In 1983, as preparations were underway to install even more nuclear weapons in the Federal Republic of Germany, Günther Anders wrote: ‘Reality has to begin. This means that the blockade of the entrances to the murder installations, which continue to exist, must also be continuous. […] This idea is not new. It reminds me of an action – or rather a non-action – more than forty years ago, when the Allies learned the truth about the extermination camps in Poland. The proposal was immediately made to block access to the camps, which meant bombing the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz, Majdanek, etc. extensively in order to sabotage, through this blockade, the delivery of new victims – that is, the possibility of further murder.’

Nuclear weapons stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany arrive by ship in Bremerhaven where they are put on trains, whose departure time and destination are kept secret. About a week before departure, army aircraft fly the entire length of the route and photograph it. This status report is repeated half an hour before the train is to pass, and the most recent set of images is compared with the first set. Through their juxtaposition one can discern whether any significant changes have occurred in the interim. If, for example, a construction vehicle has recently been parked along the tracks, the police will drive to or fly over the spot to investigate whether it is providing camouflage for saboteurs. Whether such sabotage has been attempted is not made public.

Reconnaissance of enemy territory by means of photographs taken from airplanes was already in use duringWorldWar I. And even before there were airplanes, balloons and rockets carrying cameras aloft and even carrier pigeons were outfitted with small cameras. In World War II, it was the English who were the first to begin equipping their bombers with photographic apparatus. Since they had to fly through enemy flak (anti-aircraft artillery fire) and enemy fighters, the bomber pilots always tried to drop their bomb load as quickly as possible (often a third of the planes were lost on flights from England to Germany). In their fear, the pilots believed all too readily that they had delivered their bombs on target.