Even while I was there, the further you got from the border the worse the Americans were treated. The germans who lived within sight of the fence and guard towers knew we were the only ones between them and the cossacks. I don't think they realized we were there only to slow them down until corps elements could be moved to meet an attack.
They took me up to see the Iron Curtain. About a mile before the border, there was a lone West German policeman on the side of the highway in green, asked for my passport and waved us on.
The border was actually a river/creek and on the other side was an East German village. The bank of the river was barbed wired and no doubt the river/creek was mined. The thing I noticed was that East German flags were literally strewn everywhere in that village.