10 Mind-Blowing Misconceptions About The Berlin Wall

9. It Was Not Actually A Wall At All Until 1965...

€œHow did the East Germans construct an 87-mile (140km) wall practically overnight?€, I hear you cry. Did socialism really provide such an efficient method for constructing huge infrastructure projects? Well, no. In fact on that night in August 1961 when the Wall first sprung into existence, it was not a €œwall€ at all €“ but in fact a wire fence that stretched along the dividing line of West Berlin and East Berlin. The construction of the €œWall€ itself was actually a gradual process. First of all, in 1962 a second wire fence, parallel to the original, was built 100 metres further into East Berlin to create a the €œDeath Strip€ €“ a barren area, filled with sand, in order to prevent escape attempts. And, over the next three years, the wire fence was gradually fortified and improved. Interestingly, it was not until 1965 when the partition actually became a physical concrete wall. The GDR and Soviet hierarchy had been reluctant to make the border an actual wall for fear of provoking a response from the Western Powers, so it took them until 1965 to do so. Finally, in 1975, the Berlin Wall as we came to recognise it was finally established. The €œBorder Wall€ (or Grenzmauer 75), also referred to as the €œfourth-generation wall€, was then constructed between 1975 and 1980 €“ providing a 3.6m high and 1.2m wide concrete wall that was practically impenetrable. The Berlin Wall, as we now refer to it, was not in fact one physical structure €“ it was a fluid barrier that developed over time.