Observation Post (OP) Alpha

In the immediate vicinity Geisa the observation point "Point Alpha" fulfilled until the fall of the Iron Curtain an important observation task in defense concept of NATO. While on the other side of the border were guarding and guiding storms of GDR border troops, except those units but not the Warsaw Pact troops stationed on the border.

The base was at the center of NATO defense line "Fulda Gap", in which NATO expected the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in an emergency. The "Fulda Gap" retired from Herleshausen about Fulda to the vicinity of Bad Neustadt. The name Point Alpha goes back to the fact that it was the first built observation point.

The term "hottest point in the Cold War", however, is misleading. The US Border Observation Points were used solely to observation; already at the first tangible signs of an invasion by the Warsaw Pact countries, the crew from Point Alpha had withdrawn, direct hostilities were not provided. According to recent research the area around Rasdorf / Hünfeld in war one of the first military operation areas in the Fulda Gap would have become.

As observation point therefore Point Alpha was also useful because it is situated at 411 meters above sea level on a mountain ridge and thus a good overview of the assumed front staging area of the Warsaw Pact offered in Ulstergrund. Also for the interception of radio traffic from the east, the geographical conditions were favorable.

Mistakenly sometimes contend again, the border at Point Alpha was also the westernmost point of the GDR. This was, however, some 12 km to the southwest, in the immediate vicinity of the village Reinhard (until 2 October 1990, the westernmost inhabited place of the Warsaw Pact), and today forms the westernmost land point in this state Thüringen. The south to the OP Alpha Geisa was the westernmost town of the Warsaw Pact.