Length of borders and barriers separating Germany and Berlin in the Cold War

Following the Second World War, both Germany and Berlin were split into four separate zones, each administered by either France, the Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and the United States. As international relations frayed between the western powers and the Soviet Union, the Cold War began and Eastern Europe fell behind the 'iron curtain' of Soviet Russia. Because of these tensions, a border was established between the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany), and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). As Berlin was located entirely within East Germany, but was not under full Soviet control, this caused a problem for the government, as West Berlin was one of the most common routes taken by the millions of East Germans who migrated to the west in search of better economic opportunities. As many as four million East Germans migrated to the west between 1949 and 1961.

Extreme measures

In order to stop the mass exodus of skilled workers from the country, the East German government reinforced it's western border, and invested heavily in the Berlin border. On August 12, the Communist Party leader, Walter Ulbricht, signed the order to create a barricade around West Germany, separating it from the rest of East Germany, and work began that night on the erection of a barbed wire fence around that part of the city. Within days a manned border was established between West Berlin and the rest of the GDR, and tensions rose in the city (the US even sent 1,500 troops to the Berlin border).

Dividing cities and separating families

As time progressed, tensions between the east and west de-escalated, however border controls intensified. The initial barbed wire fence was replaced with 106 kilometers of concrete wall that was 3.5 meters high. There was also roughly 130km of contact and signal fencing, which was a wire fence that set off alarms when touched or cut. Along most of the Berlin Wall there was over 100km of anti-vehicle trenches, that were reinforced with 'Czech hedgehogs' (heavy, X-shaped, anti-tank obstacles used during the Second World War). These fortifications did not just divide the city, but divided neighborhoods also, by cutting across 37km of residential areas. This factor contributed to the death of Ida Siekmann, a 58 year old nurse, who tried to reunite with her sister's family (just two streets away) by jumping from the fourth floor of her apartment onto a sheet stretched out between firemen. Unfortunately, Siekmann did not land properly and then died from her injuries on the way to the hospital, making her the first fatality of the Berlin Wall.