Inner-German border

Inner German border Innerdeutsche Grenze
North and central Germany
Border installations at Schlagsdorf
Type	Border fortification system
Height	Up to 4 metres (13 ft)
Site information
Controlled by	East Germany  West Germany
Condition	Mostly demolished, some parts preserved for historic record
Site history
Built	1952 (1952)
Built by	East Germany
In use	1952–90
Materials	Steel, concrete
Demolished	1990
Battles/wars	Cold War
Garrison information
Garrison	East: Nationale Volksarmee Grenztruppen der DDR Ministerium für Staatssicherheit Volkspolizei Group of Soviet Forces in Germany West: Bundeswehr Bundesgrenzschutz Bundeszollverwaltung Bayerische Grenzpolizei British Army British Frontier Service United States Army

East:

West:

The inner German border (German: innerdeutsche Grenze or deutsch-deutsche Grenze; initially also Zonengrenze) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. Not including the similar and physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was 1,393 kilometres (866 mi) long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia.

It was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of former Nazi Germany. On the eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps and minefields. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed East German guards who faced tens of thousands of West German, British and US guards and soldiers. In the hinterlands behind the border were more than a million North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Warsaw Pact troops.

The border was a physical manifestation of Winston Churchill's metaphorical Iron Curtain that separated the Soviet and Western blocs during the Cold War. It marked the boundary between two ideological systems – capitalism and communism. Built by East Germany in phases from 1952 to the late 1980s, the fortifications were constructed to stop the large-scale emigration of East German citizens to the West, about 1,000 of whom are said to have died trying to cross it during its 45-year existence. It caused widespread economic and social disruption on both sides; East Germans living in the region suffered especially draconian restrictions.