Borders

Checkpoint Charlie, 1982: The famous border crossing Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse in downtown Berlin. The border crossing was meant only for foreigners who wished to travel from East to West Berlin or vice versa.

Checkpoint Charlie, 2007: The former border crossing is now a popular tourist destination: Complete with vendors selling East German paraphernalia and renting out East German "Trabant" cars.

Photos by Jürgen Ritter (spiegelonline captions)

I've always thought borders were strange places because it's a strange idea—an arbitrary line through the landscape where one "place" supposedly ends and another supposedly begins. They makes sense on maps and in our heads, but maybe not so much at the actual location where they're said to exist. The exception, of course, is when people take them very seriously, like the DMZ between North and South Korea. At those places, our conceptual world exercises its literal hold over our freedom to move about.

An interesting photo essay was published in Spiegel Online recently showing "The East-West German Border, Then and Now." The pictures show places which used to be an important conceptual demarcation but have now gone back to being merely places.

Mike
(Thanks to Cal Amari)

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Featured Comment by mcananeya: "Hooo boy! If you want to talk about borders as a strange idea and arbitrary lines, then I’m your man! I briefly lived in Zittau, Germany, which is located in what is called the 'Dreiländereck' in German (i.e., the 'three-country corner' that is the border between Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany). The only problem being that it isn’t much of a corner and the three countries don’t meet in neat, straight lines.* There is a little tongue of Poland that extends further south than the rest of Poland and separates the main area of Zittau from the Czech Republic. There is no good way to describe this in words, so take a look at this map to get a sense of what I’m talking about. 

"To get from Zittau, Germany to Hradek nad Nisou, Czech Republic by car, you needed to drive across this strip of Poland which is roughly a mile wide at the relevant point. As you left Zittau , you would first reach the German border control checkpoint. All of the people in the car would hand their passports (or national identity cards) to the driver, who would hand them to the German border control officer. He would walk off to his little hut, review the documents, stamp the passports, etc. then walk back to your car and hand everything to the driver. The gate would go up and the car would roll forward about 30 yards to the Polish border control checkpoint. The driver would hand all of the passports and ID cards to the Polish border control officer. He would walk off to his little hut, review the documents, stamp the passports, etc. then walk back to your car and hand everything to the driver. The gate would go up and you were officially in Poland! (For the next minute or two, that is.) You would then drive along a two-lane road lined on the left and the right with a) gas stations (gas was cheaper in Poland than in Germany, primarily due to lower taxes), b) shops selling cigarettes (cigarettes were cheaper in Poland than in Germany, primarily due to lower taxes) and c) stands selling garden gnomes in every form and color imaginable (because…because…well, actually, I never came up with a good reason for this). You would then roll up to…the Polish border control checkpoint, which was practically in view of the border control checkpoint you just left, hand your documents to the Polish border control officer, wait for him to review, roll forward 30 yards to the Czech border control checkpoint, have them review, etc., until finally the gate went up and you were now in the Czech Republic. After doing some shopping and having a beer, you now got back into your car and went through the whole procedure again to return to Zittau, Germany.**

"Madness. This was a fluid border and people went back and forth across it all the time, sometimes even several times a day!

"One day I expressed my amazement at this procedure to a friend of mine who gave me an odd look and asked why I didn’t just walk or bike across the border. It turns out that there was a well-known path through the woods that led directly from Zittau to Hradek. If you went by this path, you (a) went by a shorter route than the detour through Poland, and (b) didn’t have to deal with border formalities, since the checkpoint in the woods (a 1m x 1m wooden box) had been abandoned years ago! So go by car, and you go through three countries and four checkpoints and get to browse for garden gnomes, but go by foot and you go for a nice walk in nature. Makes sense to me....

"I have no idea whether any of this has changed since Poland and the Czech Republic joined the EU.

"Finally, while I was in Zittau I also occasionally taught in a nearby town which was even more bizarre from a border perspective, since the German/Polish border literally goes through the center of town! The German side is known at Görlitz, whereas the Polish side is known at Zgorzelec—same name, different spelling."

*Of course, I am sure that borders that are straight lines are generally indicative of the fact that an even more random and arbitrary border has been drawn, presumably by men poring over a map and smoking fat cigars while determining the fates of thousands of people with their rulers…

**For anyone interested in collecting stamps in their passport, this was heaven. On the other hand, these weren’t the kind of stamps that were likely to induce jealousy among friends.

Mike replies: Wow. And what's the deal with Neusatza-Spremberg? I also like the lake named Spree....

Featured Comment by Eric: "Where I live in Holland, if I need to fill up, I drive five minutes down the (Dutch) road before turning left into a German gas station. Gas is cheaper in Germany."

Featured Comment by Vladimir Riha: "Hradek nad Nisou is where I grew up (I live in Sydney now) and I often visit my family there. The border procedure was exactly like it's described above. Since Poland and Czech Republic entered into Shangan group you just drive through without any problems or stopping. Our house is less than 1 km from the spot where three countries meet. When there I often would bike ride from Czech Republic to Germany to Poland and back to Czech Republic before breakfast. Nice part of the world."

Comments

[Player]

As seductive as photo gear is, an idea and photo treatment like "Borders" reminds us of the great power of the photograph.

[Kevin Schoenmakers]

I've visited the Korean DMZ from both sides, and I hope one day tourists will be going there to buy paraphernalia and rent North Korean cars.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

"Cal Amari"? Snort!

It's nice of them to leave a distinctive building as a landmark :-).

[jk]

Thanks for the link! I love before/after historical images (probably why I did my Master's project using that technique) so these are right up there in my area. In some ways, it's hard to believe it's only been 20 years since the reunification...

[Bopbop]

Sgt Pepper keeps on running through my mind. 'It was 20 years ago today..."
I have a piece of the wall in my office. I had hoped that this transition was the beginning of the end. It appears to have been only a transition to a different chasm.
NL

[Richard Skoonberg]

Today, 11/9/2009, is a very important day in the history of all borders. Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. When you look at these pictures, you reminded how much has really changed in the world and it changed for the better, a lot better.

Interesting stuff... Thanks for posting this, Mike!

[cmpatti]

I visited Berlin in April 2000, after the wall had come down, but before reunification. Surreal confusion reigned. Portions of the wall had been torn down, and anyone could walk from West to East Berlin and back. But Checkpoint Charlie was still in operation with East German border guards carefully scrutinizing the papers of Westerners coming through. Soviet solders were selling everything from boots to medals. Driving from West to East on a Saturday morning, we encountered a massive traffic jam in both directions. Eastbound lanes were packed with large, late model BMWs, Mercedes, and Audis. Coming the other way, an endless line of battered, smoke-belching Trabants.

[lk]

@mcananeya: Since most of the 'new' eu is now in the Shengen zone, there are no border checks at all between these countries.

If you want some really nasty borders however, have a look at Central Asia, especially areas like the Fergana Valley or border between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, where Stalin has deliberately made them as conflict-generating as possible. He succeeded, the train line instead of going along the border crosses it a number of times requiring a multiple entry visa to all of the countries on the way (almost impossible to get for tourists, needless to say).

[Harms]

Without a doubt the most complicated border in the world is the one between Belgium and The Netherlands. I believe as a result of medieval land trades between royal houses, there is a cluster of Belgian enclaves within The Netherlands, and some of these have Dutch enclaves within -- nested enclaves! This all takes place in a village, whose Dutch parts are called Baarle-Nassau, and whose Belgian parts are called Baarle-Hertog. The smallest enclave is around 2600 square metres.

Border running through a beer supermarket:

The two police forces cohabit:

[Eric]

Where I live in Holland, if I need to fill up, I drive 5 minutes down the (Dutch) road before turning left into a German gas station. Gas is cheaper in Germany.

[Carsten S]

Mike,

the map is a bit misleading, the Spree is a river.

Greetings from Berlin,

Carsten

[Gavin McLelland]

I loved looking through the photo essay. I visited Czechoslovakia in 1988 and the border was quite something, though the Klashnikov toting guards were rather friendly. I recently visited Russia near the Finnish border and required a special pass to get within about 50 km of it. At one point as we drove through the forest we came across a massive fence and a dressed sand strip. I said the border is 15 km away, the driver said this is the pre-border. I will shortly visit the East of Germany and I'll keep an eye out for the old border
Gavin

[Nik]

@cmpatti: You probably mean April 1990 ? April 2000 is definitely years after reunification, which was in October 1990.

[Anonymouse]

@ Mike: "Spree" is the name of the river flowing right through the centre of Berlin. It has been a part of the borderline within Berlin, before 1990.

@ cmpatti: Life is really short, isn't it? You like to think it's 10 years back, but it's 20 years already. German reunification was on October 3rd, 1990. I suppose you have been in Berlin in April, 1990.

@ self: You're a know-all old fart! Get a life!

[v.i. voltz]

Everyone seems to have forgotten that this 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall is also the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht and the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street.

Voltz

[Uwe]

Borderless freedom backstage – Berlin today ; )

[robert e]

Mike,

I think you are referring to the narrow piece of Czech protruding into Germany at the left side of the map, but Neusalza-Spremberg is actually a town a couple km to the east of it. On Google maps, the only place name within this spit of Czech that points northward like an extended middle finger is a crossroads called "Fukov".

[Peter Lenz]

I lived in Berlin Mitte within walking distance of the wall. As a small boy I knew every cobble stone and every shop in my street, which ran through the wall back then. I revisited the same street in '92. Walking along it I had the strange sensation that i knew my way until an invisible line where the wall used to be. This line was not obvious on the street or on the buildings, but on the other side I did not know any of it. My side I had been renovated but still fitted in with my childhood experience, the other side was totally foreign within a few steps of it

[John Long]

Talking about borders, things have changed here in North America, as a kid I would walk across the border from Canada to the US so we could buy a Hershey chocolate bars that were not available in Canada. Try that now and you will have homeland security on you very quickly. Europe is celebrating borderlessness and here in the New World... we are not!

[Matthew Miller]

Hey! I also briefly lived in Zittau. What a small world this is. I took with me my first digital camera, a Casio QV-10, and with that I took a picture of the point where all three countries meet:

I wanted to go stand at the point exactly, but as you can see, it's in the middle of the Neiße, and it was my last day and I wasn't properly prepared to get all wet.

(That's not scaled down, by the way — that's the full resolution you got from the camera's .CAM raw files. Hmmm; I think I still have those archived somewhere... I wonder if ACR supports them....)

[mcananeya]

Matthew,

If you think that's odd, try this on for size: when the millenium celebrations began on the evening of December 31, 1999, all of the major television networks were showing the celebrations from around the world as the New Millenium gradually rolled west and approached the US.

I was in New York City watching one of CBS/ABC/NBC (for those who aren't familiar with these, these are the 3 biggest and most well-known television networks in the US, along with Fox, I suppose). The progression of cities went something like this: celebrations in the Red Square in Moscow, celebrations in the Zittau village center, celebrations at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Yup, you read that correctly. They had a correspondent in Zittau and must have reported on the fireworks in Zittau for about 15 minutes. I don't think I have ever seen anything more random on television. And that is saying something.

Best,
Adam

[Marc Rochkind]

Checkpoint Charlie was a border crossing only going from East to West. From West to East, there definitely was no border, as the four parties (USSR, France, UK, US) agreed that the city would not be divided. As far as the West was concerned, that agreement was permanently in effect. That's why the famous sign warns that "you are leaving the American zone". It was only a zone, not a different nation.

--Marc

[Mike]

Keep in mind that that part of Poland was likely part of Germany. As part of the end of WWII, Stalin got Poland and took a big chunk of Eastern Poland for himself. He moved those Poles to what was the Eastern section of Germany. When you visit Western Poland, the old buildings are and look German. Once German towns were renamed into Polish. Berlin is practically on the Polish border now too.
But, everybody is OK. Germany does not want that back. Poland is roughly the area it was long ago. Maybe the Poles are not so happy with Stalin though... Everybody is in a United European and that is better than war and devastation for decades any day!

[erlik]

Mike, if you're interested in border stamps, you should just go to Berlin. When I was there this June, there were these two guys in Potsdamer Platz selling East German border stamps. 20 Euros for a bit of ink in your passport...

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=722963655]

The United Arab Emirates and Oman have some interesting border situations. Enclaves within enclaves. A similar thing occurs with the various emirates. Nahwa is an interesting example. Earlier this century a British officer went around asking which sheikh each village and tribe gave allegiance to and that's how the borders got set.

[Stan B.]

The Lost Border by Brian Rose remains one of my favorite photography books of all time...

http://www.brianrose.com/lostborder.htm

cmpatti- think ya got yer dates confused. I was in Berlin the summer of '90, Checkpoint Charlie was very much in disuse and disrepair.

[Paul H]

Coming from an country consisting of two main islands at the bottom of the world, 3 hours flight from the next nearest country, arbitrary lines across bits of dirt hold some fascination.

I remember on several travels while living in Europe, like standing just inside the Swiss border, or even standing in San Marino, the weird, detached feeling when considering that just "over there" there was once a world war, and "just here" was safe. Standing in what was once West Berlin, and looking over the river and at the apartments in what was the East gave me goosebumps.

[Justyna]

Since 2007 there has been Schengen Agreement in all of this countries (and almost all the other states of the EU) and nobody has to show anything to anybody no more.

[Vladimir Riha]

Hradek nad Nisou is where I grew up (I live in Sydney now)and often wisit my family there. The border procedure was axactly like discribe above. Since Poland and Czech Republic entered into Shangan group you just drive through without any problems and stopping. Our house is less than 1 Km from the spot where 3 countries meet. When there I often would bike ride from Czech Republic to Germany to Poland and back to Czech republic before breakfast. Nice part of the world. Regards, Vladimir.

[Ludovic]

Very interesting photo essay, thanks for the link, Mike.

That and this must be my faves of the before/after. A very eerie and strange feeling, those.

[Carl Blesch]

John Long,
You are right about the Canada/U.S. border being less open. I am fascinated by the 49th parallel, as it is totally removed from any geographical feature (river, mountain range) that often marks other borders. I shot this photo near Emerson, Manitoba, in 2006, standing right on the border. I fear I'd have trouble setting up the same shot today, as the U.S. border patrol is either planning to fly or is already flying drone aircraft over this stretch of the country to look for suspicious activity. And you know how suspicious we photographers are.

[JC]

Funny thing is that most people think that borders are actually real things, like any other object or natural accident.

But no need to travel so far from home: I understand that the Mexico-US border is as silly as any other, a fact highlighted with Bush's decision to build the (in)famous wall: once they started working at it they realised it would split sevral towns in half, some even in thirds.

[Yanchik]

Great fun is the European border with Asia. It used to be different before Catherine the Great 's geographers got at it, but it nonetheless contains some sort of internal logic.

Down the watershed of the Urals (not much of a watershed, as the Urals/Cairngorms/Appalachians are an old, old mountain range (so old they used to be joined together.) I've visited that border just outside Ekaterinburg: well-marked in a good Soviet granite/marble sort of a way.

The border then heads for the Caspian Sea, down a river through Atyrau where there's a bridge that you can drive over (I have, a few times) which puts a reasonably large but empty part of Kazakhstan (a Central Asian state) in Europe. And people grumble about Turkey being in Europe ?! Your old map may show Atyrau as Guryev.

From there it's through the Caspian Sea down to the Caucasus watershed, which keeps Chechnya and a number of original Buddhists in Europe, to the Black Sea and the mundane and well-known (but still fantastic) Bosphorus through Istanbul, another continent-straddling city.

If you can't find food for imagination and photography in this lot, you're wasting your time on this website !

Y

[John Lyster]

There's another "three way" set of international borders just next to the northen Argentinian town, Iguazu......just down stream from the Iguazu Falls. I was there in September and it forms the border between Argentina Paraguay and Brasil a lovely sub tropical setting at a T junction between these beautiful rivers......no obvious signs of military guards, helicopter gun ships nor communist dictators just beautiful coloured birds and sensational water falls

[Simon Griffee]

Amen! I think the best thing about the European Union is the lack of borders. I hope in the future the rest of the world's borders will disappear. http://simongriffee.com/imaginarylines/

[Martin]

I've been reading this blog for a long time now -- what a surprise to read about my part of the world. My hometown is Herrnhut, just 10 miles north of Zittau.