There are several gripping stories that emerged as a result of the Berlin Wall. The following is an excerpt from one of the people affected by it. 

“I was a 14-year-old army dependant living in a German neighbourhood of Bad Kreuznach, Germany My father was a major; my mother was German. No one had televisions on our street; news came by human contact, newspapers, and telephones. The night the Wall went up (the beginning of the process, anyway), my family was in our home. We began to hear people outside yelling, crying, louder and louder. We went into the street to witness tragic panic and fear. Neighbours were telling each other (and us) that they had relatives in East Berlin – they had tried to contact them, but couldn’t – that no one knew what was happening. Rumours spread. Some thought their relatives had been killed, or would soon be killed. I had never witnessed anything like this. Everyone cried. As time went on, neighbours told us they thought their loved ones behind the wall were lost to them for good … I’m sure some of those ‘lost’ relations died over that period. That night is etched in my permanent memory.” 

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/guardianwitness-blog/2014/nov/07/-sp-berlin-wall-readers-memories-its-hard-to-remember-how-scary-the-wall-was

People were creative in their ways to communicate with people across the wall. Some found ways to talk over it in stretches where security was not that vigilant. Others found ways to escape over it.