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The GDR’s official name for the border was the "state border between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin". In the FRG, the term Zonengrenze (zone border) was also used.
Until 1952 the border was only on paper; from that date, however, work was begun to close it. A no-man’s land was cleared along the route and 11,000 people living near the area were moved away. Towns and villages were split in two, members of one family often stranded on either side. Barbed wire was laid down along the entire length of the border.
From 1961 the GDR border was strengthened further to avoid mass migration to the west. Mines were buried and watchtowers set up; roads leading to the border were taken up. Dogs patrolled the area and automatic firing devices pointing towards the GDR territory could be triggered by movement. The border guards stationed along the route had orders to stop anyone attempting to escape by shooting them.
The most famous part of the GDR border was the Berlin Wall, built on 13 August 1961, cutting off the three Western sectors of Berlin from East Berlin and the GDR. At sections of the border near inhabited areas, similar walls were also built on the GDR side, for example in Mödlareuth.
The border was opened on 9 November 1989 under the GDR Chairman of the State Council Egon Krenz. A chain of events was set off which led to the reunification of the two German states on 3 October 1990. The GDR border now no longer exists, but even today Germans still talk about the "wall in people’s heads" referring to conflicts between East and West Germans.
Between 1949 and 1990 approximately 2 million people fled from the GDR to the FRG; about 200,000 people went in the other direction.
Victims were claimed on both sides of the GDR border.
Several hundred people died while attempting to escape from the GDR, mostly civilians. The exact number of victims is difficult to calculate. On the GDR border including Berlin, the Berlin Public Prosecution Department reckons with 270 'proven' deaths due to acts of violence by border security guards including deaths by mines and automatic firing devices. The Central Assessment Group for Governmental and Federational Crimes (German ZERV), however, has registered 421 suspected cases of killings by armed GDR border guards.
On 12 August 2003, the "13 August Association" published the number of victims of the GDR border guards as 1008, but with a fairly wide-ranging definition of the term "victim". This figure includes, for example, victims who drowned in the Baltic Sea or died as a result of accidents; suicides after attempted escapes; even border soldiers shot by escapees and Germans killed escaping over other borders (to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, etc).
Some famous victims are Peter Fechter, Chris GueffroyChris Gueffroy ( June 21, 1968- February 6, 1989) was the last person to die trying to escape across the Berlin Wall. Together with his friend Christian Gaudian, Gueffroy attempted on the night of February 5 6, 1989 to escape from East Berlin to West Berl and Günter Litfin .