Remembering the Wall
The Berliner Mauer (August 1961 - November 1989)
Sixty-three years ago last week, the government of East Germany (formally the German Democratic Republic) began construction of the Berlin Wall - a hard border between the two sides of the city.
It starts with coils of barbed wire and fencing erected overnight between August 12 - 13, 1961, evolving into a permanent concrete wall, 12 feet high. Over time, the East German government would bulldoze a section of land - several meters wide-on its side of the border, relocating all residents and leaving a bare strip of dirt and gravel, and erected a parallel inner wall.
The final Berlin Wall was actually these two walls, with a “death strip” lined with ditches, mines and trip wires in between, guarded by armed soldiers in watchtowers.
It stood for a total of 28 years, separating the democratic exclave of West Berlin f…
