Not only the borders of West Berlin were subject to changes in the
period 1945 - 1989, but also the East-West German border. I didn't
know anything about it, but I recently (after a burst of interest
following a visit to this former boundary) found some interesting
information on this subject:

1. The Thuringian exclave Ostheim von der Rhön (with the towns
Ostheim von der Rhön, Sondheim von der Rhön, Urspringen, and Stetten)
became Bavarian territory. According to a book I have, this was not
really the result of a territorial exchange between US and Soviet
zones: Shortly after the German capitulation, the US army controlled
a fair part of what was to become East Germany. On June 15, 1945, the
US military administrations in Meiningen (Thuringia) and in Bad
Neustadt an der Saale (Bavaria) agreed upon the handover of the
exclave. A handover from one military district to another, that is.
On July 1, 1945, the interzonal boundary is shifted to the newer
position, and Thuringia is from then on in the Soviet zone. The
exclave doesn't come with it, on the contrary: on August 6, 1945,
Ostheim c.s. officially becomes a part of Bavaria.

2. The border adjustment following the Sexton-Askalepov agreement
(a.k.a. the Wanfried agreement) of September 17, 1945. The objective
was to bring an important railway (Eichenberg - Bebra) entirely under
western control. Incidentally, the line was known as the "Whisky-
Vodka line". Over a small stretch (near Neuseesen, from the middle of
the tunnel at Bebenroth to the middle of the bridge over the Werra at
Oberrieden) the line ran through the Soviet zone. The generals Sexton
and Askalepov agreed to a territorial exchange that handed Neuseesen
and Werleshausen to the Americans and Sickenberg, Asbach, Vatterode,
and Weidenbach/Hennigerode to the Soviets.
A nice site about this border adjustment is at www.army.mil/cmh-
pg/documents/BorderOps/ch3.htm , the chapter on border incidents
(nice maps, too), and (in German) at
http://www.hessennet.de/witzenhausen/werleshausen/geschich/wanfried.ht
m

3. There must have been big changes in the Soviet-British zonal
boundary as well, according to http://www.achim-
fricke.de/Die_Innerdeutsche_Grenze_und_d/LeseIdG/leseidg.html (part
of a book called Die Innerdeutsche Grenze und der Schienenverkehr,
The Inner-German Boundary and Rail Trafic). Here, the district of
Blankenburg is mentioned as to have been handed over to the Soviets,
without territorial compensation, and also a small part at Drei Annen
Hohne, in order to get the entire Brocken railway under Soviet
control. Does anyone have a map on this?

4. In the above-mentioned US army site, there is talk of small areas
that somehow landed up on the "wrong" side of the interzonal border.
In these areas, the de facto boundaries of the military zones didn't
coincide with the old Land boundaries, although it were those latter
boundaries that should form the interzonal boundary. The US decided
to accept the situation as it was then.

5. In 1972 a German-German boundary commission "updated" the entire
boundary, replacing lost boundary stones with new ones and making
other small adjustments. Does anyone have more information on this
episode?

6. I read somewhere (I can't remember where now) that after
the "Wende" Thuringia asked for some time for the return of the areas
lost during the military occupation. Does anyone have any more
infomation on that?

Peter S.