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The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a long barrier separating West
Berlin from East Berlin and the surrounding territory of East Germany. Its intent
was to restrict access between West Berlin and the German Democratic Republic.
It existed from 1961 until 1989.
Background
After World War II, Berlin, like the rest of Germany, was divided into four sectors,
although it was surrounded on all sides by the Soviet sector of Germany. The
Soviet Union, the United States, 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 Western Allies.
After 1949, the three sectors controlled by the United States, Britain and France
(West Berlin), although nominally still under Allied souvereignity, were in effect
a part of West Germany that was completely surrounded by East Germany.
Initially the citizens of Berlin were allowed to move freely between all the sectors. However, as the Cold War developed movement became restricted; the border between East and West Germany proper was closed in 1952, only in Berlin the border remained open for the time being. Around 2.5 million East Germans crossed into the West between 1949 and 1961; after 1952 this happened almost exclusively by entering West Berlin.
Construction of the Wall
Construction of a barrier around the three western sectors began on August 13, 1961 in East Berlin. It first consisted of barbed wire, which was later replaced by the actual wall. The wall physically divided the city and as it completely surrounded West Berlin, it effectively turned the western sectors into an island in the eastern territories.
East German officials claimed that it was an "antifascist wall of protection", intended to avoid aggression from the West. The West claimed that the wall was created to prevent the citizens of East Germany from entering West Berlin and West Germany. The majority of the professionally skilled workers were already leaving the east, as 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.
Additionally, the whole length of the border between East and West Germany was closed with chain-fences, walls, and other installations (see GDR border system).
The years of the Wall
The Wall was over 155 km (96 miles) long. After the initial construction, it was regularly improved. In June 1962 work started on a second parallel fence, creating an empty, easily observable No Man’s Land between the two barriers, which became widely known as the death strip. People living in this area were relocated, their houses were torn down. 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, most famously, Checkpoint 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. Successful escape attempts included 57 people who escaped through a 145 metre long (475 feet) tunnel dug by West Berliners, on October 3, 4 and 5, 1964; and two escapes made by sliding along aerial runways (one by two men, one by a family). The most notorious failed attempt was by Peter Fechter who was shot and left to bleed to death in full view of the western media, on August 17, 1962. The last person to be shot trying to cross the border was Chris Gueffroy on February 6, 1989.
In 1987, Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate, at which he challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall".
The fall of the Wall
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. The 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 lifted somewhat by the new government’s shift on November 9, 1989. After a misunderstanding, Günter Schabowski announced in a press conference, televised live on East German state TV, that all restrictions had been abandoned. Upon this news spreading, tens of thousands of people immediately went to the Wall, where they quickly became a major crowd control problem for the surprised and overwhelmed border guards. Many hectic telephone calls and much to and fro with the guard’s superiors ensued while still more people kept converging on the major crossing points. It eventually became clear that there was little way to hold back these huge numbers of East German citizens as the vastly outnumbered border guards had only been equipped for another day of regular duty. The masses could also not be convinced to turn back or calm down - they had heard of Mr. Schabowski’s statement and they expected it to be acted upon. Probably the only way to hold the crowds back would have been use of lethal force, but this would have meant massacring the country’s own citizens in huge numbers - which at that point the guards and authorities were simply not willing to do. In face of the escalating crowd safety situation the guards eventually just yielded, opening the access points and allowing people through with (at most) minimal identity verification checks. The ecstatic East Berliners were soon greeted by jubilant West Berliners on the other side in an all-out party atmosphere. November 9 is thus considered the date 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, also called as Ode to Joy, with the chorus’ word "Joy" (freude) changed to "Freedom" (freiheit). 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. (In fact, The Wall’s imagery is of a wall which keeps out rather than in, so to draw any serious connection with the Berlin Wall would be to acknowledge the East Germany’s interpretation of the "anti-fascist wall of protection" rather than the Western view that the wall was essentially meant to turn the East into a giant prison. However, the intended connection was probably more superficial.)
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, which marks the emotional apogee of East Germany’s peaceful revolution, would have made a good German National Holiday. This is reinforced by the fact that November 9 was also the date of the declaration of the first German republic, the Weimar Republic, in 1918. However, because November 9 is also the anniversary of the infamous Kristallnacht pogroms of 1938 October 3 was chosen instead (another reason given for the October 3 date of reunification is that the West German government wanted to conclude reunification before the German Democratic Republic could celebrate a 41st "birthday," on October 7, 1990).
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 demolished just months after its official opening in July 1991 as its track area was desperately needed for new East-West connections.
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 the so-called East Side Gallery, 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.
A September 2004 poll found that one quarter of West Germans and 12% of East Germans wished that East Germans were again cut off from West Germany by the Berlin Wall. [1] Many German public figures have called these numbers "alarming".
Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a private museum is rebuilding a 200-meter section close to Checkpoint Charlie.