Description

This large powerful map shows Berlin around 1962, in the year after the Berlin Wall was erected, which isolated the west part from the east until 1989. The West Berlin is surrounded with a barb wire. The symbols on the bottom explain the check points, borders and borderline areas, and the symbols in the upper right part transportation.

The statistical charts verso showcase the trade, refugees and routes between the East and the West. Showcased are also the partition of Germany, the Brandenburg Gate etc.

As up until 1952, the lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones could be easily crossed in most places, the inner German border officially closed in 1952. The border in Berlin still remained considerably more accessible then because it was administered by all four occupying powers. In 1955, the Soviets gave East Germany authority over civilian movement in Berlin, the new government restricted all travel to the West in 1956. One year later East Germany introduced a new passport law that reduced a large number of refugees leaving Eastern Germany.

The map was made as a part of a program by the United Nations, which ran between 1963 and 1965.

The Firm JRO (also known as JRO-Verlag Carl Kremling) was founded in Munich in 1922 and was taken over by MairDumont in 1992. The firm was known for its geographic and thematic maps with updated data and its globes. Between 1954 and 1989 it published a series Aktuelle JRO-Landkarte [Updated JRO Map] with various thematic maps on contemporary subjects, such us ours.

According to the imprint, each month on the 28^th two maps were published in to different sizes: in a normal size and as a wall map.