Berlin Wall
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Contents |
[edit] Germany after the Second World War
After the Second World War, Germany was divided into zones, one zone for each member states of the Allied Forces: France, Great Britain, the United States of America and the Soviet Union. On one hand, the whole of Germany without its capital Berlin was divided into four zones, and on the other hand, so was Berlin, which was like an island in the Soviet Union zone. In 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 (German Democratic Republic, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR). In a similar way, Austria was divided into zones (but in the end remained one country) and somehow the whole of Europe was separated into a Soviet Union zone in the East and a non-Soviet Union zone in the West. This 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 hand and the Soviet Union and its controlled countries on the other, which split the Allied Forces after the common enemy, dictator Adolf Hitler, was defeated in 1945.
[edit] What led to the building of the wall
Since the split into West and East Germany in 1949, about two million East Germans fled from the Communists to West Germany. To stop this, in August of 1961, the Communist government of East Germany ordered the building of a wall separating East and West Berlin to prevent people from escaping. For the first time in history, a wall was built not to keep enemies out but to keep the country's people in. In November, 1989, Germany was united and millions of Berlin citizens flooded into the streets to celebrate. They attacked and tore down sections of the wall with sledgehammers and hundreds of thousands of Germans crossed into the West side to visit relatives they had long been isolated from.
 Satellite image of Berlin. The yellow line is where the Wall is. |
 Location of the Berlin Wall inside Berlin (with checkpoints). West Berlin was essentially an exclave of West Germany in East Germany |
 Panel at the border of the sector boundary in Berlin |
 Same panel, other side |
[edit] Death toll
In the 28 years of its existence, 86 persons were killed when trying to flee from East Germany. In reality the number of killed persons was higher, much higher probably. However, this is difficult to tell, even now, as such deaths were not recorded properly by the authorities of East Germany. Those persons that 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 Günter Litfin. He was 24 years old and was shot by transportation 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 inner-german 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 were watching him bleed, but could not do anything. The East-German border policemen, who had wounded him, of course did not help him.
In 1966, two children, aged 10 and 13 years, were killed by at least 40 gunshots in the border strip. This is unusual because the 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 bled to death.
[edit] What the wall was made of
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, 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). Replaced later. Easy way to get hard money.
- Streets to get replacements and reinforcements in.
- Watchtowers (in 1989 there were 302 of them). Including searchlights
- death strip. This was a razed area, with nowhere to hide. Sometimes there were strips of sand where footprints could be detected. Example in the image above.
- Metallic fence, could only be seen through obliquely (ie. no direct line of sight)
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.
[edit] 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 it now features parks.
- There is a museum at Checkpoint Charlie
- A cemetery near Checkpoint Charlie, remembering the victims of the Wall.
[edit] Controversies
The East Berlin people who guarded the wall (a special police corps), had the order to shoot (aiming for the legs) if this was necessary to stop people fleeing. This was usually, done only after verbal warnings had been given, as a last resort:
- Stop, this is border police
- Stop, or I will shoot
- (warning shot fired into the air)
- If the trespasser had not stopped by then, and there was no other means to stop them, aimed shots could be fired. Aim should be taken to the legs, to stop them.
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 through the race at the Wall.
After the unification of Germany, border guards who had shot people were convicted by (West-German) Courts. The judges said, that the fact that some of the legislation of the border police (regarding shooting) was against human rights. This must have been obvious even to those at the lowest ranks of the border police. They therefore should have refused to shoot.
The same was of course applied to those people who had shot border police on their flight.
If you were such a border guard, you had two options: Shoot, and (possibly) prevent someone from fleeing. This got you a reward of up to 500 Mark. You might have to live with the remorse of perhaps having killed someone. As is stated above, some of those guards were sentenced after the unification.
The other option was to not shoot, or to miss badly. Such guards risked their (well-paid) jobs.
[edit] 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 symbolicaly from the western police into East Berlin, over the Wall. They were give and meal and sent back by the border guards .
[edit] See also
- Iron Curtain
- Israeli border fence
[edit] External links
- www.wall-berlin.org
- 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
