The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany or DDR) on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” from building a socialist state in East Germany. [ … ]

“Berlin Wall.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 December 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall.

Credits: data is credited to “© OpenStreetMap contributors”. The data is available under the Open Database License. | Graphics, adaptation and code are mine and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license (CC BY-SA 2.0).

[magiczoom id=”mauer”]

Copyright: Stasi Mediathek. Source: Luftbildaufnahme der Berliner Mauer an der Grenze zur Gropiusstadt in Berlin-Neukölln.

Resources:

• “Berlin Wall” on Wikipedia.
• Die Berliner Mauer is a website entirely dedicated to the Berlin Wall. It has an interactive map and many historical pictures.
• Berliner Mauer Fotos is another website entirely dedicated to the Berlin Wall. It has an interactive map and many historical pictures.
• For a huge media collection about East Germany visit: Stasi Mediathek