Berliners awoke on 13th August, 1961 to find their city divided in half. East German troops had worked overnight to roll out barbed wire and barricades, turning neighbourhoods into no-go zones. It became known as ‘Barbed Wire Sunday’ 

Before the wall’s construction, East Germans had been bolting westward at the unsustainable rate of nearly 2,000 a day; notably skilled professionals the East couldn’t afford to lose. 

The Berlin wall stopped the flow of people, but also turned the city into a dystopia, complete with ghost train stations, split families, and a massive fortified structure with a deadly no-man's-land of guard dogs, watchtowers, and landmines. 

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover how the wall wasn’t actually finished until the 1970s; reveal the escape routes travailed by daring civilians; and uncover the “Wall woodpeckers” who took souvenirs home with them when the wall finally fell... 

Further Reading:

• ‘Why the Berlin Wall rose—and how it fell’ (National Geographic, 2019): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/why-berlin-wall-built-fell

• ‘Berlin Wall History: Everything You Need To Know’ | HistoryExtra: https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/berlin-wall-history-facts-fall-why-built-destroyed-how-long-deaths-killed-graffiti-east-west-life-today/

• ‘The Berlin Wall - How it worked’ (DW Documentary, 2018): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khXGMcX59YE

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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