The Berlin Wall: 20 Years Later

The Berlin Wall—symbol of a divided city within a divided nation within a divided continent—was grounded in decades-old historical divisions at the end of World War II. In August 1961, the German Democratic Republic began to construct the Berlin Wall. At first it was barbed wire, but soon it expanded into a 5 meter high 165 kilometer long network of concrete walls topped with barbed wire, and guarded with gun emplacements, watchtowers, and mines. This book recounts how and why that wall crumbled.