Offers

Tour guides show you the history of German partition (17 of our 37 tour guides)

Museum Tour
A tour guide takes you on a one or two-hour tour around the permanent exhibitions to provide you with information regarding the history of German partition, the Cold War and the significance of Point Alpha: 

In the “House on the Border”, you visit the exhibition covering the GDR border regime and life in the restricted zone as well as the “Freedoms!” multimedia exhibition. The tour guide takes you along an approximately 700-meter long footpath, referring to elements of the border, some of which are preserved and now heritage-protected originals, as he or she explains the development of the inner German border, from the roadblock all the way to the metal mesh fence. 

You visit the authentic and heritage protected US observation post Point Alpha with its preserved original buildings and the permanent exhibition on the Cold War and the military confrontation situation in the Fulda Gap.

Registration required.

 

Special Guided Tour “Path of Hope”

The fourteen sculpture groups along the death strip of the former inner German border that marked the dividing line between freedom and repression for over forty years, reference the biblical Stations of the Cross. With this comprehensive work of art, the Point Alpha Foundation commemorates the resistance against the Communist dictatorships of Central and Eastern Europe, under whose yoke human beings suffered for decades. 

In a tour that takes approximately an hour-and-a-half, a Point Alpha Foundation tour guide walks with you along the Path of Hope with its 14 stations as he or she informs you of its evolution and provides explanatory comments on the individual sculptures, as well as stimuli to promote reflection. The special tour can be booked individually. 

We recommend taking the special tour subsequent to a visit to the Point Alpha Memorial.

 

Registration required. 
 

Conversations with eyewitnesses
Following the guided tour of the museum, you have the opportunity to add depth and dimension to what you have seen. People who lived on both sides of the border give you accounts of the era of German partition and life in the restricted zone, as well as that in the zonal border area. Former employees of the Federal border police and customs officers report on their work during the time of German partition. 

Depending upon the amount of time and level of interest, the conversations can be organized as a one or two-hour event.

Registration required.

Hike along the border

 

Visit stations along the former inner German border with expert explanation on life at and with the border, on the expansion of the border, incidents along the border, the green belt and on the Rhön Biosphere Reserve. 
Distance:  approx. 10 km
Duration: at least 4 hours 
 
Regularly scheduled, the first Saturday of every month (April – October) at 1 p.m., meeting point; former Point Alpha observation post  (Hesse parking lot – at the US camp). Formation of car pools is required to drive from the Hesse parking lot at Point Alpha to the parking lot in Wenigentaft. The hike heads back to Point Alpha from there. 
• Individual border hikes can be booked via the visitor service
• For advance bookings we are happy to take care of the comprehensive care and provision for groups of hikers