From the immediate post-WWII years of occupied Germany until German reunification, a relatively small group of American, British, and French soldiers were stationed at Helmstedt, Germany, on the border between the Western Zones and the Soviet Zone.

Helmstedt's "Alpha Checkpoint" anchored the Western end of an Autobahn and railway corridor to West Berlin's Bravo Checkpoint. "Checkpoint Charlie" may have gotten the most press, but at Alpha, we were also on the Front Line of the Cold War.

Helmstedt is also a wonderful town in a lovely countryside, and home to many wonderful Germans who became special friends while we there, and often long after.

The initial impetus for this group is coming from Americans stationed at the US Army's Helmstedt Detachment on Wallbeckerstrasse, but we will welcome participation by our friends among the British, French, and German Helmstedters, and even our former counterparts among the Russians (and other former Soviets) and Germans who served at Marienborn "da druben."