Berlin Wall Engineering: Grenzmauer 75, Asbestos Pipes and Bowie's Riot

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East Germany called it the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart, but the Berlin Wall's guns faced inward. West Berlin was a capitalist enclave about 100 miles inside East Germany, and Easterners could commute to Western jobs, swap Deutschmarks for East German marks at rates of one to four or five, and live cheaply on subsidized goods. By 1961 about 3.5 million people, some 20 percent of the population, had left, the working-age population had fallen to 61 percent, and the loss in manpower was estimated at 7 to 9 billion dollars. In June 1961 Walter Ulbricht declared that no one intended to build a wall, and on August 13, Barbed Wire Sunday, troops sealed the city overnight.

The barrier went through four generations, ending with Border Wall 75, and escapes moved from apartment windows to tunnels dug under the eyes of Stasi listening devices and to homemade hot air balloons. The wall stabilized the economy but became a lasting propaganda defeat. In June 1987 East Berliners gathered to hear a David Bowie concert across the wall and rioted when police moved in. In January 1989 Erich Honecker said the wall would stand 50 to 100 years, but on November 9 Günter Schabowski announced new travel rules as immediate, and at 10:45 p.m. Harald Jäger opened the Bornholmer Strasse crossing.

• Border Wall 75 used 45,000 reinforced concrete sections, each 3.6 meters high, along 140 kilometers.
• A smooth asbestos cement pipe on top left climbers nothing to grip.
• The death strip held raked sand, more than 110 watchtowers and maintenance doors needing two guards with separate keys.
• Weak points were built into the wall so Soviet tanks could break through westward in a war.
• Of over 100,000 escape attempts about 5,000 succeeded, and between 136 and more than 200 people were killed.