The idea was to, you know, protect people… from fascist terrorists who intended to do harm in the country.

Just weeks after government officials stated that they had 'no intention of erecting a wall', they closed the border and started reinforcing the defenses with barbed wire. Concrete came soon after.

When it was finally erected, the wall stood for decades as a symbol of tyranny over freedom.

And in the ensuing period, people within the Iron Curtain suffered the misery of secret police, centrally planned bread production, and some of the worst indignities imaginable.