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Berlin Wall on November 16, 1989
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer)
was a long wall isolating West Berlin
from East Berlin and the surrounding territory of East Germany. It existed from 1961 until
1989.
Background
After World War II, Berlin was
divided into four sectors. The Soviet Union, the USA, the United Kingdom and France each had a portion of the city under their control. The Soviet sector was by far the largest and covered most
of eastern Berlin - Friedrichshain, Köpenick, Lichtenberg, Mitte, Pankow, Prenzlauer Berg, Treptow, and Weißensee.
In 1948, the Berlin Blockade
by the Soviet Union led to the Berlin Airlift by the United States.
After 1949, the three sectors controlled by the United States, Britain and France
(West Berlin), although nominally independent, were in effect 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. Around 2.5 million East Germans crossed into the West between 1949 and 1961.
Construction of the Wall
Construction of a 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 German border guard Conrad Schumann leaps to freedom over barbed wire in Berlin on August 15, 1961
East Germany claimed that it was an "antifascist wall of protection" intended to avoid aggression from the West. The West
claimed that it was created to prevent the citizens of East Germany, especially the professionally skilled workers who were the
majority of whom were leaving, from entering West Berlin and thereby West Germany (East Germany did not completely control
traffic between West Berlin and the rest of West Germany).
During the construction of the wall, NVA and
KdA soldiers stood in front of it
with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect.
The years of the Wall
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 ).
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.
The fall of the Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the symbolic end of the Cold War.
On August 23, 1989, Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria, and in September more than 13,000 East Germans escaped through Hungary. Mass demonstrations against the
government in East Germany began in the fall of 1989. Leader of the German Democratic Republic, Erich
Honecker, resigned on October 18, 1989. 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 opened access points and
allowed them through. November 9 is thus considered the date when the Wall fell.
Celebrations
On Christmas Day, December 25, 1989 Leonard Bernstein gave a
concert in Berlin celebrating the end of the Wall, including Beethoven's 9th
symphony with the chorus' word "Joy" changed to "Freedom". Roger Waters
performed the Pink Floyd concert The
Wall in Potsdamer Platz on 21 July 1990, with guest including The Scorpions, Bryan Adams, and Van Morrison.
The fall of the wall was the first step to the reunification of Germany, which was formally concluded on
October 3, 1990.
Some believe November 9 would have made a good German National Holiday, since November 9 is also the date of the declaration
of the Weimar Republic in 1918.
However, because it is also the anniversary of Kristallnacht,
October 3 was chosen instead.
Aftermath
The fall of the wall considerably changed traffic patterns in the city, and the M-Bahn, a maglev system connecting 3 metro stations over 1.6 km, was deconstructed just months after its official opening in
July 1991.
Remains of the Berlin Wall, June 2003
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 picture), 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 graffiti are mostly visible on the eastern side of the Wall, which
obviously was not achieveable while the Wall was actually guarded by heavily armed soldiers of East Germany. Previously, graffiti
was exclusively on the western side.
See also
External links
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