Checkpoint Harry (Former Border Crossing)

After the Wall was built in Berlin on August 13, 1961, the regions along the border with Germany were declared restricted zones. Boizenburg was part of the 5 km restricted area for many years. Visitors needed a special permit to enter the country.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the border fortifications along the Elbe and the "green" border were expanded in such a way that there was almost no chance of escaping to the west. Like many other places, Boizenburg was removed from the restricted area in 1972. However, the 500 m restricted area, which also included the towns of Vier, Streitheide and Horst, was retained. It could still only be entered with a special permit. That is why a checkpoint (KP-Vier) was built on the Elbberg shortly before four at the former F5. From 1972, members of the People's Police checked all people who wanted to enter this restricted area.

After the fall of 1989, the property was initially unused. Then Harry Strelow, the current owner, had the idea of opening a snack bar on this spot. In reference to the probably most well-known checkpoint in the then divided Germany, the "Checkpoint Charlie" in Berlin, he named the former checkpoint Checkpoint Harry.

Source: checkpointharry.de/geschichte.htm

At the entrance to Boizenburg, on the former trunk road 5, buildings have been preserved that are of very different importance for the city's history in the 20th century.

A barrack bears witness to a former satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp, where four hundred female Jewish prisoners from Hungary were interned in 1944/45. In this only surviving building of the former Boizenburg subcamp, an exhibition on the fate of the prisoners and forced labor on the Elbe shipyard is shown during the summer months.

The two buildings of the former transit checkpoint four are only a few meters away. From 1973 to 1990, GDR police officers controlled car traffic towards the border and into the border restricted area here. Around the former tower of the checkpoint, another exhibition documents the history of the inner-German border in the district of Hagenow. A sound installation in the tower refers to life in the restricted area, to escape and forced resettlement.

boizenburg.de/portal/seiten/elbbergmuseum-900000027-28851.html

Some remains of the border station are still there. The transit route was discontinued in the early 80s.