Quote:
Originally Posted by dd74
I saw a great series of photos that showed almost hour-by-hour how the Berlin Wall was assembled. Freakiest damn thing when you see how such a symbol between Us and Them was built with shovels, concrete, cement mixers, and human labor, all in a couple days. People were strolling back and forth as the wall was being built. Crazy.
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My dear friends who live near Halle (former E. Germany) planned to escape to W. Berlin the weekend the Wall went up. It was a Sunday morning and once they'd heard on the radio what happened, they stayed home. Most of the escapes happened in the first years of the Wall, before it got real fortified and technical. The later ones were super daring and very risky. Several border guards were later prosecuted for shooting defectors once the country was unified. Kinda crazy that another country can prosecute you for stuff you did under orders in your own country when it was a sovereign country. W. Germany always had the attitude that it was the only legitimate Germany.