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3: THE MATERIALITY OF THE BERLIN WALL
of the Soviet government and the GDR government, which are actively and
consistently Germany” (Harrison 2005:20).
Figure 3: East German Soldiers marking the line of the Berlin Wall on the 13 August 1961 to
protect the border while border fortifications were being erected. Photo: Steffen Rehm.
Krushchev, however, finally approved the plan, originally given the code
name ‘Rose’, a few weeks after his meeting with Kennedy. The north, west
and south sides of West Berlin had been closed since 1952 and it was now
time to close the border to the east, the section of the inner city of Berlin. At
2 a.m. troops moved into position to guard the eastern border and the
construction work. Traffic was stopped, as were over- and underground
trains that crossed the border. When the Wall was up and serving its
purpose, it was to cut through 192 streets and crossing could now only take
place through 14 official crossing points (Rottman 2008). The U-Bahn
trains were completely severed between the two parts of the town whilst the
S-Bahn still functioned but highly controlled to avoid illegal crossing. By 4
a.m. trucks had arrived with prefabricated concrete blocks and the first
sections of the wall were laid across Ackerstraße near Bernauerstraße. Other
materials were also used during this early building phase and the labour was
often poorly executed as speed was more important than thorough construction.
Soon other structures were added such as watchtowers, antivehicle
obstacles and searchlights. As time went on the Berlin Wall was
upgraded and updated, particularly in 1975 when a major reinforcement
operation was carried out. By 1989 it had become an almost impenetrable
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