The Cruel Border

The Cruel Border. The Berlin Wall Memorial. , Sometimes East German border guards themselves took advantage of lapses of attention to escape the watch of their colleagues, as Conrad Schumann did by leaping over the barbed wire and fleeing to the West. Most often, however, people attempting escape were caught, arrested, and incarcerated. , After the wall was reinforced and the "death Strip" widened, those despairing of their freedom resorted to cunning to escape. The fortifications became so sophisticated that almost the only way to get from one side to the other was to do it legally. From 1963 until 1989, 34,000 political prisoners were "bought free" by the West German government for a price of $2.5 billion, all of it paid through the German Protestant Church. , While the East Germans never ceased building on the wall, Westerners erected memorials to the dead. The menacing, gray wall provoked would-be and genuine artists to "beautify" it with words, graffiti or commentary. , Picture captions: , . Border guard Conrad Schumann leaped to freedom to join his family, which had fled East Berlin previously. This award-winning photo appeared on front pages of newspapers around the world. , This child wanted to cross the border but the guard's orders were to let nobody pass. Nevertheless, he opened the barbed wire. His superior saw him acting contrary to the command and dispatched him. , On Bemauerstrasse, the apartments were in East Berlin, while the sidewalks were in West Berlin. When residents were found calling out and jumping from the windows, all openings were bricked up.