The guarded corridor between the Berlin Wall’s two walls was called the death strip.
The Berlin Wall was not simply one continuous concrete barrier. Its final defensive system included an inner wall facing East Berlin, a broad controlled zone, and an outer wall facing West Berlin. The space between them contained patrol roads, floodlights, obstacles, sand or gravel surfaces, anti-vehicle trenches, and other security measures designed to reveal escape attempts.
The phrase “death strip” became widely associated with this corridor because East German border troops guarded it intensely and were authorized to stop unauthorized crossings, including with firearms. The zone varied in width, and some sections included watchtowers and additional fencing. Its purpose was to make reaching the western wall extremely difficult before a person could climb over it.
A common mix-up is treating the death strip as the Wall itself. Strictly speaking, it was the dangerous, heavily monitored area between defensive barriers. By 1989, the Berlin Wall’s system included hundreds of watchtowers, while the barrier encircled West Berlin for about 156 kilometers.