The Berlin Wall does not look all that imposing being made of L shaped sections of light reinforced concrete but it separated the two halves of the city of Berlin for decades. The separation started first with barbed wire barricades then fences and finally these walls. The wall consisted of two of these walls, one each side of a strip of no mans land which people had to cross to get to the wall on the West Berlin side whilst dodging armed patrols constantly roaming the strip. Unfortunately many tried to escape East Germany but were either caught and imprisoned or shot whilst trying to escape the Communist rule of East Germany.