I was on a dredge in the Werra river in the summer or 1955 with another soldier to buy gravel for repair of our road in Altefeld. The river was the border between East and West Germany. The barge people invited us along because they did not have any gravel on shore. I did not think anything of it when we got into the dredge, but when the barge was partly full, the other soldier nudged me and pointed to the bank above us. There stood a Russian or East German border guard with an automatic weapon pointer our way. I was scared to say the least. But we could not do anything but be cool. When we landed we headed for the 2 1/2 ton truck and got away from there fast and never went back.
Up on the hill there was an old tower that we had been told that they used as a watch tower. We were also told that Martin Luther had used the tower for I do not know what.
I have done some analysis and have found out about the tower. It was the only part of an old castle complex by the name of Brandenburg. The main part of the complex was on the other side of the hill.
Here are links to pages describing the Brendenburg Castle complex.
www.de.wikipedia/wiki/Ruine_Branderburg