meters had to register. These citizens were living in a danger zone. Theirhouses were with-in view of the West side of the city. When I was there thishousing issue was quite visible. These people could see the capitalist West, whileremaining to live in the communist East.When construction of the wall was complete the western leaders declared itan Anti-fascist protection wall. Unlike the Berlin air-lift the western leaders couldnot drop food, and goods into the east. The city of Berlin was now a divided city,one side as a capitalist democracy, and the other a communist state. But inside thecities they were more differences than politics, Economics, sociology, and totallifestyles of the citizens were becoming a major difference. MEASUREMENTS OF THE WALL The border between West Berlin and East Berlin and the GDR had a totallength of 166 km, and there was a deeply staggered system of barriers. Therewas the physical wall with a length of 107 km.(4) The simple vastness of the city of Berlin proved that they could not build a wall toclose in the entire city. The area around the concrete wall looked like; First, there was the wall whichwas made up of concrete segments with a height of nearly twenty feet, usuallywith a concrete tube on top. Behind it on the Eastern side there was anilluminated control area, called the death area. Refugees attempting escapethat got over the wall were shot in this area thus the name as the death area. Following this area was a trench that would prevent vehicles from breakingthrough. Then there was a patron track, a corridor with watchdogs, watchtowers and bunkers, and a second wall.(4)My impression of this area at first was that it would have been simple to just jumpoff an apartment building with a glider and sail across. I than observed the area ofthe wall still standing with years and numbers underneath. I later found out thatthese numbers stood for the number of people killed in that given year ...
