Berlin: Flashback to August 20th 1961 The picture shows the escape of an entire family just a week after the Berlin Wall was first built. In the back ground a man drops a parcel from a window of a house in Bernauer Strass which now marks the borderline. The pavement is west Berlin.. The flats in there houses were evacuated by communist on August 13th, But during the early days of the wall Bernauer Strasse was the easiest escape route, until East German sealed all doors and windows with bricks. 12 July 1969 UnitedArchives00935150