Berlin Wall
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The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) separated the city of Berlin in Germany from 1961 to 1989. Many people thought it was a symbol of the Cold War.
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[change] Germany after the Second World War
After World War II ended, Germany was divided into zones, one zone for each of the main Allied countries: France, United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. The whole of Germany was divided into four zones. Its capital Berlin was also divided into four zones, so that it was like an island inside the Soviet zone. In May 1949, the French, English and American zones were made into West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, BRD). The Soviet zone was made into East Germany in retaliation for the Western powers splitting Germany. The (German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR) was founded on October 7, 1949.
Austria was also divided into 4 zones, but the allies soon left because Austria's people promised that Austria would never again be part of Germany. The whole of Europe was separated into a Soviet Union zone in the East and a US-dominated zone in the West. The splitting of Europe, Germany and especially Berlin into two political blocks was part of the Cold War between the United States of America and other western countries on one side and the Soviet Union and its allies on the other. The wartime Allied Forces split after their common enemy, Nazi Germany, (which was led by the dictator Adolf Hitler) was defeated in May 1945.
[change] What led to the building of the wall
After Germany split into West and East Germany in 1949, 2.6 million East Germans left to go to West Germany. To stop this, on August 13 1961, the Communist government of East Germany built a wall separating East and West Berlin.
The wall was built to keep the country's people in. But the Soviets and East German Government said it was to keep capitalism out. They said that West Germany refused to recognize East Germany as an independent country because they wanted to take over East Germany just like Hitler took over Poland.
In the late 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev said that the Soviet Union would not stop the people of Eastern and Middle Europe from changing their government by using military force. After he said that, several countries began to change the way they governed their people. Hungary opened its border and people from East Germany began moving to the west through Hungary. In October 1989 mass demonstrations against the government in East Germany began. The long-time leader, Erich Honecker, resigned and was replaced by Egon Krenz a few days later. Honecker had predicted in January 1989 that the wall would stand for a "hundred more years" if the conditions which had caused its construction did not change. In November, 1989, the Central Committee of East Germany decided to make it easier for East Germans to pass through the wall. A mistake by the Press Officer meant the border was opened several hours before it should have been. Millions of East German citizens celebrated the opening of the wall. Many collected souvenirs with chisels and some TV stations filmed people hitting the wall with sledge hammers.
This image of people in West Berlin hitting the wall is often said to be East Berliners breaking out. This is not true. The Eastern side of the wall had no graffiti on it but all pictures of people chipping away at the wall show people hitting graffiti covered walls. Less than one year after the Berlin Wall was broken down, Germany again became one country.
 Satellite image of Berlin. The yellow line is where the Wall was. |
 Where the Berlin Wall wass inside Berlin (Checkpoints, or places that people could cross the wall, are shown). |
 Panel at the border of the sector boundary in Berlin |
 Same panel, other side |
[change] Death toll
In the 28 years of its existence, over 192 people were killed when trying to cross the Berlin Wall. At least 800 more people were killed outside Berlin, trying to cross from East Germany to the west.
The East Germans did not record all of the deaths, so the real number may never be known.
Those people who were caught alive in an attempt to flee, had to go to prison for at least 5 years. The first victim of the Wall was Ida Siekmann. She was fatally injured after jumping out of the window of her apartment. She fell onto the pavement (which belonged to the west). The first victim of the wall to be shot at was Günter Litfin. He was 24 years old and was shot by police, near the railway station of Berlin Friedrichstrasse, when he tried to get into the West. This was on 24 August, 1961, only 11 days after the border had been closed.
Peter Fechter bled to death in the death strip, on 17 August, 1962. This lead to a public outcry. American troops watched him, but could not help him. The East-German border policemen, who had wounded him, did not help him either.
In 1966, two children, aged 10 and 13 years, were killed in the border strip. This is unusual because the East German border police had orders not to shoot on pregnant women, children or mentally ill people.
The last death took place on 6 February, 1989, when Chris Gueffroy died trying to escape into West Berlin.
[change] What the wall was made of
The wall was changed and added to several times. It was not really a wall, but a collection of walls and fences and other devices. This is what the border fence was made of, starting from the east, going west
- Concrete wall or wire fence, 2-3 metres high
- Signalling system in the floor, which would cause an alarm to be sounded when touched
- Contact wire fence with barbed wire fence. Taller than a man.
- (Not in all places) Kennels for dogs. With German Shepherd Dogs or other trained dogs.
- (Not in all places) Equipment and trenches to stop vehicles and tanks. These systems would be removed (if the West paid for the removal). Most were replaced later.
- Streets to get replacements and reinforcements in.
- Watchtowers (in 1989 there were 302 of them). Including searchlights
- death strip. This was a raised area, with nowhere to hide. Sometimes there were strips of sand where footprints could be detected.
- Metallic fence, could only be seen through obliquely (ie. no direct line of sight), then the border itself:
- Concrete wall, 3.75 in height. Very hard to climb.
The whole was done in an a zone of between 30 and 500 m wide. The official (civil border) began before the first fence. Entering the installation required a special permit. The real border was about one or two metres in front of the concrete wall, so that the whole of the wall complex was inside East Berlin.
The border between East Germany and West Germany was also heavily defended with fences and mines. East Germans needed a special permit to live close to the border.
[change] What is left today
 Watchtower, near Potsdam Square. |
 A part of the Berlin Wall, that is left today. |
 In many places where the Wall was torn down, bricks like these have been put. |
 Commemorative plates have been made. This one says Berlin Wall 1963-1989. |
After the Unification of Germany, the Wall was demolished. A few sections of Wall remain, for the sake of remembering the events.
- Of the total of 302 watchtowers, 5 are left.
- The so called Todesstreifen (death zone) can still be seen in many places. Large areas of brown, uncultivated land. Sometimes they are now parks.
- There is a private museum at Checkpoint Charlie
- A cemetery near Checkpoint Charlie, remembering the victims of the Wall.
[change] Controversies
The East Berlin people who guarded the wall (a special police corps), had the order to shoot if this was necessary to stop people fleeing. East German leaders such as Egon Krenz were arrested after German Reunification because guards were orderd to shoot to kill.[1]
However, after the Wall was built, many people were no longer able to leave East Berlin using normal border posts. The only way they could do so was to race through the Wall or try to dig a tunnel underneath.
After the unification of Germany, border guards who had shot people were convicted by West German Courts. The judges said, that some of the laws of the border police (about shooting) were against human rights. They therefore should have refused to shoot.
The same was of course applied to those people who had shot border police on their flight.
Border guards who did shoot, and stop someone from fleeing could get a reward of up to 500 Marks. Some of those guards were sentenced after the unification.
The other choice was to not shoot, or to miss badly. Such guards risked losing their well-paid jobs.
[change] Curiosities
- In 1988, there was a swapping of territory between East and West Berlin. Some territory, called the Lenné triangle (near Potsdamer Platz), was now part of the West. A few days after the swap, a group of ecology protestors fled from the western police into East Berlin, over the Wall. They were given a meal and sent back by the border guards.
Another strip of land was given to West Berlin. This strip was only the width of a road which joined West Berlin with a tiny exclave
[change] See also
[change] Other websites
- www.wall-berlin.org
- Berlin Wall Fotos an More (In German)
- Retracing the Berlin Wall
- Bernauer Straße Memorial website
- Allied Forces in Berlin (FR, UK & US Berlin Brigade)
- Photographs of time of the Fall as well as updates on the current situation in Germany
- Reports on reinforcements to Berlin Brigade
- "Berlin 1969" includes sections on Helmstedt-Berlin rail operations.
- Includes articles on rail transport for Berlin during the Cold War. (large files)
- Berlin 1983: Berlin and the Wall in the early 1980s
- Berlin Life: A concise but thorough history of the wall
[change] Images and personal accounts
