me the different stages of the east german border fencing. starting in 1952 the old boundary stones were replaced with barbed wire. but those trying to flee could easily cut it when no border guards were in sight so the east german leadership made escaping more and more dangerous. and i know we're in the middle of a minefield that dates back to the 1960 s. when they began building the berlin wall on august 13th 1961 the inner german border was secured through military means and 1.3 to 1400000 land mines were planted. the death strip whoever managed to pass it unscathed w