The Economic Times

In 1961, Berliners went to sleep and woke up to a city cut in half. East German troops had put up barbed wire overnight, stopping trains, cars and thousands of people from crossing between East and West Berlin

In 1961, Berliners woke up to find barbed wire separating East and West Berlin after East German troops sealed the border overnight. Train services and road traffic were stopped, cutting off thousands of people and blocking the route used by East Germans fleeing to the West, marking the beginning of the Berlin Wall.