Observation Post Alpha

Originally, in the early 1960s, troops were housed on the Rasdorfer Berg in tents. Only after the area was officially handed over to the U.S. troops in 1965 did construction work begin. Huts were built and the post was surrounded by a fence.[1]^:35

0n 14 August 1962, at a time when the East German authorities were strengthening the inner German border fortifications, a serious incident occurred near the location of OP Alpha. An East German border guard captain, Rudi Arnstadt, was on patrol with two other NVA soldiers. Under circumstances that remain unclear today, he opened fire at a group of four West German border policemen (BGS) who were on the other side of the border, observing the construction work. A BGS member returned fire and over a period of around 15 minutes more shots were exchanged. Arnstadt was killed by one of the first shots fired from the west. There never was a joint investigation of the incident. Arnstadt was declared a martyr and national hero in the GDR and given a state funeral at Erfurt. A West German court found that the BGS men had acted in self-defence. In 1998, the trooper who had shot Arnstadt, Hans Plüschke, now working as a taxi driver, was himself found shot dead on the Bundesstrasse 84 near Hünfeld. The bullet that killed Plüsche was placed at the exact place Arnstadt was hit. This murder remains unsolved.[3][1]^:48–49

In 1965, responsibility for border surveillance in the area was turned over from the German Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS) to the U.S. Army.

In 1968, the first observation tower made of wood was built (to be replaced in 1982 with a steel tower and again in 1985 with the current concrete structure). OP Alpha became a base of the U.S. 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment. In 1972, the U.S. 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment ("Blackhorse Regiment") assumed the post. During the 1970s the original wooden barracks were replaced with more solid buildings.[1]^:34–38

In late 1989, the closed border crossing between Geisa and Rasdorf was reopened, initially just for pedestrians. On 31 March 1990, the U.S. forces went on their last patrol and stopped their border observation. The road connecting Geisa and Rasdorf was reopened in December 1990. In 1991, the U.S. Army formally withdrew from the post following German reunification. OP Alpha was closed. The barracks in Fulda, Bad Hersfeld and Bad Kissingen were also given up and the regiment returned to the U.S.[1]^:38,56

Following reunification, the post became the property of the Bundesvermögensverwaltung. An initial plan to turn it into a centre for education was scuppered by the resistance of the Hessian government of the day, which insisted on "renaturalizing" it. OP Alpha thus was supposed to be removed along with the other remaining observation posts at the inner German border. However, for a while a use as accommodation for asylum-seekers was envisaged. This use of the facility lasted from 1991 to 1994/95. In early 1994, a citizens' initiative was formed to prevent the post's destruction and turn it into a memorial. Although the Thuringian authorities supported the idea, the Hessian government opposed it. In spring 1995, the last asylum-seekers left the facility, which by now was in a terrible state of repair and was scheduled to be demolished. An association (Grenzmuseum Rhön Point Alpha e.V.) was founded, seated in Geisa, to prevent this from happening. The Verein gained increasing political support for its cause and the site was declared a "listed monument" by the Hessian Denkmalbehörde, although work on demolishing it had already begun. The site was secured and in 1997 a caretaker was hired. To make use of public funds from Thuringia, a second association was set up in 1997, Mahn-, Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Point Alpha e.V., with its seat at Geisa. The reconstructed border fortifications were completed in 1998 and a first permanent exhibition was opened in one of the camp huts. With the new Hessian state government of Roland Koch taking over in 1999, support from this direction increased. In 2000, two memorials at OP Alpha were inaugurated. One celebrates the American soldiers who risked becoming the first victims of a war with the Warsaw Pact. The other commemorates the victims of the division of Germany and the architects of reunification.[1]^:57–62