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By the moon I could see the swath cut out of the forest winding and twisting in both directions through the flats and hilly forest, with the fence ribboned down the middle of it. While I was contemplating this eerie scene, two German Dobermans came trotting by, heading to my left away from the guard tower. They didn't see or apparently smell me, as I stayed in the shadows and they silently padded on by.
The next day I went into East Germany proper on my way to Berlin, and drove
what was called the 'Corridor' which was one of only two roads in. I had to pass through the allied check point of the West Germans, French and US. After registering with a US army sergeant, I entered into East Germany proper. I had to drive through a zig-zag obstacle course of concrete barriers and tank traps, which were often a triangular metal work of welded rail road track, that was cemented in the ground at such an angle that tanks would not be able to drive over them. On the east side I had to park and go into a low one story wooden barracks like building, hand in my passport and fill out forms declaring mainly how much money I was carrying. They were not keen on people smuggling in currency, to be passed to East German residents or to inflate the East German mark and cause it to become worthless. Of course there was a plethora of guards, leather jackets, jack boots and lots of machine guns.
Driving the Corridor through East Germany was like going back in time, about eight hundred years or straight into a Bruegel painting.
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