European Journal | On the Road - Tracing the Iron Curtain

Part 3: Germany Through Rivers and Arcosu Mountains Along the the Elbe river,there are only a few remaining East German guard towers,and they are all historic monuments. Axel Jehring still remembers that all the trees near the river were chopped down so that East German border guards would have a clear shot at anyone trying to flee the country.
But despite all the barriers on the border,Jehring was able to swim to freedom. Our reporter Tilmann Bünz met up with Brocken-fan Benno Schmidt,who has climbed to the top of the Brocken nearly 6,000 times. For Schmidt,it's a late gratification. In the days of the GDR,the mountain was sequestered for military usage and couldn't be climbed.