Talk:Helmstedt–Marienborn border crossing

Checkpoint Alpha

The brief mention of Checkpoint Alpha within the article on the Helmstedt-Marienborn border crossing serves more to highlight the inadequacy of this article than to provide any useful information. While Checkpoint Alpha was approximately co-located with the Helmstedt-Marienborn border crossing, they were physically, administratively, and operationally separate. Checkpoint Alpha was the autobahn crossing operated jointly by the American, British, and French military authorities with absolutely no involvement of the West German authorities. Only travelers sponsored by the US, British, or French military were processed through Checkpoint Alpha. Those travelers were then processed through a Marienborn checkpoint operated by the Soviet military authorities (NOT the East German authorities). Both the allied military Checkpoint Alpha and the Soviet Military checkpoint at Marienborn were located immediately south of the Autobahn with traffic through the checkpoints being separated from Autobahn traffic. All other autobahn traffic at the Helmstedt-Marienborn crossing was processed by West German and East German authorities at facilities located on the autobahn.

The rail crossing point at Helmstedt-Marienborn was physically co-located for both military travel and civilian travel but military rail traffic was processed by allied military authorities and Soviet military authorities while civilian rail traffic was processed by West German and East German authorities. US military operated a nightly "Duty Train" between Berlin and Frankfurt. The British military operated a daily "Duty Train" between Berlin and Braunschweig. Each of these trains also served the rail station at Helmstedt for military travelers. There were also occasional "special" military trains but these were rare.

The more-or-less corresponding article titled Checkpoint Bravo also conflates the separate military and civil crossing points but chooses to use the name of the military checkpoint. The crossing point between West Berlin and East Germany was also two entirely separate crossings: one operated by the Allied Military authorities paired with a crossing operated by the Soviet Military authorities and a nearby but separate crossing operated by the West German authorities paired with a facility operated by the East German authorities. The photo File:Checkpoint Bravo Brückenhaus.jpg shows the exterior of the building housing the military Checkpoint Bravo while the other photos in the Checkpoint Bravo article are of the entirely separate East German crossing facility.N4aof (talk) 00:33, 30 January 2019 (UTC)