The Berlin Wall that people saw, running through the middle of the city, cutting it in half, with ever changing art work was really just 1/3 of it. Around the outside of West Berlin, around the French, British and American sectors, the remaining 2/3 of it wasn’t a wall, but was a fence, actually two fences, splitting a 20-30 metre kill zone with raked sand, watch towers, war dogs, scatter guns and anti-personnel mines.
I took this photo during a helicopter flight around West Berlin in 1987; this shot, if I recall correctly, was behind RAF Gatow (where I worked) literally just over the road from the back fence of the camp.
35 years ago today I danced on the wall as thousands upon thousands of people celebrated the fall of De Maur.
