Berlin marks 50 years since Wall construction

Construction of the Berlin Wall began 50 years ago.

Aside from Checkpoint Charlie, only a series of concrete slabs and stones around Germany’s capital lay testament to the barrier which developed into a deadly border system.

One of the most asked questions from tourists in Berlin, is ‘Where is the wall?’

“You have this line that is showing the route of the Berlin Wall. But you can’t see anymore that there was this four metre wall running across the whole place,” said one tourist.

“If you want to see the wall and come here you get the feeling it does not exist anymore. It is like the wall itself wants to be extinct forever,” added another visitor.

It was just after midnight when East German troops began erecting what the state called an ‘anti-fascist protection barrier.’

From a barbed-wire fence, it became a border designed to stop anyone from crossing by threatening them with self-firing guns, dogs, trenches and electric wires. A recent study claims more than 1,000 people were killed trying to flee East Germany across all Cold War borders.

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