Excuse my ignorance thread

Culture
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A thread for questions on topics the poster knows very little about

Watching a documentary about the Berlin Wall. Was there anything stopping people in east Germany travelling north or south of Berlin and then crossing over to the west?

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Was Berlin not in E Germany, with West Berlin a western enclave. If I remember right, the Allies had to airlift supplies to W Berlin.

Completely open to correction!!!

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Berlin was split into 4 after the war, Brits, french, Russians and yanks administered a quarter each iirc.

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Two fine ignorant posts completely irrelevant to the question the man asked.

I haven’t a bullsnotion @Big_Dan_Campbell

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There was a border the whole way along.

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I assume in my ignorance that if you travelled ten or 15 miles outside Berlin then it may have just been barbed wire. Or was it armed the whole way along

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Did the US, Brit & French quarter become W Berlin with the Russian quarter becoming E Berlin? Am I right that W Berlin was surrounded by E German territory?

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No. If Berlin was surrounded by E Germany, then going north or South of it you’d be in E Germany

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In my ignorance I didn’t realise there was a wall on both sides so even if you scaled it on one side you were in no mans land/the death zone

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I think the advantage of trying to cross in Berlin was that the border was very narrow. As you went into the country side it was much wider as they had space. And yes it was manned the whole way, the whole iron curtain was manned or there wouldn’t have been a soul left

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Read his post again there Einstein

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Yes West Berlin was completely cut off from West Germany which is why they had to do the airlifts

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As in the Berlin wall surrounded the whole of west Berlin?

*answered above

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Very good documentary on bbc4 about it there. John Simpson recalling the fall of the wall through his old news clips

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It was built to keep people in rather than keep people out

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https://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/escape.htm#:~:text=Thousands%20of%20East%20German%20citizen%20had%20escaped%20to,area%20between%20East%20and%20West%20Germany%20and%20between

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As in West Berlin was in East Germany. So yes the wall would have been all around it.

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Don’t need to be Einstein to understan d this

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image721×829 141 KB

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Apologies.
The correct answer is the KGB.

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Or is it the NKVD? or Stasi?

second thoughts, not the NKVD. think they were internal Russin security.