Fragment of the Berlin Wall

An undisturbed section of the Berlin Wall is located on Bernauer Straße, the street that divided the life of Berliners in two. This border, equipped and fortified with the latest technology, ran along it in due time. In the German Democratic Republic, it was officially called the Anti-Fascist Wall of Defense. In the West, with the light hand of the then German Chancellor Willy Brandt, it was called nothing but the "Shameful Wall", and also quite officially. Today, it’s hard to believe that the cordon between the two states could have been just that - cutting on the living: the houses on Bernauer Strasse belonged to the GDR, and the sidewalk in front of them belonged to West Berlin.

The Berlin Wall was and is perceived throughout the world as the ugliest manifestation of the Cold War. The Germans themselves associate it not only with the division, but also the unification of Germany. On the preserved section of this ominous border, a unique East Side Gallery subsequently appeared, attracting the attention of not only art connoisseurs, but also all freedom-loving citizens for whom democratic values \u200b\u200bare not just beautiful words, but a state of mind. A separate attraction on the former border is Checkpoint Charlie - the most famous of the three checkpoints on Friedrichstrasse, which now houses the Berlin Wall Museum.

There are probably not many places in the world where you can literally touch history with your own hands, and the Berlin Wall is one of them. For many years, this former border literally cut the millionth metropolis in two, not only along the streets and the Spree River, but also in residential areas. Not to mention divided families, broken human destinies and the lives of innocent people taken away, who in despair dared to cross it illegally. So this place in the German capital is more than unique and worth seeing with your own eyes at least once.

What preceded construction

At the time of the appearance of the wall, two Germany, the FRG and the GDR, were still very young formations and there was no clearly defined border between them on the ground. The same was observed in Berlin, the division of which into eastern and western parts was a fact more legal than real. This transparency led to conflicts at the political level and a massive outflow of specialists from the Soviet zone of occupation to the west. And this is not surprising: after all, they paid more in the Federal Republic, so the East Germans (Ossi) preferred to work there and simply fled from the "socialist paradise". At the same time, both states that emerged on the territory of the former Reich after World War II, to put it mildly, were not friends with each other, which led to a serious aggravation of the situation around the once common capital - Berlin.

During the existence of both Germany, there have been several so-called Berlin crises. The first two happened in 1948-1949 and 1953. The third broke out in 1958 and lasted three years: it turned out to be especially tense. By this time, the eastern regions of Berlin, legally remaining under Soviet occupation, were actually controlled by the GDR. The rest of the city was both de jure and de facto ruled by the Americans, British and French. The Soviet Union demanded the status of a free city for West Berlin. The allies in the anti-Hitler coalition rejected these demands, fearing that the enclave could subsequently be annexed to the GDR, and they would be unable to do anything.

The situation was also negatively affected by the distortions in the economic policy pursued by the government of the German Democratic Republic, headed by Walter Ulbricht. It sought to "catch up and overtake" the FRG and, it seems, was ready to sacrifice anything in order to achieve the goal. Following the example of the USSR, collective farms were forcibly created in the agricultural sector, and labor standards for workers in cities were raised. However, a small salary and a generally low standard of living forced East Germans to seek a better life in the West, and people fled en masse. In 1960 alone, about 400 thousand people left their homeland. The leadership understood perfectly well: if this process is not stopped, then the young state will order a long life.

What to do in such a difficult situation? They puzzled over this at the highest level: on August 3, 1961, the top officials of the Warsaw Pact countries gathered for an emergency meeting in Moscow. President Ulbricht believed that closing the border with West Berlin was the only way out. The allies did not mind, but they had little idea of \u200b\u200bhow to implement this in practice. Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, proposed two options. The first, the air barrier, was ultimately rejected by the negotiators, since it was fraught with problems in the international arena, and above all complications with the United States. The second remained - the wall that would have divided Berlin in two. They decided to stop at it.

Construction of the Berlin Wall

The appearance of a physical border between the two parts of Berlin came as a complete surprise to the population. It all started on the night of August 13, 1961, when the troops of the GDR were pulled together to the conditional dividing line. They promptly, with the help of barbed wire, closed all sections of the border within the city limits. The Berliners, who had gathered on both sides the next morning, were ordered by the military to disperse, but the people did not listen to them. It is not known what this spontaneous rally would have developed if it had not been for the water cannons driven by the authorities, with which they hit the crowd, dispersing it in less than an hour.

Within two days, the servicemen, along with the workers' squads and the police, surrounded the entire western zone with barbed wire. About 200 streets, a dozen tramways and several Berlin metro lines were blocked off. In places that adjoined the new border, telephone communications and power lines were cut off. At the same time, they drowned out the water and sewer pipes that lay here. Then the construction of the Berlin Wall began, which lasted until the first half of the 70s. During this time, the concrete border has acquired its ominous appearance. There were high-rise buildings adjacent to it, where, of course, it was already impossible to live, so the owners of the apartments were relocated, and the windows facing the “enemy's” side were bricked up. Potsdamer Platz was also closed to the public, instantly becoming a border.

It is interesting that the Brandenburg Gate, a visiting card of Berlin and one of the symbols of all of Germany, was on the way of the odious building. But she could not become an obstacle to construction. The authorities did not think long and decided ... to enclose them with a wall, and from all sides. No sooner said than done: as a result, residents of not only the western part of the city, but also the capital of the GDR could not even approach the gates, let alone pass through them. So the famous tourist attraction was sacrificed to political confrontation and was closed to the public until 1990.

What the controversial border looked like

The border, which could only be compared with a fortress gate, was more than just a wall. It was a complex structure that consisted of a concrete structure proper (length - 106 km, average height 3.6 m), as well as two types of fences. The first is made of a metal mesh (66.5 km), the second is made of barbed wire (127.5 km), stretched over the wall through which the voltage was released. When trying to penetrate through it, signal flares went off, and border guards immediately went to the place of illegal crossing of the Berlin Wall. Meeting with them, as you know, turned into big trouble for violators.

The “shameful wall” stretched for as much as 155 km, of which 43.1 km fell on the city line. The border was also fortified by a system of earthen ditches stretching for 105.5 km. In some areas there were anti-tank fortifications and stripes dotted with metal spikes, which were called "Stalin's lawns." In addition, along the perimeter of the ominous cordon, there were 302 watchtowers and other border structures (there were no fences except in places where the cordon ran along the Spree). Along it, the authorities set up a special area with warning signs, on which it was strictly forbidden to be.

Falling and breaking the wall

In June 1987, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, attended Berlin's 750th anniversary celebrations. It was at the Brandenburg Gate that he delivered his famous speech with the words addressed to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! " It is difficult to say whether the American leader believed that his Soviet colleague was listening to his call - most likely not. Another thing is obvious: neither the head of the White House, nor the owner of the Kremlin at that time even imagined that the ominous border would not last long ...

In the fall of the Berlin Wall, which another American president, John F. Kennedy, called "a slap in the face to all mankind," ... Hungary played an unexpected role. In May 1989, the authorities of this country, thanks to the perestroika in the USSR, who were no longer afraid of their "older brother", decided to lift the "iron curtain" on the cordon with Austria. The citizens of East Germany just needed this, and they rushed en masse to neighboring Czechoslovakia and Poland. The goal is to get from these countries first to Hungary, and from there, in transit through Austria, to get to Germany. As in the early 1960s, the leadership of the GDR could not restrain this flow and no longer controlled the situation. In addition, mass demonstrations began in the republic: people demanded a better life and civil liberties.

After the resignation of long-term leader Erich Honecker and those close to him, the outflow of people to the West became even larger, and this circumstance only emphasized the senselessness of the existence of the Berlin Wall. On November 9, 1989, it was announced on television that the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED had decided to lift restrictions on crossing the border with West Berlin and the FRG. The Ossies did not wait for the new norms to take effect, and in the evening of the same day they rushed to the ominous structure. The border guards tried to push back the crowd with the already tested means - water cannons, but in the end they yielded to the pressure and opened the border. On the other side of it, too, gathered people who rushed to East Berlin. Residents of the divided city hugged each other, laughed and cried with happiness - for the first time in thirty years!

The date December 22, 1989 became significant: on that memorable day, the Brandenburg Gate was opened for passage. As for the Berlin Wall itself, it still stood in the same place, but little remained of its former frightening appearance. In some places it was already broken, in some places it was painted with many graffiti. People put drawings on it and left inscriptions. Not only tourists, but also the townspeople themselves could not deny themselves the desire to chop off at least one piece from the wall - as a souvenir, realizing that this is not just a souvenir, but a priceless historical artifact. Moreover, the wall was soon completely demolished, this happened a few months after the unification of the FRG and the GDR into a single state, which took place on the night of October 3, 1990.

Berlin Wall today

An object like the Berlin Wall, having ceased to exist physically, still could not disappear without a trace. After her, a bad memory remained, which is unlikely to be erased from public consciousness. And it is hardly worth forgetting the sad lessons of history that are needed in order to prevent this from happening in the future. This border not only divided the whole city alive - it became a place sprinkled with the blood of innocent people who desperately tried to escape from a totalitarian state, but died while crossing it. The exact number of victims is still unknown. According to the official statistics of the former GDR, there were 125 of them. Several other sources give the following figure: 192 people. However, there is every reason to believe that these data are clearly underestimated. According to some media outlets citing the archives of the Stasi (East German secret police), the death toll is 1,245.

Most of the memorial complex "Berlin Wall", which was opened on May 21, 2010, which was named the "Window of Memory", was dedicated to the innocent victims of political confrontation. Made of rusted steel, the monument weighs about a ton. It has several rows of black and white photographs of the dead. Some found their death by jumping from the windows of houses on Bernauer Strasse - the very ones that were later bricked up. Others died while trying to get from East Berlin to the western part of the city. The entire memorial, located on Bernauer Straße, was completed in 2012 and covers an area of \u200b\u200b4 hectares. The chapel of Reconciliation, erected back in 2000 on the site of the church of the same name, which was blown up in 1985, became part of it. The construction of the complex - it was initiated by the pastor of the Evangelical Church Manfred Fischer - cost the city treasury 28 million euros. But can historical memory be measured in money? Commemorative plaque at the site of the Berlin Wall

The preserved fragment of the Berlin Wall with a length of 1316 meters has remained a "living" reminder of the tragic times of separation and confrontation all these years. When the concrete border fell, artists from all over the world rushed here, inspired by the spirit of freedom. They painted the rest of the wall with their own paintings. So, unexpectedly and completely spontaneously, an entire open-air art gallery arose, called the East Side Gallery (East Side), which translates as "Gallery of the east side." The result of spontaneous creativity was the appearance of 106 paintings, united by the theme of political detente in 1989-1990 in East Germany. The most famous and recognizable work is the fresco by our compatriot Dmitry Vrubel. The artist captured in the form of graffiti the famous kiss of the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev and the first secretary of the SED Central Committee Erich Honecker.

Separately, it should be said about the former checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint Charlie) on Friedrichstrasse, the most famous of the three checkpoints controlled by the Americans. Only dignitaries could cross the border through Checkpoint Charlie. Attempts by ordinary Germans to illegally penetrate from here into West Berlin were brutally suppressed by the border guards of the GDR, who fired to kill at every violator without warning.

At the aforementioned border point, there is now the Berlin Wall Museum, among the exhibits of which various techniques and devices are presented, with the help of which the inhabitants of the "socialist paradise" tried to escape to "decaying capitalism". These are parachutes, paragliders, small submarines and even armored vehicles and balloons. In the collection there are a lot of photographs depicting watchtowers, bunkers, technical means of warning and much more, for which the Berlin Wall is sadly famous throughout the civilized world. Relatives of Berliners who died trying to cross the wall often come here.

One of the most popular exhibitions is Soviet and American soldiers looking at each other, whose portraits are housed in light boxes (by artist Frank Thiel). Another famous exposition - "From Gandhi to Walesa" - is devoted to the theme of a person's struggle for their civil rights, but only by peaceful means, without violence and bloodshed. The open-air exposition tells about the history of the Checkpoint Charlie checkpoint itself: comments on photographs are available both in German and in Russian. The museum will also show tourists a documentary about the stages of the destruction of this eerie border, which seemed to last forever.

How to get there

Considering that the Berlin Wall stretched within the city for several tens of kilometers, it does not have an address in the usual sense.

The surviving fragments of this engineering concrete structure are scattered in various areas along its entire perimeter. The most preserved and significant sections of the legendary border can be reached by metro, reaching the Niederkirchenstracce and Warschauer Straße stations.

Official website of the Berlin Wall Memorial: www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de. Materials are duplicated in three languages: German, English and French.

After the end of World War II, Berlin was occupied by four countries: the USA, Great Britain, France and the USSR. And since after the victory over the common enemy the confrontation between the USSR and the NATO bloc began to grow with renewed vigor, soon Germany, and Berlin in particular, was divided into two camps the socialist GDR (German Democratic Republic) and the democratic West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany). This is how Berlin became bipolar. It is worth noting that until 1961, movement between the two states was practically free and thrifty Germans managed to get free Soviet education in the GDR, but work in the western part of the country.

The lack of a clear physical border between the zones led to frequent conflicts, the smuggling of goods and a massive outflow of specialists to the FRG. In the period from January 1 to August 13, 1961, 207 thousand specialists left the GDR. The authorities claimed the annual economic damage from this amounted to 2.5 billion marks.

The construction of the Berlin Wall was preceded by a serious aggravation of the political situation around Berlin, since both sides of the conflict (NATO and the USSR) claimed the city as part of the newly formed states. In August 1960, the GDR government imposed restrictions on citizens of the FRG from visiting East Berlin, citing the need to suppress their "Western propaganda". In response, all trade relations between the FRG and the GDR were severed, and both sides of the conflict and their allies began to increase their military presence in the region.

In conditions of aggravation of the situation around Berlin, the leaders of the GDR and the USSR held an emergency meeting, at which they decided to close the border. On August 13, 1961, construction of the wall began. In the first hour of the night, troops were brought up to the border area between West and East Berlin, which for several hours completely blocked all sections of the border located within the city. By August 15, the entire western zone was surrounded by barbed wire, and the immediate construction of the wall began. On the same day, four lines of the Berlin underground and some lines of the city rail were closed. Potsdamer Platz was also closed, as it was in the border zone. Many buildings and residential buildings adjacent to the future border have been evicted. The windows overlooking West Berlin were bricked up, and later, during the reconstruction, the walls were completely demolished.

Construction and refurbishment of the wall lasted from 1962 to 1975. By 1975, it acquired its final form, turning into a complex engineering structure under the name Grenzmauer-75. The wall consisted of 3.60 m high concrete segments, equipped on top with virtually insurmountable cylindrical barriers. If necessary, the wall could be increased in height. In addition to the wall itself, new watchtowers, buildings for border guards were erected, the number of street lighting equipment was increased, and a complex system of barriers was created. From the side of East Berlin along the wall there was a special forbidden zone with warning signs, after the wall there were rows of anti-tank hedgehogs, or a strip dotted with metal spikes, nicknamed "Stalin's lawn", then there was a metal mesh with barbed wire and signal flares.

When trying to break through or overcome this grid, signal flares were fired, notifying the border guards of the GDR about the violation. Further, there was a road along which patrols of border guards moved, after which there was a regularly leveled wide strip of sand to detect traces, then the wall described above, separating West Berlin, followed. Towards the end of the 80s, it was also planned to install video cameras, motion sensors and even weapons with a remote control system.

By the way, the wall was not insurmountable, only according to official information, in the period from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989, there were 5075 successful escapes to West Berlin or the Federal Republic of Germany, including 574 cases of desertion.

The GDR authorities practiced freeing their subjects for money. From 1964 to 1989, they released 249 thousand people to the West, including 34 thousand political prisoners, receiving $ 2.7 billion from the FRG for this.

Not without casualties, according to the GDR government, 125 people died while trying to cross the Berlin Wall, more than 3,000 were detained. The last perpetrator was Chris Geffroy, who was killed while trying to illegally cross the border on February 6, 1989.

On June 12, 1987, US President Ronald Reagan, giving a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in honor of the 750th anniversary of Berlin, called on the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev to demolish the Wall, thereby symbolizing the Soviet leadership's desire for change. Gorbachev heeded Reagan's request ... after 2 years.

At 19 hours 34 minutes on November 9, 1989, the burgomaster of East Berlin, Gunter Schabowski, announced the authorities' decision to open the checkpoint on live television. When the shocked journalist asked when it would come into effect, he answered: "Immediately."

Over the next three days, more than 3 million people visited the West. The Berlin Wall still stood, but only as a symbol of the recent past. It was broken, painted with numerous graffiti, drawings and inscriptions, Berliners and visitors to the city tried to take away pieces of the once mighty structure. In October 1990, the lands of the former GDR entered the FRG, and the Berlin Wall was demolished in a few months. It was decided to preserve only small parts of it as a monument for future generations.

25 years ago, on November 9, 1989, the leadership of East Germany announced the opening of the border with West Germany. The next day, East German authorities begin to demolish parts of the Berlin Wall. The famous fall of the Berlin Wall took place. Historical material on how the Berlin Wall was built. Some photos have not been previously published on the Russian Internet.

In 1959, the border between eastern and western Germany looked like this.

Before the wall was built, the border between western and eastern Berlin was open. But on the morning of August 13, 1961, the inhabitants of Berlin were surprised to find that the western part of the city was separated from the eastern cordon of soldiers and military equipment. The living wall stood until a real one grew in its place. Two days later, the city was cut by a barbed wire fence with checkpoints.

The wall started from the line.

Then they made a temporary barrier. In the photo, soldiers are building barbed wire fences. From the West Berlin side, citizens are looking at this process with curiosity and amusement. By August 15, the entire western zone was surrounded by barbed wire, and the immediate construction of the wall began.

On August 13, four lines of the Berlin underground - U-Bahn - and some lines of the city rail - S-Bahn were also closed (during the period when the city was not divided, any Berliner could freely move around the city).

The construction of the wall, from West Berlin many curious citizens are watching this process, while in East Berlin people were forbidden to approach the wall under construction, as it was a secret object.

The dividing line with a length of 44.75 km (the total length of the border of West Berlin with the GDR was 164 km) ran right through the streets and houses, canals and waterways.

In this place in Berlin, the role of the wall was temporarily performed by Soviet tanks.

View of the Brandenburg Gate from West Berlin, August 13, 1961 The wall has not yet been built, but there is a border.

After a couple of months, the view changed to this.

Brandenburg Gate in the Fog, Berlin Wall and a man on a watchtower, November 25, 1961

At this point, the wall ran directly along the tram tracks. Soviet specialists were not at all worried about the fact that they made life difficult for their citizens in the first place.

The workers' "protection" far exceeded the number of the builders themselves.

Soldiers from the National People's Army of the GDR monitor construction and order.

August 22, 1961. Two East German builders are working on a huge, nearly five-meter wall and placing pieces of broken glass on top of it to prevent the escapees of East Berliners.

When the wall was built, no one knew what would happen next. Many people feared that the wall would serve as a provocation to turn the cold war into a hot one.

The border between the British and Soviet zones. The poster is warning "You are leaving the British Sector".

Discussion of the parties on the correctness of the construction of the wall, September 1961

The construction of the wall continues, residents of the surrounding houses are watching from the windows, September 9, 1961

Some sections of the wall passed through the park and forest, which had to be partially cut down, October 1, 1961.

The lack of a clear physical border between the zones led to frequent conflicts and a massive leak of specialists to the FRG. East Germans preferred to receive education in the GDR, where it was free, and to work in the FRG.

A typical picture: the windows are bricked up to prevent attempts to escape. The other side of the house faces West Berlin, this side and the sidewalk is already East Berlin. October 6, 1961

October 16, 1961. An attempt to escape from "communist happiness". Unfortunately, it is not known how successful the attempt was. It is known that the GDR police and military used to fire to kill in such cases.

By the way, in the period from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989, 5075 successful escapes to West Berlin or the Federal Republic of Germany were committed, including 574 cases of desertion ...

On October 26-27, the Americans tried to break through the wall. This incident is known as the Charlie Checkpoint Incident. Several bulldozers approached the wall. They were covered by 10 tanks, as well as soldiers who arrived in three jeeps. On the opposite side, Soviet tanks of the third battalion of the 68th Soviet Guards Tank Regiment were lined up. The combat vehicles stood all night. As the coordinator of the French special services of those years K.K. Melnik-Botkin, the world was close to nuclear war. When the Soviet ambassador in Paris was informed that NATO was ready to use atomic bombs, he replied: "Then we will all die together." Still would! After all, the USSR held a trump ace in its hands: the most powerful weapon ever created on the planet - the 57-megaton thermonuclear bomb.

The superpowers were wise enough not to start World War III. On October 28, Soviet tanks nevertheless left their positions, after which the Americans immediately retreated. The wall remained.

American military police on the roof of a house, October 29, 1961, near the Friedrichstrasse border.

American soldiers anxiously peer through the wall at the "Soviet" military, November 20, 1961

The Brandenburg Gate in the fog, the Berlin Wall and a man on a watchtower, November 25, 1961.

Western high-ranking military officials observe the construction of the wall from the side of the French zone, December 7, 1961.

Construction and refurbishment of the wall lasted from 1962 to 1975. By 1975, it acquired its final form, turning into a complex engineering structure under the name Grenzmauer-75.

The Berlin Wall is the most controversial and sinister symbol of the Cold War

Category: Berlin

As a result of the Second World War, Germany was divided into four zones of occupation. The eastern lands went to the Soviet Union, and the British, Americans and French controlled the west of the former Reich. The capital suffered the same fate. The divided Berlin was to become the real arena of the Cold War. After the proclamation of the German Democratic Republic on October 7, 1949, the eastern part of Berlin was declared its capital, and the western part became an enclave. Twelve years later, the city was surrounded by a wall that physically separated the socialist GDR from the capitalist West Berlin.

The difficult choice of Nikita Khrushchev

In the immediate aftermath of the war, Berliners were free to move from one part of the city to another. The division was practically not felt, except for the difference in the standard of living, which was visible to the naked eye. Store shelves in West Berlin were full of goods, which was not the case for the capital of the GDR. In the capitalist enclave, the situation was better with wages, especially for qualified personnel - they were welcomed here with open arms.

As a result, a massive outflow of specialists from East Germany to the west began. The part of the common population that was dissatisfied with their life in the "socialist paradise" did not lag behind either. In 1960 alone, more than 350 thousand of its citizens left the GDR. The East German and Soviet leadership was seriously concerned about such an outflow, in fact, a massive exodus of people. Everyone understood that if he was not stopped, the young republic would face inevitable collapse.

The Berlin crises of 1948-1949, 1953 and 1958-1961 also caused the wall to appear. The last one was especially tense. By that time, the USSR had actually transferred its sector of the occupation of Berlin to the GDR. The western part of the city, as before, remained under the rule of the allies. An ultimatum was put forward: West Berlin must become a free city. The allies rejected the demands, believing that in the future this could lead to the annexation of the enclave to the GDR.

The situation was aggravated by the policy of the East German government at home. The then leader of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht, pursued a tough economic course on the Soviet model. In an effort to "catch up and overtake" the FRG, the authorities did not hesitate to do anything. Increased production rates, forced collectivization. But wages and living standards in general remained low. This provoked the flight of the East Germans to the west, as we mentioned above.

What to do in this situation? On August 3-5, 1961, the leaders of the Warsaw Pact member states met in Moscow on this occasion. Ulbricht insisted: the border with West Berlin should be closed. The allies agreed. But how to do that? The head of the USSR Nikita Khrushchev considered two options: an air barrier or a wall. We chose the latter. The first option threatened a serious conflict with the United States, perhaps even a war with America.

Split in two - in one night

On the night of August 12-13, 1961, the troops of the GDR were pulled up to the border between the western and eastern parts of Berlin. For several hours, they blocked its sections within the city. Everything happened according to the declared alarm of the first degree. The servicemen, together with the police and workers' squads, simultaneously got down to work, because the building materials for the construction of the barriers were prepared in advance. Until the morning, the city of 3 million was cut into two parts.

193 streets were blocked with barbed wire. The same fate befell four lines of the Berlin metro and eight tram lines. In places adjacent to the new border, power lines and telephone lines were cut off. They even managed to weld pipes of all city communications here. Stunned Berliners gathered in the morning on both sides of the barbed wire. An order was sounded to disperse, but the people did not obey. Then they were dispersed within half an hour using water cannons ...

The barbed wire wrapping of the entire perimeter of the West Berlin border was completed by Tuesday 15 August. In the following days, it was replaced by a stone wall proper, the construction and modernization of which continued until the first half of the 70s. Residents from border houses were evicted, and their windows facing West Berlin were bricked up. They also closed the border Potsdamer Platz. The wall acquired its final appearance only in 1975.

What was the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall (in German Berliner Mauer) was 155 kilometers long, of which 43.1 kilometers were within the city limits. German Chancellor Willy Brandt called it a "shameful wall", and US President John F. Kennedy "a slap in the face for all mankind." The official name adopted in the GDR: Antifaschischer Schutzwall.

The wall, which physically divided Berlin into two parts along the houses, streets, communications and the Spree River, was a massive structure of concrete and stone. It was an extremely fortified engineering structure with movement sensors, mines, and barbed wire. Since the wall was the border, there were border guards here too, shooting to kill everyone, even children, who dared to illegally cross the border into West Berlin.

But the wall itself was not enough for the GDR authorities. A special restricted area with warning signs was set up along it. The rows of anti-tank hedgehogs and a strip dotted with metal spikes looked especially ominous; it was called "Stalin's lawn." There was also a metal mesh with barbed wire. When trying to penetrate through it, signal flares went off, notifying the border guards of the GDR about an attempt to illegally cross the border.

Barbed wire was also stretched over the odious structure. A high voltage current was sent through it. Observation towers and checkpoints were erected along the perimeter of the Berlin Wall. Including from the side of West Berlin. One of the most famous is "Checkpoint Charlie", which was under American control. Many dramatic events took place here, connected with the desperate attempts of the citizens of the GDR to flee to West Germany.

The absurdity of the "Iron Curtain" venture reached its climax when it was decided to enclose the Brandenburg Gate, the famous symbol of Berlin and all of Germany. And from all sides. For the reason that they found themselves in the path of an odious structure. As a result, neither residents of the capital of the GDR nor residents of West Berlin could even get close to the gate until 1990. Thus, the tourist attraction fell victim to political opposition.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall: How It Was

Hungary unwittingly played a significant role in the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Under the influence of perestroika in the USSR, in May 1989, she opened the border with Austria. This was a signal for the citizens of the GDR, who rushed to other countries of the eastern bloc to get to Hungary, from there to Austria and then to the FRG. The leadership of the GDR lost control of the situation, and massive demonstrations began in the country. People demanded civil rights and freedoms.

The culminating protests led to the resignation of Erich Honecker and other party leaders. The outflow of people to the West through other Warsaw Pact countries has become so massive that the existence of the Berlin Wall has lost all meaning. On November 9, 1989, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED, Gunter Schabowski, spoke on television. He announced the simplification of the rules for entering and leaving the country and the possibility of immediate obtaining visas to visit West Berlin and Germany.

For the East Germans, this was a signal. They did not wait for the official entry into force of the new rules and in the evening of the same day rushed to the border. At first, the border guards tried to push back the crowd with water cannons, but then yielded to the pressure of people and opened the border. On the other side, West Berliners had already gathered and rushed to East Berlin. What was happening was like a national holiday, people laughed and cried with happiness. Euphoria reigned until morning.

On December 22, 1989, the Brandenburg Gate was opened for passage. The Berlin Wall was still standing, but nothing remained of the ominous appearance. It was broken in places, it was painted with numerous graffiti, drawings and inscriptions. Townspeople and tourists chipped off pieces of it as a keepsake. The wall was demolished a few months after the GDR entered the FRG on October 3, 1990. The symbol of the Cold War and the division of Germany made life long.

The Berlin Wall: Today

The death toll when crossing the Berlin Wall varies. In the former GDR, it was claimed that there were 125 of them. Other sources claim that there are 192 of them. Some media outlets cited the following statistics with reference to the Stasi archives: 1245. A part of the large Berlin Wall memorial complex, opened in 2010, is dedicated to the memory of the victims (the entire complex was completed two years later and occupies four hectares).

Currently, a fragment of the Berlin Wall, 1,300 meters long, has been preserved. He became a memory of the most sinister symbol of the Cold War. The fall of the wall inspired artists from all over the world who came here and painted the remaining area with their paintings. This is how the East Side Gallery appeared - an open-air gallery. One of the drawings, the kiss of Brezhnev and Honecker, was made by our compatriot, artist Dmitry Vrubel.

The capital of Germany, Berlin, emerged in the first half of the 13th century. Since 1486 the city was the capital of Brandenburg (then Prussia), since 1871 - Germany. From May 1943 to May 1945, Berlin suffered one of the most destructive bombings in world history. At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) in Europe, on May 2, 1945, Soviet troops completely captured the city. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the territory of Berlin was divided into zones of occupation: the eastern - the USSR and three western - the USA, Great Britain and France. On June 24, 1948, Soviet troops began the blockade of West Berlin.

In 1948, the Western powers authorized the heads of state governments in their zones of occupation to convene a parliamentary council to draft a constitution and prepare for the creation of a West German state. Its first meeting was held in Bonn on September 1, 1948. The constitution was adopted by the council on May 8, 1949, and on May 23, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was proclaimed. In response, in the eastern part, controlled by the USSR, on October 7, 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was proclaimed and Berlin was declared its capital.

East Berlin covered an area of \u200b\u200b403 square kilometers and was the largest city in East Germany in terms of population.
West Berlin covered an area of \u200b\u200b480 square kilometers.

At first, the border between western and eastern Berlin was open. The dividing line with a length of 44.8 kilometers (the total length of the border between West Berlin and the GDR was 164 kilometers) ran right through the streets and houses, the Spree River, and canals. Officially, 81 street checkpoints, 13 subway and city railway crossings were in operation.

In 1957, the West German government, led by Konrad Adenauer, introduced the Hallstein Doctrine, which provided for the automatic severing of diplomatic relations with any country that recognized the GDR.

In November 1958, the head of the Soviet government, Nikita Khrushchev, accused the Western powers of violating the Potsdam agreements of 1945 and announced the abolition of the international status of Berlin by the Soviet Union. The Soviet government proposed turning West Berlin into a "demilitarized free city" and demanded that the United States, Great Britain and France hold talks on this topic within six months ("Khrushchev's Ultimatum"). The Western powers rejected the ultimatum.

In August 1960, the government of the GDR introduced restrictions on visits by citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany to East Berlin. In response, West Germany abandoned the trade agreement between the two parts of the country, which the GDR regarded as an "economic war."
After lengthy and difficult negotiations, the agreement was put into effect on January 1, 1961.

The situation worsened in the summer of 1961. The economic policy of the GDR aimed at "catching up and overtaking the FRG" and the corresponding increase in production standards, economic difficulties, forced collectivization of 1957-1960, higher wages in West Berlin prompted thousands of GDR citizens to leave for the West.

In 1949-1961, the GDR and East Berlin left almost 2.7 million people. Almost half of the refugee stream was composed of young people under the age of 25. Every day about half a million people crossed the boundaries of the Berlin sectors in both directions, who could compare living conditions here and there. In 1960 alone, about 200 thousand people moved to the West.

At a meeting of the General Secretaries of the Communist Parties of the socialist countries on August 5, 1961, the GDR received the necessary consent of the Eastern European countries, and on August 7, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Socialist Unified Party of Germany (SED - East German Communist Party), it was decided to close the GDR's border with West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany. On August 12, the corresponding resolution was adopted by the Council of Ministers of the GDR.

In the early morning of August 13, 1961, temporary barriers were erected on the border with West Berlin, and cobblestones were dug on the streets connecting East Berlin with West Berlin. The forces of the people's and transport police units, as well as combat workers' squads, interrupted all transport links at the borders between the sectors. Under the strict guard of GDR border guards, East Berlin builders have begun replacing the barbed wire border fences with concrete slabs and hollow bricks. The complex of border fortifications also included residential buildings on Bernauer Strasse, where the sidewalks now belong to the West Berlin district of Wedding, and the houses on the south side of the street to the East Berlin district of Mitte. Then the government of the GDR ordered the doors of houses and windows of the lower floors to be bricked up - residents could get into their apartments only through the entrance from the courtyard, which belonged to East Berlin. A wave of forced evictions of people from apartments began not only on Bernauer Straße, but also in other border areas.

From 1961 to 1989, the Berlin Wall was rebuilt several times on many sections of the border. At first it was built of stone, and then it was replaced by reinforced concrete. In 1975, the last reconstruction of the wall began. The wall was built from 45 thousand concrete blocks measuring 3.6 by 1.5 meters, which were rounded at the top to make it difficult to escape. Outside the city, this front fence also included metal bars.
By 1989, the total length of the Berlin Wall was 155 kilometers, the inner-city border between East and West Berlin was 43 kilometers, and the border between West Berlin and the GDR (outer ring) was 112 kilometers. Closest to West Berlin, the front concrete wall was 3.6 meters high. She surrounded the entire western sector of Berlin.

The concrete fence stretched for 106 kilometers, the metal fence for 66.5 kilometers, the ditches were 105.5 kilometers long, and 127.5 kilometers were under voltage. A control and trail strip was made near the wall, as on the border.

Despite tough measures against attempts to "illegally cross the border", people continued to run "through the wall", using sewer pipes, technical means, and digging holes. Over the years of the wall's existence, about 100 people died trying to overcome it.

The democratic changes that began in the late 1980s in the life of the GDR and other countries of the socialist community predetermined the fate of the wall. On November 9, 1989, the new government of the GDR announced an unimpeded transition from East Berlin to West Berlin and free return. About 2 million inhabitants of the GDR visited West Berlin during November 10-12. A spontaneous dismantling of the wall immediately began. The official dismantling took place in January 1990, part of the wall was left as a historical monument.

On October 3, 1990, after the annexation of the GDR to the FRG, the status of the federal capital in the united Germany passed from Bonn to Berlin. In 2000, the government moved from Bonn to Berlin.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources