The people of Berlin woke on August 13 1961 to discover that their city had been split in two.
Despite the earlier cold war division of Germany into east and west after 1945, the border between the two halves of Berlin had remained open, allowing most Germans to travel, mix and mingle freely across the city. This abruptly changed in 1961 when the East German authorities closed the Berlin border and began constructing a wall across the city, a formidable barrier which would stand for almost 30 years. Overnight, families, friends and lovers were cruelly separated.
