On the outer side the real graffiti artists have made the most of the available "canvas". The height of the wall at about 3 metres was a surprise, and the top was smooth and rounded.

Due to the oppressive regime in East Berlin many people, particularly young ones, wanted to move to the West. They went to the ultimate extreme to do so and risked their lives on many occasions. The wide River Spree formed a boundary between the former East and West Berlin near the famous Reichstag building.

In 28 years, the Wall claimed well over 200 victims, shot by guards, drowned in the waters of the Spree or one of the lakes, or killed jumping out of their houses.

Altogether, over 5000 East Germans, including 574 border guards, managed to scale the Wall, the first one being Conrad Schuman who lost no time in jumping over the barbed wire, on 15th August 1961. Most of these escapes in fact took place in the early months when the border had not yet been completely sealed.
Sixty thousand were sentenced for attempting to " flee the Republic ". Life imprisonment was the penalty for providing organized assistance to fugitives.

Escapees used a variety of methods including cars; heavy lorries; a train; a boat was hi-jacked by 14 people. In October 1964 57 East Berliners passed under the Wall in a tunnel dug over a period of 6 months. Over two days 31 women, 23 men and 3 children passed through this narrow tunnel 145 metres long by 70 cms high. Their escape, the eighth through a tunnel since the Wall was built, ended with a gun battle in which an East German soldier was killed.

There were actually two parallel walls separated by a wide cleared area of "no man's land" patrolled by Border Guards and dogs.

In the outlying suburban area of Potsdam the wall (between West Berlin and East Germany) was gone but the chemically cleared strip of "no man's land" was clearly visible. Along the centre is the access track and floodlights trained on the Eastern boundary.

Many escapees swam to safety across the River Spree after climbing the wall and crossing the open patrolled area, but others died in their attempt.
There is a simple Memorial near the Reichstag to those who died.

In the Autumn of 1989 dramatic changes in Eastern Block countries saw Hungary opening its borders and thousands of GDR inhabitants left their country. The dramatic swell of public opinion led to similar changes in Poland and Czechoslovakia.

In East Berlin a demonstration on 4th November on the Alexanderplatz brought out nearly a million people, who whistled at the SED representatives and called for basic freedoms. Four days later, the party leaders resigned en bloc. On November 9th 1989 the GDR unexpectedly opened the crossing points in West Berlin and thousands of people flocked through.

There were unforgettable scenes of rejoicing, with shouting, tears, applause, laughter and singing. East Germans were welcomed with flowers. Rockets went off to the popping of champagne corks and lighting of candles. The Wall was taken by storm by the crowds singing and dancing. Coffee and mulled wine were served to police officers on either side. The Vopos were heckled.

At Checkpoint Charlie, every Trabant sounding its horn was cheered by the crowd and its occupants congratulated. The Kurfürstendamm was overrun by a great flood of people and traffic was prohibited.

In the days that followed, an army of human " woodpeckers " hammered at the Wall, opening up bigger and bigger holes in it. The cellist Rostropovich came to play Bach at the foot of the Wall.

Long queues formed at the crossing points and in front of banks, where the East Germans were given DM 100 as a welcome gift (Begrüssungsgeld), in front of shops, especially the big KaDeWe store, that temple of commerce and luxury.

In just three days, West Berlin took in 2 million East Germans.

Official destruction of the Wall began on 13th June 1990.

Today, the Wall is barely visible, although where it stood has been marked out in central Berlin over a distance of 20 kilometres with a red line or a double row of cobblestones. All that remains are a few sections here and there, kept as memorials.
The people of Berlin were impatient to see the back of this "painful" structure. But as the German writer Peter Schneider stated," demolishing the Wall in the head will take longer than it will take for a demolition firm to do the same job ".

A fuller account of the Berlin Wall can be found at http://www.wall-berlin.org