How was the Berlin Wall Built?
The wall was constructed almost overnight with a well planned approach. The Soviet workforce tore up the streets of Berlin placing large paving stones as barricades. Tanks were massed at crucial transport points such as subways and train stations to prevent anyone crossing from the east to the west or vise visa. Within a day the west of Berlin was completely cut off from the east of the city. Eastern Germans were no longer allowed to enter the West of the city including approximately 60,000 who worked in the west but lived in the east. Families were separated and many could not return home as their house was now on the wrong side of the city. The first wall was nothing more than a guarded barbed wire fence, but this was discovered to be too easy to breach. Construction begun in 1965 on a concrete wall with guard towers, anti-vehicle pits, beds of nails and other defenses. The area between the two fences became known as the death strip as many who tried to escape died in that space betw
