The East German Border Installations & Berlin Wall

This video will inform you about the details of the Inner German Border and the Berlin Wall.
The Iron Curtain wasn't just a simple fence. Lots of efforts were done to avoid the East Germans from escaping.
I will give you the details of the types of fences and walls in Berlin as well as between East and West Germany.
I'll go through the development of the border installations over time, starting in 1945 just after the 2nd World War.
The Berlin Wall installations were somewhat different from the Inner German ones. Why were there no mines and self firing systems in Berlin? This video will provide the answer that question.
Some books about the wall available in English:
- 'The Berlin Wall' by Frederick Taylor [amzn.to/3ToO8rT]
- 'The Berlin Wall 1961 - 1989' by Volker Viergutz [amzn.to/3YAAZg8]
- 'It happened at the wall' by Rainer Hildebrandt [amzn.to/3JxSs4F]
A beautiful big book with lots of pictures that gives you a good idea about daily life in the GDR:
- 'The East German Handbook' - Wende Museum [amzn.to/3ZIiDLs]
When using the links and ordering, I will receive a small commission. You don't have to use the links of course, but many thanks if you do!
Credits:
I owe thanks to the many sources that I used while creating this video.
A special thanks to Gotanero for using the mines warning photo (2'32") - This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

[@ZGryphon]

Part of me kind of darkly loves that the East German authorities were so disconnected from reality that they thought making the wall nicer-looking would positively affect its public image. Like people's main complaint was that they were looking at it and saying, "Ugh, it's so _shabby."_

[@bomcabedal]

In a way, they were not wrong though. Creating distance and less visibility between both sides of Berlin was pretty efficient in making West Berlin less present in the East and it did diminish the amount of escape attempts (almost by a factor of ten).

[@HeikosGarage]

I was born in 1975 in West Germany. I now live in the US and can't number how many times I had to explain that the Berlin Wall was not the border beast and west but a wall around West Berlin. So many here in the US have no idea. Thanks for making this and other videos in English. Cheers

[@Hansaman58]

I was a high school student in Heidelberg in the 1970’s and visited Berlin twice during that time. During one of those visits I was able to remove a brick from the front facade of a building in the French Sector that formed the Berlin Wall. The doors and windows were bricked up. Still have that brick today.

[@eliforp715]

​@@stevej71393Access to these buildings were probably severely restricted and heavily guarded.

[@yoda5565]

Very well done and accurate. I was at Fulda from 1981 to 85 (OP Alpha or Point Alpha). There was a town called Philipstahl in our sector. The town was divided by the border. I will never forget looking out from a hill at the place. It was late and the west was full of light and cheerful street noise and in the east only darkness and the sound of barking dogs. There was an East German dog run that covered a blind spot on the DDR side of the border. It was very real.

[@AJGeeTV]

Fantastic video. I wish I'd seen this in 2000 when I was at university in England because I did a dissertation on the Inner-Deutschen Grenze, and travelled the whole length by bicycle that summer to get information. Despite of this, your video is more knowledgeable in the end. Thanks.

[@Flightline_fanatic]

I am so thankful for this channel. I am a Cold War history buff. I was in the eighth grade when the Wall was torn down. I consume everything I can get my hands on pertaining to Germany between 1946 to 1992.

[@ottosaxo]

Can you read German?

[@user-uc5um3io2j]

Hi. Great channel. You should do a video on all the various methods of escape from East Germany.

[@wonshiin]

Love this channel--I consider myself lucky to have visited Berlin 3 times, in 1979, 1980, and 2015. A beautiful city with a fascinating history

[@TheYizuman]

Thank you for this upload.

[@kolesnik_am]

wunderbare Informationen! Wir sind Ukrainer, heute Österreich, Wien sind Hotels im Jahr 1890 zur vorübergehenden Besetzung während des Krieges, aber wir alle sehen in vielen Gebäudeblöcken dieses Leiden als ein Problem der Psychologie.

[@jonathanwhittaker677]

I've had a fascination with the GDR since I was 12..I'm now 54 and it still fascinates me now....I remember a guy by the name of Christopher Hilton telling a funny story about the dogs...when the Berlin wall fell people realised they were docile and friendly instead of vicious and took them home as pets.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thanks for sharing, Jonathan! I found that there were about 6,000 so-called "Wall-dogs" and almost all of them got a new home after 1989. Although some of them had behavioral problems, they were friendly animals. The biggest problem seemed to be that they were not house trained.

[@jonathanwhittaker677]

@@eastgermanyinvestigated a massive regret of mine is I never went to Berlin whilst the wall was up...looking back at my interest in it I cannot believe I didnt do it.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

@@jonathanwhittaker677 I can understand that. Luckily there are still a lot of traces, documents, witnesses...and this channel trying to make up for that.

[@os5484]

The Trassenhund was dogs, which cant use for the normal service, very friendly or very aggressive. 90% friendly.

[@valicourt]

Same fascination here. Interesting by the way that on Dutch television they used to broadcast East German fairly tales. Produced by DEFA. You can still find them online

[@paulwebbiweb]

Excellent, interesting and concise information, as always on this channel.

[@clazy8]

I love this channel

[@daddybeagleaz907]

Good job, I subscribed!

[@johnashcroft7679]

Love your podcasts. Lived in West Berlin in the 80s. The girls out numbered the guys by so much. The best of time’s. Sad what’s happened to Deutschland now. I’ve given up travelling. Merkel and the Starsi got their way

[@thetruth7633]

Thanks for the detailed information. I am currently working out a KMZ file in Google Earth for the complete inner wall. Sometimes it is confusing and there are few details on the maps (timestamps back to 2005, older 1990s / blurry) how it ran, I believe DDR sometimes used a river as border which they patrolled. Amazing to see how in 30 years nature claims back the scars.

[@CanalExclave]

Your videos are awesome!

[@fatty3383]

Fascinating channel...like yourself i enjoy history...i remember my dad telling me what it was like when he was in the army (🇬🇧) in the early 70s..how he used to see soviet troops on eastern side... And he spoke highly of the German food and 🍺.

[@os5484]

I was in the Grenztruppen in the 80s on the Priwall Area, I was very surprized if I opened a electronic control cabinet for the Signalzaun 1, Isaw condensators with the label of ITT, it isnt a eastgerman or USSR brand… the electronic was an west import. This is a Scandal but nobody want to open this file. Painful for both sides of the wall

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

Thanks for sharing this.

[@simonh6371]

Both sides turned a blind eye to ideology when it came to business. There were factories in the GDR financed by the FRG, manufacturing goods for the West German market, which weren't available to East Germans. Auf beide Seiten war Ideologie kein Problem wenn es um Geschaefte ging und man arbeitete zusammen mit dem Klassenfeind. Es gab Fabriken in der DDR wo Produkte fuer die BRD hergestellt wurden, meines Wissens wurde das alles von der BRD finanziert. Wahrscheinlich da die DDR doch Westdevisen brauchte.

[@Jacob-kq6wb]

Thanks you for Great INFORMATION .

[@szeweisoo153]

This is a good find! Hope this channel grows

[@kristopheranderson1911]

Super interesting! Thank you for your hard work putting these well researched and presented videos together! Excellent!

[@finscreenname]

Good job!!

[@mabbrey]

great vid

[@valicourt]

5:50 „freundwärts“ with all the lethal measures towards it. I spoke to a gentleman last year who apparently escaped east Germany with a friend when he was 16. Him and his friend were taken to Frankfurt to live in some Heim. Shortly afterwards he got homesick and he escaped back into East Germany in the exact same spot where he initially escaped from. He was arrested and put in to some sort of reeducation school. But he soon was released also because his escape wasn’t political. They just wanted to have a look in the west. Sounds unbelievable but I have no reason to believe he made this up. Sound like a movie

[@mohabatkhanmalak1161]

I saw a movie on TV years ago about a successfull escape attempt by a home made balloon. I would imagine it would have been very difficult for people to just plan an escape, what with all the Stasi operatives watching over the populace. I think people like engineers, technicians, mechanics, electricians etc, ie anyone who could build a contraption such as a balloon, microlight, gyrocopter, minisubmarine were eagle eyed by the Stasi. Could anyone buy pieces of angle iron, wood, fasteners, wires etc freely, for a DIY project..??

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

It was indeed an issue to get good iron, cloth, tools etc. And you couldn't buy in bulk because that would raise suspicion. I read a story about some guys who wanted to escape via a ladder they made. Because of the lack of good steel, the ladder bended under their weights, compromising the escape...

[@rosesprog1722]

Surprisingly, John F. Kennedy said, in private that he was very pleased with the construction of the wall, it reduced the tension dramatically between the two zones and provided a safeguard to protect against potential conflicts.

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

The fact various tank standoffs took place prompted its construction

[@rosesprog1722]

@@ernestkhalimov1007 Yes, I believe so, the situation could have exploded at any moment. As they are still doing today, the superpowers were fighting each other on a third country's territory and they don't seem tu care. I hope we will soon be wise enough to realize how killing one another for whatever reason makes no sense whatsoever, on a wisdom scale this puts the animal world way above us.

[@ernestkhalimov1007]

@@rosesprog1722 agreed

[@benwherlock9869]

A gigantic open prison.

[@kevinsrennoer7553]

Its real funny when a german says that a concrete element only has a very low.maintainences cost. The building of the Atlantic wall was a dream for the concrete engineers of Germany. Regelbau, the word in it self says it all.

[@davidlally592]

For me what is interesting is that between the so called socialist states in comecon (the then eastern version of the then eec) there also were barbed wire fences - eg between Poland/DDR or DDR/Czechoslovakia. And one would have to get a visa to cross them- after a lot of authority checking/ vetting...

[@tvbox6955]

Do you mean that the East side gallery wall was put in place after 1989?

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

No, the wall was already there. What I mean to say is that the wall at East Side Gallery is a Hinterland wall built with elements of the 'front wall', which is quite unusual. Hope this explanation helps.

[@tvbox6955]

@@eastgermanyinvestigated Thanks. Are you Dutch or German? ...hope you make more videos.

[@eastgermanyinvestigated]

@@tvbox6955 Both 50%, currently living in the Netherlands. Feel free to check the 'About' page of this channel.

[@mutestingray]

I guess you can’t have a _democracy_ with the _demos_

[@becomematrix]

Open air prison

[@juhokuusisto9339]

866 mouse long border? Those are some unnaturally large sized rodents.

[@classicallpvault8251]

We need these walls on the outside of the EU, not to keep people in, but to keep people out.

[@Horrorhorst]

you mean at the beaches of rimini or at the po-river-line?

[@patrickmccutcheon9361]

Would not serve a purpose. They are easily smuggled into the EU in trucks whose contents are not thoroughly checked. It would help if the NGOs would stop facilitating the arrival of boats in the Mediterranean arriving in EU ports.

[@WOWTODAZ]

hey fascist

[@gregorhi2]

It's quite painful to see how the DDR was eradicated in the 90s. There is so little left.

[@unclestuka8543]

The wall should never have been removed.

[@TheSirfa11111]

Do you need a bigger screen as your teleprompter? You're straining your eyes there