“The lives of all the people in Stasiland are shaped by the wall.”

In Berlin, the Iron Curtain had many purposes. It was there to protect, to separate and to enforce a way of life for East Berliners. Firstly, The Wall gave meaning to people’s lives in different ways. It defined where they were to go, who they were to see and who they were to be. For the countless Stasi and informers, it gave them a purpose and an importance in society, and after The Wall came down, that purpose was lost and yearned for. Secondly, The Wall and the controlling ways of the Stasi loomed over the lives of East Berliners, and its implementation was just one of many extreme measures to minimalise Capitalism and encourage Communism. Thirdly, although The Wall was taken down in 1989, the detrimental effect of the Stasi regime on those in East Berlin remains to this day. The Iron Curtain “went up overnight” and disappeared without a trace, but the impression left on East Berlin has found to be inescapable.

The Wall determined the lives and actions of those in East Berlin. It was the final stage in the Stasi’s attempts to keep people within the “land gone wrong”. It “went up overnight”, and people were instantly separated from their loved ones, their schools and even their jobs. The wall may have been simple for the Stasi to assemble, but for Berliners like Frau Paul, it was difficult to overcome the challenges that it created. When Frau Paul gave birth to sickly Torsten, the only choice was to send him to capable medical facilities over The Wall. Frau Paul was forced to live with the heartbreaking decision of separating herself from who needed her the most. The wall kept her from her baby, and prevented her from seeing her child until he was six years of age. Although Torsten was eventually reunited with his family, those lost years could not be returned. The separation was certainly