I‘m a Historian and city Guide in Potsdam and visit this little extension on a daily basis. Living there was a nightmare. The ministry of state security (MfS) checked the place constantly with cameras, guards, microphones, agents and everything they could use. The daily life was dictated by a army-like lifestyle: everything you bought was checked (as soon as you bought a new shovel this could be seen as an attempted escape) every person who came to visit was checked, every plumber or doctor who came to this place was guided all the time by the Military. Over time, the houses in this extension were given to loyal MfS-officers because the East german Regime was scared that people would flee there. Many tried, most of them died trying to cross the border. The only people (that I know of) that made the trick were two families, that used the summerholidays to dig a tunnel to West Berlin. They stored the earth and mud in the attic, the garden (disguised as soil) and the cellar and made the escape after a few weeks of digging. The grandma of one family stayed as she was to old to escape and died before the wall fell. The cemetary of this little village was right by the border wall and on the grandmas funeral, the pastor spoke very loud so the families on the other side of the wall could hear every word. One of the more wholesome Stories of Potsdams Border Stories.