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FREE THE : THE INNER-GERMAN 1961-89 PDF

Gordon Rottman,Chris Taylor | 64 pages | 19 Feb 2008 | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | 9781846031939 | English | Oxford, England, United Kingdom - Wikipedia

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Rottman. Chris Taylor Illustrator. From August 13,over 96 miles of crude fences and more sophisticated walls were erected around . Border defenses ran miles from the Baltic to the Czechoslovakian border, cutting villages in two, running through buildings, and interse The Berlin Wall and the Inner-German Border IGB were built to The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 the flow of refugees from East to the West. Border defenses ran miles from the Baltic to the Czechoslovakian border, cutting villages in two, running through buildings, and intersecting roads and railways. Gordon L Rottman, who became familiar with both sides of the border while posted to Germany, examines the international situations that led to the creation of the Berlin Wall, discussing how the barrier systems functioned and their significance in the . Covering the erection of the barriers, how they evolved, defensive devices and the role of the checkpoints, this book also describes how ordinary people attempted to overcome these physical and political obstacles in their quest for freedom. After 2 years of training we were assigned as the V Corps LRRP company: our mission in the event The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 a Soviet invasion of was to insert our 21 five-man reconnaissance teams inside , establish "hides" overlooking and other highways, and The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 the The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 of the second operational echelon, the follow-on forces behind the initial assault forces. This required us to know a great deal about what it was like inside East Germany. We began an intense study of the IGB, and in the process I was able to visit the border, learn its ways, and find out how to penetrate it. Get A Copy. Paperback64 pages. More Details Original Title. Osprey Fortress Other Editions 8. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jun 20, Sandra Stiles rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction. I read this book for background information for my book. I got more than I bargained for. It not only gave me vital information on the different generations of the wall but also the life of the soldiers who in the East. Very informational and well worth the read. Fandi Satria rated it it was amazing Jan 12, Jason rated it really liked it Apr 28, James Dalziel rated it really liked it Mar 21, Justiny Tsty rated it did not like it Feb 07, Pellucido rated it liked it Nov 02, Pablo rated it really liked The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 Dec 01, Cory rated it it was amazing Apr 01, Roberto Cancian rated it liked it Aug 03, Elis rated it liked it Mar 03, Kevin Born rated it it was amazing Mar 25, Timo rated it liked it Apr 27, Asma rated it really liked it Nov 23, Lavinia rated it liked it May 07, Soviet84 rated it it was amazing Oct 28, Norbert rated it really liked it Sep 29, Martin Sidgreaves rated it really liked it Feb 14, Valerie rated it liked it Jul 19, Mari-Liis Mererand rated it it was ok May 04, Reza rated it really liked it Nov 04, Sigrid Sepp rated it liked it Mar 24, William Paley rated it liked it Jul 17, Henry Sennikov rated it really liked it Aug 30, Joonas rated it liked it Jul 16, Shane rated it liked it Aug 31, Michael Jolly rated it really liked it Aug 21, Gabriel Rindborg rated it liked it Jan 31, Andreas rated it it was amazing Sep 07, Thomas M Brizendine rated it really liked it Nov 09, Shrike58 rated it liked it Jan 27, There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Readers also enjoyed. About Gordon L. Gordon L. Gordon began writing military history books in and is currently a full-time author. He has written 50 books for Osprey. He is married with four children and lives in Cypress, Texas. Other books in the series. Osprey Fortress 1 - 10 of books. Books by Gordon L. Related Articles. Read more Trivia About The Berlin Wall a No trivia or quizzes yet. Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. The Berlin Wall and the Intra-German Border by Gordon L. Rottman

The portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" from building a socialist in East Germany. The West Berlin city sometimes referred to it as the " ", a term coined by mayor in reference to the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement. Before the Wall's erection, 3. Between andthe Wall prevented almost all such emigration. Ina series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries —in Poland and The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 in particular—caused a chain reaction in East Germany that The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 resulted in the demise of the Wall. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall. The demolition of the Wall officially began on 13 June and was completed in November The "" paved the way for German reunificationwhich formally took place on 3 October The capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Councilwas similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the city's location, which was fully within the Soviet zone. Within two years, political divisions increased between the Soviets and the other occupying powers. These included the Soviets' refusal to agree to reconstruction plans making post-war Germany self-sufficient, and to a detailed accounting of industrial plants, goods and infrastructure—some of which had already been removed by the Soviets. Since the end of the War, the Soviets together with like-minded East Germans created a new Soviet-style regime in the Soviet Zone and later the GDR, on a centrally planned socialist economic model with nationalized means of production, and with repressive state institutions, under party of the SED similar to the party dictatorship of the Soviet Communist Party in the USSR. At the same time, a parallel The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 was established under the strict control of the Western powers in the zones of post-war Germany occupied by them, culminating in the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany in[13] which initially claimed to be the sole legitimate power in all of Germany, East and West. The material standard of life in the Western zones of Berlin began to improve quickly, and residents of the Soviet Zone soon began leaving for the West in large numbers, fleeing hunger, poverty and repression in the Soviet Zone for a better life in the West. Soon residents of other parts of the Soviet Zone began to escape to the West through Berlin, and this migration, called in Germany "", deprived the Soviet Zone not only of working forces desperately needed for post-war reconstruction, but disproportionately highly educated people, which came to be known as the "Brain Drain". Inin response to moves by the Western powers to establish a separate, federal system of government in the Western zones, and to extend the to Germany, the Soviets instituted the Berlin Blockadepreventing people, food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin by land routes through the Soviet zone. Communists attempted to disrupt the elections ofpreceding large losses therein, [16] whileBerliners demonstrated for the international airlift to continue. However, untilthe Soviets maintained considerable legal control over the GDR state, including the regional , through the Sowetische Kontrollkommission and maintained a presence in various East German administrative, military, and structures. East Germany differed from West Germany Federal Republic of Germanywhich developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy and a democratic parliamentary government. Continual economic growth starting in the s fueled a year " economic miracle " "Wirtschaftswunder". As West Germany's economy grew, and its standard of living steadily improved, many East Germans wanted to move to West Germany. After the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, the majority of those living in the newly acquired areas of the Eastern Bloc aspired to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave. By the early s, the Soviet approach to controlling national movement, restricting emigration, was emulated by most of the rest The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 the Eastern Blocincluding East Germany. Up untilthe demarcation lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones could be easily crossed in most places. Stalin agreed, calling the situation "intolerable". He advised the East Germans to build up their border defenses, telling them that "The demarcation line between East and West Germany should be considered a border—and not just any border, but a dangerous one The Germans will guard the line of defence with their lives. Consequently, the inner German border between the two German states was closed, and a barbed-wire fence erected. The border between the Western and Eastern sectors of Berlin, however, remained open, although traffic between the Soviet and the Western sectors was somewhat restricted. Inthe Soviets gave East Germany authority over civilian movement in Berlin, passing control to a regime not recognized in the West. However, following the of large numbers of East Germans known as Republikflucht under this regime, the new East German state legally restricted virtually all travel to the West in With the closing of the inner German border officially in[35] the border in Berlin remained considerably more accessible because it was administered by all four occupying powers. An important reason that passage between East Germany and West Berlin was not stopped earlier was that doing so would cut off much of the railway traffic in East Germany. Construction of a new railway bypassing West Berlin, the Berlin outer ringcommenced in Following the completion of the railway inclosing the border became a more practical proposition. See History of rail transport in Germany. The emigrants tended to be young and well-educated, leading to the "brain drain" feared by officials in East Germany. The loss was disproportionately heavy among professionals: engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers and skilled workers. The exodus of emigrants from East Germany presented two minor potential benefits: an easy opportunity to smuggle East German secret agents to West Germany, and a reduction in the number of citizens hostile to the communist regime. Neither of these advantages, however, proved particularly useful. It was the first The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 the colloquial term Mauer wall had been used in this context. The transcript of a telephone call between Nikita Khrushchev and Ulbricht, on 1 August in the same year, suggests that the initiative for the construction of the Wall came from Khrushchev. Nevertheless, Ulbricht had pushed for a border closure for quite some time, arguing that East Germany's very existence was at stake. Khrushchev had become emboldened upon seeing US president John F. Kennedy 's youth and inexperience, which he considered a weakness. In the Vienna summitKennedy made the error of admitting that the US wouldn't actively oppose the building of a barrier. There, Ulbricht signed the order to close the border and erect a wall. At midnight, the police and units of the East began to close the border and, by Sunday morning, 13 August, the border with The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 Berlin was closed. The barrier was built inside or East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point. Later, the initial barrier was built up into the Wall proper, the first concrete elements and large blocks being put in place on 17 August. Additionally, chain fences, walls, minefields and other obstacles were installed along the length of East Germany's western border with West Germany proper. A huge no man's land was cleared to provide a clear line of fire at fleeing refugees. With the closing of the east—west sector The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 in Berlin, the vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or emigrate to West Germany. Berlin soon went from being the easiest place to make an unauthorized crossing between East and West Germany to being the most difficult. West Berlin became an isolated exclave in a hostile land. Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees, The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 the main candidate for its location was around the perimeter of the city. I see no reason why the should think it is—it is to their advantage in any way to leave there that monument to communist failure. and UK sources had expected the Soviet sector to be sealed off from West Berlin, but were surprised by how long the East Germans took for such a move. Thus, they concluded that the possibility of a Soviet military conflict The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 Berlin had decreased. The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "anti-fascist protective rampart" German : "antifaschistischer Schutzwall" intended to dissuade aggression from the West. East The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 and others greeted such statements with skepticism, as most of the time, the border was only closed for citizens of East Germany traveling to the West, but not for residents of West Berlin travelling to the East. Most people believed that the Wall was mainly a means of preventing the citizens of East Germany from entering or fleeing to West Berlin. The National Security Agency was the only American intelligence agency that was aware that East Germany was to take action to deal with The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 brain drain problem. The interagency intelligence Berlin Watch Committee assessed that this intercept "might be the first step in a plan to close the border. Kennedy until noon on 13 Augustwhile he was vacationing in his The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 off the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. While Kennedy was angry that he had no advance warning, he was relieved that the East Germans and the Soviets The Berlin Wall: The Inner- German Border 1961-89 only divided Berlin without taking any action against West Berlin's access to the West. However, he denounced the Berlin Wall, whose erection worsened the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In response to the erection of the Berlin Wall, a retired general, Lucius D. Claywas appointed by Kennedy as his special advisor and sent to Berlin with ambassadorial rank. He was immensely popular with the residents of West Berlin, and his appointment was an unambiguous sign that Kennedy would not compromise on the status of West Berlin. Clay and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived at Tempelhof Airport on the afternoon of Saturday, 19 August On 16 August, Kennedy had given the order for them to be reinforced. Johns Jr. On Sunday morning, U. Lead elements—arranged in a column of vehicles and trailers carrying 1, men, divided into five march units—left the -Marienborn checkpoint at East German police watched from beside trees next to the all the way along. The front of the convoy arrived at the outskirts of Berlin just before noon, to be met by Clay and Johnson, before parading through the streets of Berlin in front of a large crowd. Hartel and his brigade of 4, officers and men. The creation of the Wall had important implications for both German states. By stemming the exodus of people from East Germany, the East German government was able to reassert its control over the country: in spite of discontent with the Wall, economic problems caused by dual currency and the black market were largely eliminated. The economy in the GDR began to grow. However, the Wall proved a public relations disaster for the communist bloc as a whole. Western powers portrayed it as a symbol of communist tyranny, particularly after East German border guards shot and killed would-be defectors. Such fatalities were later treated as acts of murder by the reunified Germany. The houses contained between the wall and fences were razed and the inhabitants relocated, thus establishing what later became known as the death strip. The death strip was covered with raked sand or gravel, rendering footprints easy to notice, easing the detection of trespassers and also enabling officers to see which guards had neglected their task; [66] it offered no cover; and, most importantly, it offered clear fields of fire for the Wall guards. Through the years, the Berlin Wall evolved through four versions: [67]. Begun in [68] and completed about[69] it was constructed from 45, separate sections of reinforced concrete, each 3. The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe, intended to make it more difficult to scale. The Wall was reinforced by mesh fencingsignal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wiredogs on long lines, " beds of nails " also known as "Stalin's Carpet" under The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 hanging over the "death strip", over watchtowers[72] and 20 bunkers with hundreds of guards. This version of the Wall is the one The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 commonly seen in photographs, and surviving fragments of the Wall in Berlin and elsewhere around the world are generally pieces of the fourth-generation Wall. The layout came to resemble the inner German border in most technical aspects, except that the Berlin Wall had The Berlin Wall: The Inner- German Border 1961-89 landmines nor spring-guns. As was the case with the inner German border, an unfortified strip of Eastern territory was left outside the wall. Also in contrast with the inner German border, little interest was shown by East German law enforcement in keeping outsiders off the outer strip; sidewalks of West Berlin streets even ran inside it. Despite the East German government's general policy of benign neglect, vandals were known to have been pursued in the outer strip, and even arrested. Indefector and political activist Wolfram Hasch and four other defectors were standing inside the outer strip defacing the wall when East German personnel emerged from one of the hidden doors to apprehend them. All The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 Hasch escaped back into the western sector. Berlin Wall - Wikipedia

On the eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and wallsbarbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps, and minefields. Built by East Germany in phases from to the late s, [2] the fortifications were constructed to stop the large-scale emigration of East German citizens to the West, about 1, of whom are said to have died trying to cross it during its year existence. Berlin, which was entirely within the Soviet zone, had been similarly divided by the four powers after World War IIthus creating an exclave surrounded by East Germany that was closely aligned with but not formally part of West Germany. Over the following days, millions of East Germans poured into the West to visit. Hundreds of thousands moved permanently to the West in the following months as more crossings were opened, and ties between long-divided communities were re-established as border controls became little more than a cursory formality. Little remains of the inner German border's fortifications. Its route has been declared part of the linking national parks and nature reserves along the course of the old from the Arctic Circle to the . Several museums and memorials along the old border commemorate the division and reunification of Germany and, in some places, preserve elements of the fortifications. France was later given a zone in the southwest of Germany, neighbouring with France, carved out of the British and American zones. Because of their unexpectedly rapid advances through central Germany in the final weeks of the war, British and American troops occupied large areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone of occupation. The redeployment of Western The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 prompted many Germans to flee to the West to escape the Soviet takeover of the remainder of the Soviet zone. In Maythe three western occupation zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany FRG with a freely elected government. An East German who escaped or was released The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 the West was automatically granted West German rights including residence, the right to work, and later EEC freedom of movement ; West German laws were deemed to be applicable in the East. East Germans thus had a powerful incentive to move to the West, where they would enjoy greater freedom and economic prospects. In the early days of the occupation, the Allies controlled traffic between the zones to manage the flow of The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 and prevent the escape of former Nazi officials and intelligence officers. The east—west interzonal border became steadily more tense as the relationship between the Western Allies and the Soviets deteriorated. The number of Soviet soldiers on the boundary was increased and supplemented with border guards from the newly established East German "People's Police". Many unofficial crossing points were blocked with ditches and barricades. The boundary line was nonetheless still fairly easy to cross. Local inhabitants were able to maintain fields on the other side, or even to live on The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 side and work on the other. Refugees were able to sneak across or bribe the guards, and the smuggling of goods in both directions was rife. Trees and brush were cut down along the border to clear lines of sight for the guards and to eliminate cover for would-be crossers. Houses adjoining the border were torn down, bridges were closed, and barbed-wire fencing was put up in many places. Farmers were permitted to work their fields along the border only The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 daylight hours and under the watch of armed guards, who were authorised to use weapons if their orders were not obeyed. Border communities on both sides suffered acute disruption. Farms, coal mines, and even houses were split in two by the sudden closure of the border. The border between East and West Berlin was also significantly tightened, although not fully closed; East Germans were still able to cross into West Berlin, which then became the The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 route by which East Germans migrated to the West. Following the completion of the Berlin The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 ring insealing off the East German border with West Berlin became more feasible, and ultimately became a reality in August of that year. East Germany decided to upgrade the fortifications in the late s to establish a "modern frontier" that would be far more difficult to cross. Barbed-wire fences were replaced with harder-to-climb expanded metal barriers; directional anti-personnel mines and anti-vehicle ditches blocked the movement of people and vehicles; tripwires and electric signals helped guards to detect escapees; all-weather patrol roads enabled rapid access to any point along the border; and wooden guard towers were replaced with prefabricated concrete towers and observation bunkers. Construction of the new border system started in September It led to a series of treaties and agreements in the early s, most significantly a treaty in which East and West Germany recognised each other's sovereignty and supported each other's applications for UN membership, although East Germans leaving for the West retained the right to claim a West German passport. Inthe East German leadership considered proposals to replace the expensive and intrusive fortifications with a high-technology system codenamed Grenze Drawing on technology used by the during the Soviet—Afghan Warit would have replaced the fences with sensors and detectors. However, the plan was never implemented. The closure of the border had a substantial economic and social impact on both halves of Germany. The tightest level of closure came inby which time only six railway lines, three autobahns, one regional road and two waterways were left open. When relations between the two states eased in the s, the GDR agreed to open more crossing points in exchange for economic assistance. Telephone and mail communications operated throughout the Cold War, although packages and letters were routinely opened The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 telephone calls were monitored by the East German secret police. The economic impact of the border was harsh. Many towns and villages were severed from their markets and economic hinterlands, which caused areas close to the border to go into an economic and demographic decline. The two German states responded to the problem in different ways. West Germany gave substantial subsidies to communities under the "Aid to border regions" programme, an initiative begun in to save them from total decline. Infrastructure and businesses along the border benefited from substantial state investment. East Germany's communities had a much harder time, because the country was poorer and their government imposed severe restrictions on them. The border region was progressively depopulated through the clearance of numerous villages and the forced relocation of their inhabitants. Border towns suffered draconian building restrictions: inhabitants were forbidden from building new houses and even repairing existing buildings, causing infrastructure to fall into severe decay. The GDR bore a huge economic cost for its creation of the border zone and the building and maintenance of its fortifications. The actual cost of the border system was a closely guarded secret, and even today it is uncertain exactly how much it cost to build and maintain. The implementation of the "modern frontier" in the s led to a major increase in personnel costs. In earlyEast German economists calculated that each arrest cost the equivalent of 2. Although an exact number of visitors to the Berlin Wall cannot be given, as there were no official records at the time, estimates are provided through the The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 of tourists by Western and Eastern border guards. The numbers obtained from the border guards suggest that Berlin Wall tourism was a popular outing The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 German people and foreigners alike, it is reported that the Berlin Wall received approximately 1. The two German governments promoted very different views of the border. Border troops interviewed in the film described what they saw as the rightfulness of their cause and the threat of Western agents, spies and provocateurs. Their colleagues killed on the border were hailed as heroes and schoolchildren in East Berlin were depicted saluting their memorial. However, West German propaganda leaflets referred to the border as merely "the demarcation line of the ", and emphasised the cruelty and injustice of the division of Germany. Whereas East Germany kept its civilians well away from the border, West Germany actively encouraged tourism, and locations where the border was especially intrusive became tourist attractions. The reported in that "Western The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 by the busload come out to have their pictures taken against the backdrop of the latest Communist walled city [and] the concrete blockhouse and the bunker-slits protruding from the green hillock where a collective's cows were grazing. A viewing point, the "Window on Kella", was established on a nearby hilltop from which tourists could peer across the border with binoculars and telescopes. Visitors often sought to have a nude photograph taken below a looming East German watchtower; the West Germans noted "a lot more movement on that watchtower since the nudist beach opened". The fortifications were established in and reached a peak of complexity and lethality at the start of the s. A person attempting to make an illegal crossing of the inner German border aroundtravelling from east to west, would first The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 to the "restricted zone" Sperrzone. This was a 5 kilometres 3. Its inhabitants could only enter and leave using special permits, were not permitted to enter other villages within the zone, and were subjected to night time curfews. The fence was lined with low-voltage electrified strands of . When the wire was touched or cut, an alarm was activated to alert nearby guards. Nearly such watchtowers had been built by ; [59] each of the larger ones was equipped with a powerful 1,watt rotating searchlight Suchscheinwerfer and firing ports to enable the guards to open fire without having to go outside. Around 1, two-man observation bunkers also stood along the length of the border. The top-heavy tower was unstable and vulnerable to collapsing. An observation bunker, known as an Erdbunkerpreserved at Observation Post Alphawhich accommodated one or two guards. A metal observation tower manned by three GDR guards. Some watchtowers were semi-portable and could be moved to new sectors when needed. Guard dogs were used to provide an additional deterrent to escapees. The dogs were occasionally turned loose in temporary pens adjoining gates or damaged sections of the fence. The guards used an all-weather patrol road Kolonnenwegliterally "column way" to patrol the border and travel rapidly to the scene of an attempted crossing. Next to the Kolonnenweg was one of the control strips Kontrollstreifena line of bare earth running parallel to the fences along almost the entire length of the border. There were two control strips, both located on the inward-facing sides of the fences. The secondary "K2" strip, 2 metres 6. Anyone attempting to cross the control strips would leave footprints, which were quickly detected by patrols. This enabled the guards to identify otherwise undetected escape attempts, recording how many individuals had crossed, where escape attempts were being made and at which times of day escapees were active. From this information, the guards were able to determine where and when patrols needed to be increased, where improved surveillance from The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 and bunkers was required, and which areas needed additional fortifications. Anti-vehicle barriers were installed on the other side of the primary control strip. In some locations, Czech hedgehog barricades, known in German as Panzersperre or Stahligel "steel hedgehogs"were used to prevent vehicles being used to cross the border. The outer fences were constructed in a number of phases, starting with the initial fortification of the border from May The first-generation fence was a crudely constructed single barbed-wire fence Stacheldrahtzaun which stood between 1. Reconstruction of the "first-generation" fence as erected inwith control strip in the foreground. The "second-generation" fences inwith derelict barbed wire in the foreground, a control strip, two rows of barbed wire further back and a watchtower at the rear. A border marker pole stands in front of a third-generation fence, which was The Berlin Wall: The Inner-German Border 1961-89 from several overlapping horizontal tiers of expanded steel-mesh fencing. A stretch of the wall still stands as a memorial to the division of Germany. A "third- generation" fence, much more solidly constructed, was installed in an ongoing programme of improvements from the late s to the s. The fence line was moved back to create an outer strip between the fence and the actual border. The barbed-wire fences were replaced with a barrier that was usually 3. It was constructed with expanded metal mesh Metallgitterzaun panels. The openings in the mesh were generally too small to provide finger-holds and were very sharp. The panels could not easily be pulled down, as they overlapped, and they could not be cut through with a bolt- or wire-cutter. Nor could they be tunnelled under easily, as the bottom segment of the fences was partially buried in the ground. In a number of places, more lightly constructed fences Lichtsperren consisting of mesh and barbed wire lined the border. Gates were installed to enable guards to patrol up to the line and to give engineers access for maintenance on the outward-facing side of the barrier.