Berlin Wall by Numbers

Here are ten important figures relating to the building of the Berlin Wall which began on August 13, 1961.

1.  79 -- number of miles of wire fencing, later replaced by concrete

2.  300 -- number of watchtowers

i.telegraph.co.uk

3.  250 -- number of guard dog runs

4.  192 -- number of streets that were closed off to build the wall; many evictions resulted from this decision

A family divided by the Berlin Wall courtesy www.spiegel.de.

5.  30 -- number of miles of barbed wire laid down the first night of the wall's construction

www.history.co.uk

6.  2.7 million -- number of people leaving East Berlin before construction of wall (1949-1961)

Berlin circa 1950's courtesy andberlin.com

7.  1000s -- number of East Berliners who lost their jobs in West Berlin as a result of the wall's erection

Image courtesy www.spiegel.de.

8.  3 -- number of checkpoints at the wall (named Alpha, Bravo & Charlie in English; or Helmstedt, Dreilinden & Friedrichstrasse in German)

Checkpoint Charlie courtesy 4.bp.blogspot.com.

9.  5000 -- number of successful escapees

                       

www.nbcnews.com

10.  600+ -- number of deaths of failed escapees

upload.wikimedia.org

The Berlin Wall officially opened on November 9, 1989 and was torn down by 1990.  For more information, read my post "This Wall Will Fall" (November 9, 2011).

Germans standing on the wall days before it was torn down courtesy upload.wikimedia.org.