Construction of the Wall

Construction of the Wall. The Berlin Wall Memorial. , Early on August 13, 1961, the East German Army, with Soviet support, began constructing a barrier of barbed wire, cinder blocks and mortar between East and West Berlin. The barrier was intended to stop the exodus of citizens fleeing from oppression and dreary living conditions (197,000 left in 1960; 153,000 in the first six months of 1961.) Armored vehicles were deployed along the East-West sector border to prevent any popular protest. Communications were severed. Trains were stopped. Occupants living on the eastern side of buildings straddling the boundary were compelled too evacuate and the buildings were subsequently razed. , Later, concrete slabs were erected and capped by a wide cylindrical pipe to prevent an easy grip. Behind lay a strip of land approximately 50 meters wide studded with tank traps, barricades, barbed wire, detectors, watch towers and guard dogs on long leads. This part of the frontier became known as the "death strip" because East German guards used weapons to thwart escape attempts. , The border snaked its way through the city, respecting neither buildings nor long-established neighborhoods and even cutting through cemeteries. In 1985, a church was demolished because it obstructed the view of the East German border guards. Berliners were deeply troubled that 29 miles of barbed wire and cement block brutally divided their city. The barrier also encircled the city for an additional 70 miles, shutting West Berlin off from the East German countryside. Steel and concrete now ringed the hole in the Iron Curtain. , For the first time in history, both a country and a city were divided. To the West, the wall became a symbol of oppression. Historian Martin Walker wrote, "For those left behind in East Germany, their citizenship was now uncomfortably close to imprisonment." , Picture captions: , . With tank traps in the background, a wall segment is put into place. Rapid City's two wall segments and two tank traps came from the two-mile section between the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie. The four-foot wide sections, 13.5 feet tall and six inches thick, weigh about four tons each. The concrete is laced with one-inch steel reinforcement bars every four inches. , On the eastern side, a high wire fence with built-in alarm systems, floodlights, and tank traps to stop tanks or other vehicles closed the border strip. The border was patrolled day and night by military border guards. , In early 1985, Communist authorities dynamited the Church of Reconciliation in the middle of the border. Nearby, a number of plaques memorialized people killed while trying to escape. As the steeple feel, the Christian cross atop it crashed. Four years later, Christians with their crosses contributed to the crash of communism.