I was reading up a bit on the Berlin Wall, and it lead me to this question. During the time period in question, Berlin was contained entirely within East Germany / DDR. West Berlin was controlled by USA, Britain and France, while East Berlin was controlled by the USSR. The two halves were separated by the Berlin Wall. My question is this: Did the Wall separate the rest of West Berlin from the DDR? How was the flow of persons between the DDR and West Berlin maintained?
Yes, it did. The wall encircled all three Allied sectors of West Berlin. August 13th 1961 is often called the day the Berlin Wall was built, but the actual construction took quite a bit longer. On that day, Volkspolizei (East German Police) and NVA (East German Army) simply blocked all access from and to West Berlin and began erecting makeshift barbed wire barriers and preliminary roadblocks. This allowed a number of East German citizens to still escape into West Berlin. You might have seen this famous picture of an East German soldier defecting into the West and jumping across the border. The blockade also led to absurd situations in which the "wall" ran through houses which then had all windows and doors bricked shut. The actual Wall itself was then constructed over the course of the coming weeks.
http://rense.com/general12/factsaboutberlin.htm
The total length of the Wall was 155 kilometres (about 97 miles), of which 43 kilometres ran roughly north-south, cutting the city in two, while another 112 kilometres isolated the enclave of West Berlin from the surrounding East German state.
...
For more than 106 kilometres of its length, the Wall was composed of panels of reinforced concrete to a height of 3.60 metres, with a rounded top providing no toe- or hand-hold for any would-be climber. The rest was composed of metallic grill fencing.
[This would be in 1989, I assume.]
I'm not sure if I understand your second question, but the answer might be found here:
http://www.berlin.de/mauer/zahlen_fakten/index.en.html
Border crossings between East and West Berlin (roads/railway): 8 Border crossings between the GDR and West Berlin (roads/railway): 6
