THE BERLIN WALL

EAST BERLIN, EAST GERMANY, 1961-1989

For 15 years, officials in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) had watched with growing anger as more than two million people fled for a better life in West Germany. Worried about the ongoing brain drain of the mainly young and educated defectors who were fleeing over the border between East and West Berlin, the Soviet Union – which had administered and occupied the GDR since its formation in 1949 – was asked to build a wall and it finally relented in 1961.

Residents in Berlin woke to find their city physically divided. Barbed wire ringed the border of West Berlin, effectively creating a city-based island within the GDR. Days later, the wire was ripped down and replaced with concrete. Families and friends were being torn apart and kept separated by the Wall but the governing Marxistleninist Socialist Unity Party of Germany set about fortifying it further.

Buildings bordering the Wall on the East side were torn down to create a strip that could afford guards uninterrupted views of anyone looking to escape. A second wall was later built providing even more of a barrier. The 155-kilometre (96 miles) strip of land it created around West Berlin became an area where fewer and fewer people would dare tread for fear of death. Dozens were fired upon for trying to escape and mistrust between East and West was at an all-time high.

The communist party played down the Wall, saying it had been built to prevent Western attack. But it could see the damage it was causing. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many of the fortifications were removed or at least hidden and there were attempts to present a friendlier image to tourists. Some obstructions were gone by the time the Wall fell in 1989. Yet the foreboding steps that had been taken to curtail freedom highlighted the communist government’s moral bankruptcy.

Shot on sight

Defectors attempted to get from East to West just two days after construction began, starting with East German border guard Hans Schumann, but as many as 136 were killed by border guards. The Stasi was found to have told guards they must “stop and liquidate” anyone trying to cross. “Do not hesitate to use your firearm even when the border is breached in the company of women and children,” an order in 1973 said.

Czech hedgehogs

Thousands of anti-tank obstacles called Czech hedgehogs, which were commonly used during World War II, were used to line sections of the Berlin Wall. They helped to protect entrance points of East Berlin from Western advances while also posing yet another perilous challenge for anyone heading the other way.

Lots of graffiti

As if to highlight the vastly different living conditions on both sides of the Wall, the concrete that faced West Berlin was covered from top to bottom with graffiti. It became a magnet for artists and a huge canvas, and yet the Wall on the side of East Berlin was bare. A lack of freedom meant GDR inhabitants simply couldn’t get close enough to whip their spray cans out.

Wall to the West

The Berlin Wall was made up of two concrete walls. The Western barrier, or Last Wall, ran along the agreed border between West and East Berlin, beginning life as a barbed wire fence before being replaced by a concrete wall 3.6 metres (11.8 feet) high. It ringed the entirety of West Berlin in order to cut it off from the German Democratic Republic.