This fact, that "the wall was built literally overnight", also reflects how ad-hoc and dramatic the decision to raise the wall actually was. At the time, people

This fact, that "the wall was built literally overnight", also reflects how ad-hoc and dramatic the decision to raise the wall actually was. At the time, people had no idea how "real" the newborn borders were going to be, because something like that had literally never happened before, there was no precedent. If you're interested in the topic of the east/west German border's materialization over time, I'd recommend you to Edith Sheffer's excellent book on the subject [0]. It focuses on adjacent villages in Thuringia, and how they took turns coping with, helping create, and profiting from the existence of the border. It's a great illustration of Simpson's paradox [1]: something that looks kind of simple on the surface (of course there would be a border between NATO and Warsaw Pact), becomes more complicated when you glance at the details (the people living on either side were mostly German citizens, with ideas and ambitions and fulfilling lives). Then, you zoom in on the details (individual people, families, towns, neighborhoods), and again you're presented with something comprehensible. For example, a mayor can get special funding from the Marshall Plan, by emphasizing the propaganda opportunity of building attractions near the border; to get this money, it's helpful to sell the idea of a fundamental difference between east and west; once the attractions are built, there is now a real difference between east and west, whereas before it was imaginary. When you zoom out, it's these little independent assertions of autonomy and appeals to authority that motivate the creation of a border. Super fascinating stuff. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Burned-Bridge-East-Germans-Curtain/dp/0199314616 https://www.amazon.com/Burned-Bridge-East-Germans-Curtain/dp... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson's_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson's_paradox