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© Stéphane Compoint
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Mirador de Kieler Eck and Günter Litfin Memorial. Located by the canal at Spandau (Spandauer Schifffahrtskanal), the watchtower of the former Kieler Eck command post is now surrounded and overshadowed by buildings constructed in the 1990s. In good condition, he listed monument since 1995. This type of viewpoint illustrates the determination of technical sophistication of the border, over the years become a No Man's Land almost impassable. This vestige of the former border intra-city is a witness of the wall, but also illustrates the problem of conversion and redevelopment of the former border areas. Of the 302 watchtowers along the 155 kilometers of the border around West Berlin, only three have survived in the city: the command post Kieler Eck, one of Schlesischen Busch in Treptow-Köpenick and the viewpoint of the Erna-Berger-Straße, near Leipziger Platz. Command posts ensured the control of neighboring towers and No Man's Land around. They also received warning messages from the signal fences, deployed in 1967, and were also stationed groups of intervention units of border guards, deployed when trying to "violation of the boundary state ". Since August 2003, this viewpoint is also a memorial in honor of the first fugitive shot dead by border guards GDR border intra-Berlin, the young tailor Günter Litfin, aged 24, who was shot by police rail GDR August 24, 1961 (that is to say, eleven days after the start of construction of the wall) while trying to reach West Berlin by swimming. The plaque honors Günter Litfin and all other victims killed or injured by GDR border guards.
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