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The better-known Berlin Wall was a physically separate, less elaborate, and much shorter border barrier surrounding West Berlin, more than 170 kilometres (110 mi) to the east of the inner German border. On 9 November 1989, the East German government announced the opening of the Berlin Wall and the inner German border.
In August 1967, East Germany erected 2,622 distinctive border markers or "barber's poles" (Grenzsäule or Grenzpfähle), each located about 500 feet (150 m) apart. They were made of concrete and painted with the black, red and gold colours of the German flag. Some can still be seen in situ today.
The actual border at this point was the Kreuzberg bank of the Spree. The gallery is, for the most part, located on the western wall, which closed off the border area to East Berlin. This wall, facing inwards towards West Berlin, was much thicker and more fortified than its outward-facing counterpart. However, a small portion of the so-called ...
After the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, border stations between East Berlin (regarded as East Germany's capital by the German Democratic Republic but unrecognized by the Western Allies) and the sectors controlled by those three Western Allies were created. Although there were few crossings at first, more sites were built over the ...
These East Germans flooded the West German embassy and refused to return to East Germany. [126] East German border guard at Berlin Wall, July 1988. The East German government responded by disallowing any further travel to Hungary but allowed those already there to return to East Germany. [127] This triggered similar events in neighboring ...
The German-German Museum Mödlareuth preserves the longest stretch of border wall still present on the former border, 700 metres (2,300 ft) long) and 3.3 metres (11 ft) long), along with two observation towers, border columns and warning signs, floodlights and other relics of the division of the village. The preserved border installations lie ...
The Inner German Border was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of Germany. On the eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps and minefields.
Along with the wall, the 830-mile (1336 km) zonal border became 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide on its East German side in some parts of Germany with a tall steel-mesh fence running along a "death strip" bordered by mines, as well as channels of ploughed earth, to slow escapees and more easily reveal their footprints.