With the inner German border fortified in 1952,
the last accessible East to West Germany border crossing is via Berlin.
So throughout the 1950s for a mix of political, economic, and personal reasons,
a sixth of the East German population leave dictatorial East Germany
for democratic West Germany via the capital.
This creates a brain drain and embarrassment for the communist East German regime.
East Berlin. West Berlin. All around it is East Germany.
One night, the Soviets, they decided that they would build a wall around West Berlin.
Basically so that no one from East Germany could get into West Berlin.
On the 13th of August, 1961, West Berliners awake to find barbed wire surrounding their half of the city.
Walls were built within a few days.
East Germany state that they have built the wall to protect their people
from fascist elements entering their socialist society.
It's crazy to think that
the state just decided to build a wall
right down people's communities.
Separating families and friends
at no fault of their own.
And it happened right... literally right here. That was the wall.
So if your mates happened to be on just that side... well that was it.
It took another 29 years for the wall to come down.
And by that time... Imagine you had a best friend 10 years old.
29 years later. 39 years old.
Both middle-aged. You'd have families, children of your own, who are 10 years old.
It's nuts, isn't it?
The wall evolves from a short wall with barbed wire
to a tall wall with piping that makes it difficult to climb,
to, ultimately, an area called the 'death strip',
which includes a secondary inner wall,
the signal fence,
watchtowers,
surface obstacles such as tripwire and spikes,
dogs,
and soldiers with orders to shoot to prevent escape.
Piece of the Berlin Wall
It's pretty high.
It wasn't like I could chuck stuff over. There was, like, space.
No-man's land space.
So you had this one wall, space, and then another wall.
So here I am... in the space... known as the death strip.
The inner wall of the Berlin Wall, cause one wall wasn't enough.
Around 5000 people successfully defect to West Berlin,
including East German soldier Conrad Schumann
who famously took his leap to freedom just three days into the wall's construction.
Successful escapes have involved fake passports, swimming, hot-air balloons,
light aircrafts, zip lines, modified cars
tanks, trains, and most successfully tunnels.
There are 139 official deaths at the wall,
most infamously 18-year-old Peter Fechter,
who was shot and controversially left to bleed
without medical attention, as he screamed for 50 minutes.
It's really cool how they've mixed modern, as you can see through these houses here,
but incorporated its history.
They haven't just built over it.
It's very much part of this neighbourhood.
Gartenstrasse.
The picture. '89 to '90. What it looked like.
What it did to the people.
I'm just scratching the surface. It's the most physical manifestation of segregation.
We're going to build a wall.
