Fall of the inner German border Fall of the inner German border The fall of the inner German border came rapidly and unexpectedly in November 1989, along with the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event paved the way for the ultimate reunification of Germany just short of a year later. Just as an earlier generation of Germans had found that the way to defeat the supposedly impregnable Maginot Line was simply to go around one end of it, so too hundreds of thousands of East Germans found an escape route across the border of East Germany's erstwhile ally, Hungary. The inner German border's integrity relied
Berlin Customs Wall Berlin Customs Wall The Berlin Customs Wall (German: "Berliner Zoll- und Akzisemauer" literally "Berlin customs and excise wall" ) was a ring wall around the historic city of Berlin, between 1737 and 1860; the wall itself had no defence function but was used to facilitate the levying of taxes on the import and export of goods (tariffs) which was the primary income of many cities at the time. The wall was erected after the old Berlin Fortress was demolished in 1734; the walls of the latter had already started to crumble and its military function was questionable. Frederick William I