This historic home-built aircraft had only arrived in Mödlareuth, on permanant loan from the Oberschleißheim museum, a couple of days earlier. It had been constructed in secret by the engineer Dr. Gerhard Wagner so that he and his family could attempt to fly/flee from Nonnewitz across the inner-German border towards Hof. However, the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) had him under surveillance and the Wagner family was arrested in Dresden in July 1981 and imprisoned. The Stasi stored the plane in the evidence chamber of the Stasi HQ in East Berlin until re-unification in 1989.

After delivery this Alouette II was 7759 with the Heeresflieger (German Army Aviation Corps) from 1970 to 1981, but then registered D-HBJI with the Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guard) and flew patrols along the former border between West and East Germany. In 2003 the helicopter was decommissioned and is now on display. The German village of Mödlareuth today straddles the border between Thuringia and Bavaria. It is (in)famous because it was bisected completely by the East and West German border. A section of the wall is preserved through the village and forms the centrepiece of this museum