To wrap up our most recent weekend, I suggested going to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which I had read was one of Berlin's most highly recommended attractions. Plus, it's mostly outdoors, and the weather was once again awesome. So to the Berlin Wall Memorial we went!
If you are getting the impression that a lot of the tourist attractions in Berlin have to do with the Berlin Wall and the division of Berlin, I would agree with you. Sometimes I wonder what all the tourists would look at if there were never a Berlin Wall! Berlin was a small city all the way through the middle ages and into the 18th and 19th centuries, so there are not many significant sights left over from that period of time. Instead, most of the historical landmarks in Berlin have to do with that much more recent period of history during which Berlin was split in two. As such, between all the information about the wall I've been reading and experiencing lately, I consider myself a Berlin Wall armchair expert. So get ready for some fascinating facts!
The 96-mile-long Berlin Wall was built nearly overnight in 1961 when the East German government wanted to stem the flow of East German citizens fleeing into the West. A total of 2.7 million refugees had successfully escaped from 1949 to just before the wall was built. A mere 2 months before the first barricades went up, the East German government denounced rumors of a wall by announcing, "No one has the intention of erecting a wall!" But as we all know, a wall was indeed soon thereafter erected. As time went on, the East German government continually upgraded the fortifications. At first, the wall was relatively small and in some places consisted of just barbed wire. When you hear "Berlin Wall" and picture the tall, graffiti-ed, concrete wall you'll see in pictures below, you're thinking of a wall that was only built in 1980.
Did you know the fall of the wall was an accident? In 1989, the year the wall fell, East German premier Erich Honecker proclaimed the wall would stand for another 50 or 100 years. But soon, cracks in the East German regime began appearing. Hungary and Czechoslovakia opened their borders, allowing East Germans to pour out. Protests within East Germany broke out, most notably in Leipzig. The East German government tried to quell the demonstrations by announcing looser private travel regulations for East Germans that would slowly and gradually allow for some crossings through Berlin Wall checkpoints.
East German government spokesman Günter Schabowski announced these new gradual measures on November 9 with a press conference, although he was unfamiliar with the details of the new regulations and unaware that the prepared statement he was reciting was making it sound to the world as though East Germans would be able to cross straight into West Berlin without restriction. When he finished his statement and the shocked journalists asked when the crossings could begin, he shrugged and guessed "unverzüglich" - immediately. When the press conference aired on the nightly news, East Germans took it to mean that the border crossings to West Berlin were open and appeared en masse at the wall's checkpoints. The overwhelmed border guards were also unfamiliar with the new regulations and unable to hold back the enormous crowds that had gathered. They simply opened the checkpoints, and East Germans streamed through and met equally ecstatic West Germans, who were waiting with champagne and flowers. The peaceful revolution was complete.
The wall disappeared fairly quickly from the cityscape, even before the official date of German reunification on October 3, 1990. Today, only 3 major sites still have the original wall standing in its original place, and the Berlin Wall memorial is one of them (I blogged about another here). Even in these places, the wall has been heavily damaged by wall-pecking tourists. If you want to take a piece of the wall home with you, simply head to the nearest tourist shop - nearly every tourist outlet has a pile of small concrete pebbles with a smattering of paint that are claimed to be part of the original wall. While there are plenty of legitimate, full-size sections of wall left over (including full-size sections available for sale), I don't trust those pebbles one bit.
And now, to the pictures!
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| The Berlin Wall Memorial, with poles marking the former path of the wall. It's hard to believe that this peaceful stretch of grass used to be heavily guarded |
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| The two metal poles in the foreground were once part of a smaller wall that acted as the first layer of defense. The path that the people and bikes are on was once a patrol road for border guards |
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| This is the preserved base of a lighting fixture that once lit up the Berlin Wall, making it easier for guards to spot would-be refugees |
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| Former supports for the outer, smaller wall. The famous, larger wall can be seen in the background on the left |
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| The rounded pipe element at the top of the (1980) wall was added to make it difficult to climb. This is the eastern side of the wall, so all graffiti was added after 1989 |
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| I've already mentioned the ironic cross on the TV Tower, a structure built to demonstrate the power of the atheistic East German state. You could see it pretty clearly that day |
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By 1989, when the wall fell, at least 136 people had lost their lives at the wall, most of them shot by East German guards. This memorial honors some of the victims, and is much larger than what is just shown in this picture. Some of the other pictures display extraordinarily young faces - even kids as young as 9 years old met their end at the wall
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| This is a preserved part of the Todesstreifen, or "Death Strip." We are looking at it from the West (remember, the TV Tower in the background was built by the East German government). As you can see, the completed wall setup included the outer famous wall, behind which was an inner track with a patrol path, lights, watchtower, and an additional, smaller wall. There were once as many as 100 sentry towers like the one in this shot |
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| I love it when cool old-looking towers punctuate a skyline |
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| In 1985, the East Germans blew up the Reconciliation Church here to make room for more barricades. This cross, which originally was on the exterior of the church building, was hidden by some workers during the demolition and was later returned to the revived church parish after the reunification of the East and West |
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| The rebuilt Church of Reconciliation today |
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| The Church of Reconciliation's new building today |
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| These bricks mark where West Germans dug a tunnel to the East and smuggled out 57 East Germans before the East German guards learned of its presence |
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| An East German watchtower once stood here |
A side note: in the train station next to the Berlin Wall Memorial was an interesting exhibit about "ghost stations" - subway stations that were in East Germany but on the routes of West German trains. The West German trains didn't stop at such stations, obviously, and East Germans were forbidden from entering the stations since they were a good escape point to the west. These stations were sealed up and guarded by East German soldiers, and still East Germans attempted, sometimes successfully, to get through the many barricades. But more often it was the actual border guards who used the ghost stations to escape. For instance, once there were 3 guards on duty together, when 1 guard disappeared into the tunnel and didn't return - he had made it to the West. The 2nd guard left to "look" for the 1st, but also didn't come back. The 3rd finally left as well. To prevent such incidents from happening again, guard posts in the stations were outfitted with alarms that would sound when a guard left without permission.
This weekend, it's the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall. I can't wait to photograph the art installation that's happening to honor it! You'll see. If you're still reading, I pronounce you a fellow Berlin Wall armchair expert! Herzlichen Glückwunsch and until next time.
