30 Years Since The Fall Of The Berlin Wall: Remnants Of The Fortified DDR Border

MARIENBORN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 18: A sculpture called "The Vault of the Hands" by French artist Jose Castell erected in 1995 and meant to commemorate German reunification stands at the former highway border crossing between East Germany and West Germany on September 18, 2019 near Marienborn, Germany. The Marienborn crossing was a large-scale, East German facility for checking vehicles traveling on the A2 highway between West Germany and West Berlin. East German authorities began building a fortified exclusion zone along the 1,400km border between the two countries in 1954 in an effort to stop people, particularly East German citizens, from fleeing from communist, authoritarian East Germany into capitalist, democratic West Germany. In 1961 a similar, fortified border, which became known as the Berlin Wall, went up around West Berlin, which was a West German exclave within East Germany. The fortifications included watchtowers, armed patrols with orders to shoot people trying to escape, anti-vehicle traps, an inner fence and an outer wall. The fortified border lost significance after the revolution of 1989, when the borders between the two Germanys opened and the communist regime collapsed. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, with celebrations planned for November 9. (Footage by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)