The Last Quarter of a Mile East – English script

00.05. The wall – the iron curtain between the east and west. In one place it still stands to this day. Together with the death stripe, watch towers, signal wires and anti-tank barricades.

00.21. In the East German village Hötensleben the people have had the "safest borders of the world” outside their front door for almost half a century.

00.32. At one time they saw from their windows the escape attempts, the fatal shots and the protection arrangements becoming more extravagant. Today the wall in Hötensleben is a museum. This is down to the mayor, Buchwald. He would like to preserve it as a monument.

O tone Dieter Buchwald, mayor of Hötensleben

00.51. We have lived behind this wall, we have seen this wall every single day, we have seen the restrictions which this system brought for us every single day. The young people have moved away - this was a village that had no future. We must let later generations see this. How have we lived in a dictatorship?

01.16. Together with preservationist Achim Walter, Buchwald began to turn against the demolition of the wall and defend it from looters. The aim was to show the East Germans the cage in which they were held. For Hötensleben was in the East zone and no citizen was supposed to see the borders - until they opened.

01.37. However inhuman the border was, even 20 years later, Walter leads visitors to it. He is now a wall-guide; a walking encyclopaedia of the border zone. The death strip is his life - although he abhors it. A contradiction? No. Instead, his sad duty, says Walter.

O-Ton Achim Walter, preservationist
02.02. We Hötenslebeners must put up with this testament in the interest of the public, in Germany's interest, and in the interest of our people. Just like other people have to endure a motorway, which passes by the front door and makes noise. Or a chemical plant that stinks. This monument does not stink, does not make any noise. And if you close your eyes, you can’t see it.

02.27. In the capital Berlin, ‘eyes open’ is definitely the motto. There the last pieces of the wall are a popular attraction, and a canvas for artists. But the wall was mainly demolished. Berlin can see this was an error. They now build new parts of the wall, to preserve this border-Disneyland. What tourists pick out as souvenirs is neatly re-plastered.

In Hötensleben Walter says, “we had more foresight”.

O-Ton Achim Walter, preservationist
02.57. That they have not preserved it, and then later thought: "we must with all our power preserve something here," is incomprehensible to me. This is ultimately a testament to the Cold War. Everything you see here is the original.

03.11. But is "original " also” faithful to the original"? No way!

The observation tower in Hötensleben was completely renovated in 1993. Like many other border features, it was torn down long ago. Bizarrely, the builders in the campaign were also “original”. Recruits were former pioneers and Stasi officers who had already built the wall. They simply could do the best job.

O-Ton Richard Wendlandt, a pioneer and a double wall Bauer (1993)
03.42. The technology is the same then as now. We constructed it with the same tractor- back then we had the same T174. Most of the time we had to use a spade to dig further, as you have seen. It was just re-filled. And the expanded metal is posted the same as then.

03.59. The subtle difference: the first time, the wall was built to safeguard the dictatorship, the second as a memorial against the dictatorship. But this is mere hair-splitting, say the wall builders.

O tone Richard Wendlandt, pioneer and double poor builder (1993)

04.10 We were experts. This had to be done. So we did it. And really got stuck in- the ground was often very heavy. We just wanted the work. At that time it was only the peace border. And today I’m building a border monument. Do I think about my past and try to overcome it? I don’t do this.

04.28. A topsy- turvy world: pioneers of communism and Federal troops building a new “anti-fascist wall" from the rubble – under instructions of the anti-communist preservationist, Achim Walter. This bizarre appeal hasn’t won over the local residents. Many felt used as tools in Walter's self-promotion.

04.51. O tone poor local resident (1993)

Walter does not interest me. He is not at all from Hötensleben. He has only moved here. He does not know at all how things are here. He only wants to make a good name for himself. Before he followed the crowd. We have had enough!

05.04. O tone passer-by in curried grilled sausage booth (1993)

At first they were quite fast about breaking the wall down, and we were one again. And now? I was surprised when they started rebuilding here.

05.13. In November 2009 nobody is surprised by it any more. The earlier border fixtures stand as if they never disappeared, and are neatly marked and documented. In the former front village of the cold war peace has set in. However, the work of Günter Schwulera shows that the wounds of former days are still perceptible. He is the local chronicler of Hötensleben and has collected the documents surrounding the wall. The enthusiasm and hope of the villagers at the opening of the border is clear. After decades they could again see friends and relatives from Schöningen, the neighbouring town on the other side. And for the construction of this border monument the community over-stretched their budget. They dreamed of a future as a tourism magnet and media magnet. And the present was neglected for it.

O-Ton Günter Schwulera, city chronicler of Hötensleben
06.08. Only a few know what costs this border monument has - or rather, what the preservation of the old border fortifications has cost so far. The costs are not insignificant. Money that has been put into the wall could be put towards road construction instead. This opinion was represented in broad sections of the population.

06.38. Twenty years later, the tourism bubble has burst. In Hötensleben they have been waiting in vain for affluent visitors. Their location is too far from the established tourist routes. Visitors keep coming back to the monument, but none of them stay in the area. Except for two cafes and a fruit merchant, nobody here has benefited from the wall. And yet, the monument has hardly any real enemies today. Nobody wants to tear it down.

07.01. O tone local resident before garage

It was the same people who represented the GDR, who shouted “let’s go“ when the wall fell. But before they were police assistants and border assistants, and the wall was everything to them.

07.13. O tone passer's-by married couple

- If one lives here as long as we have then they have seen the border every day, and if I’m honest, it does not hold interest any more.

- But one should preserve it.

- And we are glad that it has come to this - that the borders are open.  

07.25. The initiators of the monument have not won completely yet. And in the meantime, they are in retirement age. They worry about the future of the wall.

O tone Dieter Buchwald, mayor

07.35. The challenge is still facing humanity to not accept dictatorship. And one sees every single day that the people who are sympathetic to a dictatorship have not disappeared. What will be the problem in 40 years, or in 20 years is the fact that that it is a concrete construction, which is not built to last centuries.

07.58. The builders saw this completely differently once. 20 years ago Erich Honecker believed in the eternity of his wall.

<Out of vision tone Honecker, stays empty: >  “She will still continue in 50 and even in 100 years”.

In the meantime, the wall is gradually being re-claimed by nature. Soon this alone may be enough to bring the wall down.

ENDE: 08.23.

R: Florian Borchmeyer

K: Michael Redolfi

S: Matthias Haas