On the South side of the Niederkirchnerstrasse between the Wilhelmstrasse and the Stresemannstrasse South of Potzdamer Platz a section of the Berlin Wall is being kept as a sort of open air museum.
The construction of the Berlin Wall was begun on August 13th. 1961, and was "in use" until shortly before the German unification, more specifically 1989.
The wall enclosing West Berlin was 46 kilometers or 28.6 miles long. During its period of service, 239 people were killed trying to cross it.
The wall on display is the fourth and last version or development of the Berlin Wall, which replaced its predecessor in 1975. Each wall element weighs 2,75 tons and has a height of 3,6 meters and a width of 1,2 meters. There were 45.000 elements used in the construction of the wall.
The round section on top of the wall which is 40 centimeters wide was added to make it harder to use a grappling hook to fix a rope or simply to get a handhold, making it close to impossible to cross the wall without using some kind of ladder or machinery.
The Berlin Wall was not the only part of the separation between East and West Berlin. There was a veritable death zone on the Eastern side of the separation, with automatic shooting devices and trip wires, mine fields, 116 watchtowers and some 10.000 border guards on duty at all times.
The West side of the separation towards West Berlin was the wall. As there was hardly any control on the West side, the wall became a very popular place to make graffiti.
Today you find a double line of stones along the path where the Berlin Wall crossed through Berlin - here between the Reichstag and the Brandenburger Tor.
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