Berlin-Wall.co.uk

The Berlin Wall – landmark and memorial at the same time

“It is no one’s intention to erect a wall in Berlin”. This was the answer given by the GDR's Head of State, Walter Ulbrecht, in response to insistent questioning by the German journalist Anamaria Doherr at an international press conference in East-Berlin on 15.June 1961. However, despite this declaration of intent, only a few weeks later The Berlin Wall was built, thus giving the so-called Cold War a bizarre face.

What Germany gained was a spectacular monument that became a memorial for violence, division, tears and grief, as well as a symbol for opposing ideologies. What began with the closure of streets and rail tracks to West Berlin by thousands of officers of the German border police and people’s police force (the so-called “VOPO”) on 13.August 1961, became world-famous as The Wall in a painful way. At the end of the building process there was, 155 kilometres of concrete wall, metal fences, watch towers, bunkers, mine fields, ditches, beds of nails and electric fences meant a total separation of Berlin into two sectors and brought about the destruction of economic and political ties and family connections.

Democracy and market economy versus socialism and planned economy

The causes for Germany’s national catastrophe lie further back in the past. As early as 1944, at the start of the so-called Cold War which began with the separation of Berlin into four sectors, the fundamentally divided views of the Allied forces created deep-rooted political, ideological and economic rifts. And – this is what caused the split of Germany into an East and a West sector. As early as 1946 the free flow of traffic was prohibited, and in 1949 the state was finally separated into the FRG and the GDR. Before the construction of The Wall in 1961 the political climate was a tense one which had gained further momentum through the second Berlin crisis in 1958 when the conflict culminated and escalated in a debate within both blocs about the question of a possible nuclear solution.

Separation after the Second World War

In 1945 the first external markings of separation became apparent. Back then, wooden pillars, barbed wire and barriers were erected along the so-called demarcation line (Green Zone), which segregated the western and Soviet occupied zones over nearly 1400 kilometres. The border between the sectors of West and East Berlin increasingly became a problem for the GDR, as it served as a vanishing point for millions of people escaping to West Germany. Young people and key administrators turned their backs on the GDR in this way, which meant that the economic situation threatened to collapse. In order to prevent further emigration, ground breaking constructions started in the early hours of 13.August 1961, which later developed into a systematic enclosure of the German Democratic Republic holding its people captive for 28 years. On 9.November 1989 the monument of separation finally fell. Civil rights movements took advantage of the total bankruptcy of the socialist state and peacefully fought their way into freedom.

Exactly how many people were injured or even killed during attempts to escape from the GDR remains unclear to this day. While the Centre of Historic Research in Potsdam claims there were 125 dead at the Berlin Wall, the museum of The Wall at Checkpoint Charlie propagates a number of 252. According to latest discoveries, 600-800 refugees lost their lives along the German-German border and The Berlin Wall. Many of them were shot in cold blood, robbed and dumped within the area of the border.

On the trail of The Wall

Where the border once ran can still be tracked today. It has been marked by a guiding line which also runs right through Berlin. Bigger pieces of the original Wall remain as memorials in a few locations, such as the one at Bernauer-Strasse. The longest and most fully preserved piece of The Wall is situated in Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain. On Mühlenstrasse 1.3 kilometres of wall in total act as a reminder of the dark chapter in German post-war history and has been painted by artists from around the world. Among these paintings one can find well-known subjects such as “test the best” by Birgit Kinder depicting a “Trabbi” (old-fashioned East-German car) breaking through The Wall. Equally as noteworthy and world-renowned is “Bruderkuss” (Brotherly Kiss), a piece displaying Honecker and Breshnev in brotherly pose. These pictures immortalised on pieces of The Wall have acted as a magnet for tourists from all over the world and were named the “East Side Gallery” in 1990. It now stands under the protection of historical monuments and has become the symbol of the city’s division. Whilst plans to take the East Side Gallery on tour around the world failed, many small pieces of The Wall were snatched away by so-called “wall-peckers” and brought to cities such as New York where they are exhibited and presented to the public.