Since several people have tagged me on the new US plan for a "Steel Slate Barrier" along the border with Mexico, here are a few thoughts on the comparison to the Berlin Wall and the fortifications of the "Inner-German Border" (1) 
Border walls have never been impermeable barriers to movement on their own. Going back to ancient times, border walls are about directing movement to specific checkpoints, providing information about illicit crossings, or slowing movement to allow interception.
In the case of the fortified German border during the Cold War, the Berlin Wall was the obvious structure preventing movement, but it was more than just a Wall that was hard to get over because it was tall.
The Berlin Wall and the inner-German border was a series of barriers designed to impede movement, but also to generate information for a network of armed guards who could deploy to the site of breach.
Thousands attempted to cross the border wall and were stopped not by its height, but by People's Police, Border Guards, mines, dogs or self-firing guns
In Berlin and at the border, this required remaking the whole of the terrain - homes and structures close to the border were demolished and forests were cut down in close proximity
Preventing movement at all costs required the total militarization of the border region and all areas in proximity to West Berlin. Not only did this result in the killing of those trying to cross without permission, but also dozens of lethal accidents.
The militarization of the German-German border did not stop movement, but rather slowed it through the cost of human life. No border wall is an impermeable barrier, but is instead a tool to assist in the control and killing of those seeking to cross it.
For more thoughts on current refugee politics and the victims of the Berlin Wall, check out historyned.blog/2015/08/24/of-…
