In 1986, Ross McElwee and Marilyn Levine were making a film about the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, when the imposing structure was still very much intact as the world's most visible symbol of hardline Communism and Cold War lore. They thought they were making a documentary on the community of tourists, soldiers, and West Berliners who lived in the seemingly eternal presence of the graffiti-emblazoned eyesore.

Marta is a young girl who saw thirty miles of barbed wire appear across her city overnight, separating Berlin into West and East - with Marta's home on the Communist Bloc - controlled Eastern side. Then, just a month ago, Marta's brother became a victim of schiessbefehl, the standing order to fire upon anyone who dared pass into the West. With her family and nation both fractured, Marta will soon be faced with a promising - but dangerous - opportunity....

In the days before the treacherous overnight raising of the Berlin Wall, teenaged cousins Drew, an American army brat in West Berlin, and Matthias, a young communist in East Berlin, become wary friends on opposite sides of the Cold War. Interspersed throughout the story are captioned photographs from the era.

Describes the history of the Berlin Wall, from its construction in 1961 to divide the city of Berlin to its destruction in 1989.

"Sophie has spent her entire life behind the Berlin Wall, guarded by land mines, towers, and attack dogs. A science lover, Sophie dreams of becoming an inventor ... but that's unlikely in East Berlin, where the Stasi, the secret police, are always watching. Though she tries to avoid their notice, when her beloved neighbor is arrested, Sophie is called to her principal's office. There, a young Stasi officer asks Sophie if she'll spy on her neighbor...

"1975: When Oberleutnant Karin Müller is called to investigate a teenage girl's body at the foot of the Berlin Wall, she imagines she's seen it all before. But she soon realizes that this is a death like no other before it - the girl was evidently trying to escape from West Berlin. As a member of the People's Police, Müller's power in East Germany only stretches so far. The Ministry for State Security, the Stasi, assures her the case is closed,...

The year is 1989, and the Berlin Wall is coming down. The East German secret police, the Stasi, are shredding documents in a desperate effort to hide the secrets they have been collecting on their own people for forty years. They have no idea that only a few years later a group of people will come together to piece all of the shredded documents back together. Annie O'Shea is one of those people. She is a puzzle person. But as the pieces come together,...

Chronicles the history of the Berlin Wall, from its construction in 1961 to the opening in 1989. Examines the lives of ordinary citizens caught in the politics of the Cold War, the extraordinary efforts of East Berliners to cross to the West, and the birth of the freedom movement in East Germany's Protestant Church.

In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. --Amazon.com

Discusses why the Berlin Wall was built, what life was like in a divided city, and why it was torn down, and explores the political context behind the wall.