Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a long wall isolating West Berlin from the surrounding territory of East Germany. It existed from 1961 until 1989.

After World War II, Berlin was divided into four sectors. The Russians, Americans, British and French each had a portion of the city under their control. The Russian sector was by far the largest and covered most of eastern Berlin -- Friedrichshain, Köpenick, Lichtenberg, Mitte, Pankow, Prenzlauer Berg, Treptow, and Weißensee.

From 1949 the three sectors controlled by the United States, England and France (West Berlin) formed a part of West Germany that was completely surrounded by East Germany.

Initially the citizens of Berlin were allowed to freely move between all the sectors, but as the Cold War developed movement became restricted; the border between East and West Germany was closed in 1952 and the attractiveness of the Western sectors of Berlin to the citizens of East Germany increased. Around 2.5 million East Germans crossed into the West between 1949 and 1961.

To stop the migration, construction of the Berlin Wall around the three western sectors began on August 13, 1961, East Berlin. It first consisted of barbed wire, which was later replaced by the actual wall. The wall physically divided the city; as it completely surrounded West Berlin, it effectively turned the western sectors into an island in the eastern territories.

East Germany claimed that it was an "antifascist wall of protection" intended to avoid aggression from the West. It was clear from the beginning that this justification served to delude from the fact that the citizens of East Germany should be prevented from entering West-Berlin and thereby West Germany (East Germany did not completely control traffic between West Berlin and the rest of West Germany).

The Wall was over 155 km long. After the initial construction it was regularly improved. The "fourth generation wall", begun in 1975, was reinforced concrete, 3.6m high and constructed out of 45,000 separate 1.5m sections at a cost of 16,155,000 East German Marks. The border was also guarded by mesh fencing, signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire, over 300 watch towers, and thirty bunkers.

At first there was only one crossing point for Westerners, at Friedrichstraße[?]; the Western powers had two further checkpoints, at Helmstedt[?] on the border between East-Germany and the main part of West-Germany and Dreilinden[?] on the south border of West Berlin. The checkpoints were named phonetically Alpha (Helmstedt), Bravo (Dreilinden), and Charlie (Friedrichstraße) (see map of Berlin with crossings (http://www.wall-berlin.org/gb/carte07.htm)).

During the Wall's existence there were around 5,000 successful 'escapes' into West Berlin; 192 people were killed trying to cross and around 200 were seriously injured.

On August 23, 1989, Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria and in September 1989 more than 13,000 East Germans escaped via Hungary. Mass demonstrations against the government in East Germany began in the fall of 1989. Erich Honecker resigned on October 18, 1989, and he was replaced by a short-lived successor Egon Krenz a few days later.

The travel restrictions for East Germans were somewhat lifted by the new government on November 9, 1989. After a misunderstanding, Günter Schabowski[?] announced in a press conference that all restrictions had been abandoned, and tens of thousands of people immediately went to the Wall where the border guards helplessly opened access points and allowed them through. November 9 is thus considered the date when the Wall fell. On Christmas Day, December 25, 1989 Leonard Bernstein gave a concert in Berlin celebrating the Fall of the Wall, the first step to the reunification[?] of Germany, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

Not much is left of the Wall in Berlin today. The Wall was physically destroyed almost everywhere, except for three locations: one section of 80m near Potsdamer Platz (see the picture on the right), a second longer one along the Spree River near the Oberbaumbrücke, and a third one in the north at Bernauer Straße[?], which was turned into a memorial in 1999. Even the parts that are left no longer entirely represent the Wall's original appearance: they are badly damaged (since so many people attempted to pick up "original Berlin Wall" pieces), and today's graffitis are mostly visible on the eastern side of the Wall, which obviously wasn't achieveable while the Wall was actually guarded by heavily armed soldiers of East Germany. Previously, graffitis were exclusively on the western side.

Many believe November 9 would have made a good German National Holiday, since November 9 is also the date of the declaration of the Republic in 1918 and of the so-called Kristallnacht in 1938, thus giving a good profile of the good and evil in German history. Instead, October 3 was chosen.

Related articles

• Berlin

External link

• www.wall-berlin.og (http://www.wall-berlin.org/)
• Bernauer Straße Memorial website (http://www.berliner-mauer-dokumentationszentrum.de/)