Before the Wall went up, nearly 3 million East Germans had already fled west. The government called it an "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart." Everyone else called it a prison.
The Wall stretched 45 kilometers and was anything but simple. Between two concrete barriers ran a 100-meter-wide "death strip," patrolled by guards with shoot-on-sight orders, watchtowers, and dog kennels. Yet thousands still tried to cross. Some dug tunnels. Others hid in car trunks. One family even floated over in a homemade hot air balloon.
For 28 years, 239 people died trying. More than 5,000 made it across, including 574 of the border guards themselves.
Then, on November 9, 1989, a bureaucratic blunder at a press conference triggered an announcement that the border was open. That night, crowds flooded the checkpoints and the guards simply stepped aside. Within 72 hours, 3 million East Germans crossed into the West.
The first thing many bought? Bananas. A fruit so ordinary in the West, it had become a symbol of everything they had been denied.
Sources. Story: nationalgeographic.nl Photos: Door National Archives - http://nsarchive.chadwyck.com/bcphotox.htm, Publiek domein, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=776863
