The Berlin Wall @thewallofthewar - Tumblr Blog

Our Inquiry Question

Inquiry Question: Discuss how the Berlin Wall has influenced the Cold War, and evaluate the impact and legacy it has left behind.

The Berlin Wall has been a pivotal part of history. Not only did it influence the Cold War, it is also subtly in effect in today’s Germany as well.

During the Cold War

During the Cold War, the Berlin, and the Berlin Wall itself served as a flashpoint that escalated the tension between both sides.

The reasons and events that led to the construction of the Berlin Wall showcased the escalating tension between the West (mainly United States of America, USA, together with Britain and France) and the East (mainly the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR). The main reason for the construction of the Berlin Wall was the economic impact of people fleeing from the East to the West. This shows how the difference in ideologies affected the governance, and eventually the standard of living in the country. The later segregation between East and West Germany further increased the tension between the 2 sides, and this is evident throughout the Cold War. The building of the Berlin Wall itself increased the tension more, as evident from the times when tanks and army men would just stare at each other in a tense faceoff on both sides of the war, coming close to the brink of war a few times. The increased tension also made both sides more wanting to go further and try to overcome the other party.

When the Berlin Wall was erected, many did tried to escape from the East to the West, and they came up with many creative ways to do so – underground digging, hot air balloon etc. This shows the determination of some of these people who really wanted to get over to the other side. Some were successful, others were not, and they were either killed or imprisoned. When the West tried to help these people but couldn’t, the tension between both countries continued to rise, and this further impacted their actions all around the world.

Today’s Context

In terms of today’s context, there are two main points we can touch upon: Unification and Human Society.

In the euphoric days after the fall of the Wall, many people underestimated the material and spiritual difficulties of unification. Even after 40 years apart, it is evident that East and West Germany have only slowly grown together. A geopolitical wall still continues to divide the city. In the West, the scars of the Second World War serve as a continual reminder of the stain of Nazism on German history. In the East, little trace remains of the Nazi influence. The socialist influence also continues to divide the East from West. Statues of Marx and Lenin and images of the hammer and sickle can still be found in old East Berlin. In many ways, Germany continues to be a divided country. Although the wall has been removed, the division continues to be seen through differences in birth rates, migration patterns, age structures and the economy.

Secondly, the Wall will always remain a symbol of tyranny. It will continue to remind us what fantasies about a ‘perfect’ human society such as those that guided the Soviet Union and the GDR may end up producing: endless human misery and the creation of enclosed, repressive political systems.

Conclusion

The Berlin Wall has stood during the Cold War time as an accelerator of the tension between both sides, and now, it stands as a legacy – of a time of misery and hopelessness, and the sense of divide continues on today. It is evident that the Berlin Wall, which stood for almost three centuries, had, is, and will continue to impact lives.

Media relating to Berlin Wall

Some films specifically about the Berlin Wall:

The Tunnel, a NBC News Special documentary film broadcast in December 1962

The Road to the Wall, a 1962 documentary film

The Boy and the Wall Spanish-Mexican co-production, 1965

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1965 – Cold War classic set on both sides of The Wall, from the book by John le Carré, directed by Martin Ritt

Funeral in Berlin, 1966 – Spy movie starring Michael Caine, directed by Guy Hamilton

The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, 1968 – Cold War spy farce about an Olympic athlete who defects. Director George Marshall

Berlin Tunnel 21, 1981 – A made-for-TV movie about a former American officer leading an attempt to build a tunnel underneath The Wall as a rescue route

Something To Do With The Wall, 1991 – Documentary shot just before and after the Wall came down, by Ross McElwee and Marilyn Levine

The Innocent, 1993 – About the joint CIA/MI6 operation to build a tunnel under East Berlin in the 1950s. Directed by John Schlesinger

The Tunnel, 2001 – Dramatization of a collaborative tunnel under the wall. Film by Roland Suso Richter

Some novels specifically about the Berlin Wall:

John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1963 – Classic Cold War spy fiction

Len Deighton, Berlin Game, 1983 – Classic Cold War spy fiction

T.H.E. Hill, The Day Before the Berlin Wall: Could We Have Stopped It? – An Alternate History of Cold War Espionage, 2010 – based on a legend told in Berlin in the 1970s

John Marks, The Wall, 1999 NYT Review – an American spy defects to the East just hours before the Wall falls

Marcia Preston, West of the Wall (published as Trudy's Promise in North America), 2008 – Left behind in East Berlin, the heroine waits for news of her husband after he makes his escape over the Berlin Wall

Peter Schneider, The Wall Jumper, 1984 (German: Der Mauerspringer, 1982) – the Wall plays a central role in this novel set in Berlin of the 1980s

Music related to the Berlin Wall

"Holidays In The Sun", a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols prominently mentions the wall, specifically singerJohnny Rotten's fantasy of digging a tunnel under it.

Over de muur (nl), a 1984 song by Dutch pop band Klein Orkest (nl), about the differences between East and West Berlin during the period of the Berlin Wall.

Chippin' Away,a song by Tom Fedora, as performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash on the Berlin Wall appeared on Graham Nash's 1986 solo album Innocent Eyes.

Art related to the Berlin Wall

In the year 1982 the West-German artist Elsner created about 500 artworks along the former border strip around West-Berlin as part of his work series "Border Injuries". On one of his actions he even tore down a large part of the wall,installed a prepared foil of 3x2m in it and finished the painting there before the border soldiers on patrol could detect him. This performance was even recorded on video. His actions are well-documented both in newspapers from that time and in recent scientific publications.

#information

"Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" ("Nobody intends to put up a wall!")

Walter Ulbricht, Leader of the GDR, June 15th 1961 - 2 months before the Berlin Wall was built

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, speech at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987

#quote

Revisiting the Berlin Wall

On November 9, 1989, tens of thousands of East Germans flooded over the Berlin Wall. It marked the end of Soviet communism and the start of the country's reunification. BBC News has been to some of the key sites in the Wall's history to see what is left.

What YOU can think about:

the events involving the Berlin Wall, from its rise to its fall

how Germany has preserved the Berlin Wall

do you think the current preservation is sufficient?

#video

Legacy of Berlin Wall - Interviews

Could you describe examples of how the Wall, and what it represented, influenced German cultural and aesthetic works created during its existence?

JS: East Germany had a vibrant literary culture and produced a great many novels that reflect the experience of the Wall. I especially admire Christa Wolf's Divided Heaven. Her career illustrates both the accomplishments and the limitations of culture in a society like the GDR. Since 1989, there has been a great deal of work reflecting on the meaning of the Wall. I just read Uwe Tellkamp's novel, Der Turm, which is set in and around Dresden in the late 1980s. It is a remarkable book in many ways, a sprawling family saga as well as a sharp political portrait of the regime's last days.

AE: The Wall played a crucial role in the writing of such significant writers as Christa Wolf (of the former GDR) and Peter Schneider (of the Federal Republic of Germany). In novels such as Divided Heaven (1963), Wolf gave us a lasting image of life in the shadow of the Wall. In The Wall Jumper, Schneider made the absurdity of an edifice such as the Wall painfully tangible. Yet, a novel like Ian McEwan’s The Innocent makes it clear that the Wall and the division of Germany also left a significant mark on European literature as such. In recent years, films like "The Lives of Others" began exploring the meaning of the East-West divide and the lasting impact of European totalitarian regimes on the lives of individuals and societies.

During the course of your work what kind of evidence have you encountered that illustrates how the Wall impacted the legacy of European Jews?

JS: East and West Germany dealt with the legacy of Nazism--and the meaning of the Holocaust--in quite different ways. In the GDR, Nazism was seen as a particularly toxic form of fascism, that is, an expression of capitalism's structural crisis. From this perspective, the racial dimensions of Nazism did not seem central: there was, for instance, very little about the Holocaust in the exhibitions on Nazism in the old East German museum of German History. Like the museum itself, this view of Nazism is now largely gone.

AE: The Jewish community of both the GDR and the Federal Republic was rather small when the Wall was built. While the Federal Republic accepted early on the German responsibility for Nazism, the GDR regarded itself as representing the legacy of the ‘better Germany’ that is of the German left. This has been as many scholars have since claimed, the foundational myth of the GDR. In the decades following the building of the Wall, the issue for German-Jewish relations was less the East-West divide and more finding ways to commemorate the dead of the Holocaust, acknowledging the crimes of the Nazis and developing a German-Jewish dialogue based on mutual respect and different memories. However, one of the most significant contemporary German-Jewish authors is Barbara Honigmann, who in her writing also reflects on what it meant for her and others like her to grow up and come to age as a Jew in the GDR.

From the perspective of your research, what do you feel are the most lasting implications of the Berlin Wall today?

JS: In the euphoric days after the fall of the Wall, many people underestimated the material and spiritual difficulties of unification. It is not surprising that, after 40 years apart, the two Germanies have only slowly grown together. Like parts of the American south after the Civil War, parts of the old GDR have a nostalgic view of the "good old days" before 1989. This has an impact on German culture, especially in Berlin. A more lasting implication is the Left Party, a somewhat improbable alliance of Western German leftwing Social Democrats and the former East German Party of Democratic Socialism.

AE: The Wall will always remain a symbol of tyranny. It will also continue to remind us what fantasies about a ‘perfect’ human society such as those that guided the Soviet Union and the GDR may end up producing: endless human misery and the creation of enclosed, repressive political systems.

Do you believe there’s still more to learn from this transformative period of history?

JS: Historians always believe there is more to learn. In the case of 1989, I think one lesson is how often history surprises us. No one expected the Wall to fall so suddenly and so peacefully, just as no one expected the Soviet Union to collapse with such speed. Nor has the post-Cold War world turned out quite the way many people expected.

AE: Absolutely. The learning about the nature and the challenges of totalitarian thought and totalitarian regimes has just begun. Contemporary totalitarian regimes across the globe such as Iran, Syria, Myanmar or North Korea make the study of the Wall and how we—those living in open societies may react to them—crucial for the freedom of millions who suffer by those regimes. The study of the Wall and of such regimes may also prove crucial for our survival given the fact that these regimes strive to acquire deadly military capacities.

#editorial #fallofberlinwall

Tearing Down The Wall

“East German’s Great Awakening,” The New York Times, November 10, 1989, 36.

“Physically the Berlin wall still stands. But its capacity to divide a country and a Continent seems at an end. East Germany’s hastily reshaped politburo now promises its people what even two weeks ago was still unthinkable: unrestricted travel to the West; free elections; market-oriented economic reforms. Deathbed conversions are always suspect. But what Marxists call objective realities suggest this great awakening will endure.”

“Cheers as Brandenburg Gate Reopens,” The New York Times, December 23, 1989, 7.

“Leaders of the two Germanys reopened the Brandenburg Gate today, breaching a barrier that more than any other had come to symbolize the division of the nation. Tens of thousands of Germans, oblivious to a steady drizzle, packed both sides of Berlin’s most famous gate to celebrate the formal inauguration of two new pedestrian crossings. . . . Although it has been six weeks since the Berlin wall fell open and at least half the East Germans have visited the West, the reopening of the two-century-old landmark offered symbolic confirmation that the German nation was again seeking to become whole.”

“Final Month of Berlin Wall,” The New York Times, June 16, 1990, 4.

“East Germany has set a deadline of December for total demolition of the Berlin wall, which sealed citizens off from the West for 28 years. The state press agency quoted Maj. Gen. Dieter Teichmann, chief of the border troops, as saying that the concrete barrier would be gone by December. On Wednesday, East Germans began knocking out wall slabs all over the city to reopen blocked streets.”

Question: How do these articles document the historical significance of the Berlin Wall and its demise?

#editorial #fallofberlinwall

Berlin's Spatial Paradox

Walls between people are made to be destroyed. The Berlin Wall, which for thirty years prevented free migration from East Germany, was no different. Nonetheless, the wall has left an architectural, economic and behavioural legacy on the Berlin landscape. The wall’s spatial heritage continues to influence the city. Despite the millions of Euros that flooded into the city since 1989 to help reunify Germany and its role as Germany’s capital, Berlin remains a city deeply affected by the moral and physical scars left by the wall. Reunification did not perform miracles. The eastern part of the city continues to be challenged by the Soviet legacy. Berlin is only now in the process of becoming a significant metropole. Its socio-spatial distortions – mostly caused by the wall – have prevented its growth and development. One opportunity for Berlin to overcome these obstacles, however, is in the eastern growth of the European Union. Eastern expansion would draw Berlin from the outskirts into an enviable position within Europe.

This is Berlin’s spatial paradox. The city’s external geopolitical role is gradually increasing as Germany’s international reputation balances with its economic weight. Over the past decade this change has been made manifest through the ‘five plus one’ meetings between Germany and the members with veto power from the UN Security Council, as well as through German participation in international military operations. Internally, however, the wall’s effects on the city’s spatial politics have been much less beneficial. In comparison with similar German cities like Frankfurt and Munich, Berlin’s economic and demographic success has been much more limited. Even though the wall is gone, the city continues a somewhat paradoxical existence.

#editorial #fallofberlinwall

Is the Berlin Wall still present?

With the exception of six conserved sections and brass plaques marking the wall’s location, the physical wall – and the formal division between East and West Berlin – has disappeared. Replacing this division was a new political space.

It is not difficult, however, for the attentive observer to notice that a geopolitical wall continues to divide the city. In the West, the scars of the Second World War, symbolized by the bombed-out Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and the more recently reconstructed Reichstag – with its glass dome symbolizing transparent democracy, serve as a continual reminder of the stain of Nazism on German history. In the East, little trace remains of the Nazi influence, even though the past is now somewhat recalled in the recently rebuilt Rykestrasse synagogue in the city’s Jewish quarter.

The two sides of the city also have different architecture. The West, which was about five times the size of Paris, had less population pressure than East Berlin. This large amount of space meant that high rises were practically nonexistent across its 484 km2 territory. The East, on-the-other-hand, sought to demonstrate its ‘modernity’ by transforming the Alexanderplatz with structures like the Fernsehturm and building layers of similar looking suburbs in the city’s outlaying areas.

The socialist influence also continues to divide the East from West. Statues of Marx and Lenin and images of the hammer and sickle can still be found in old East Berlin. Traces of the GDR also remain in the debate over the rebuilding of the imperial palace, which was destroyed in 1950 to create the soulless Palace of the Republic and Marx-Engels Square. Whether this plan will move forward is still a question remaining for a city with limited financial resources.

The Wall itself remains a scar on the city’s human and economic landscape. Before the Second World War, Berlin was the largest, most innovative and industrialized city in Germany. After 1945, West Berlin’s unique situation (it was inaccessible, in a poor position relative to suppliers and markets, and deeply affected by the departure of workers) reined its economy in. It was a gloomy situation: for the most part West Berlin relied on the aid and protection of its Western occupiers. In East Berlin, the socialist planned economy, with its emphasis on large state-run businesses, created deficiencies in the organization and profitability of the economy. Since 1990 Berlin has benefited from the return of the national government, many renowned institutions and important head offices, and an increase in tourism.

The tearing down of the Berlin Wall expanded the free space accessible to West Berliners. Many moved outside of the city and into areas formerly controlled by the GDR. Like when the wall first went up, this out-migration – along with a weak birth rate – caused the population to decline.

In many ways Germany continues to be a divided country. Although the wall has been removed, the division continues to be seen through differences in birth rates, migration patterns, age structures and the economy.

#editorial #fallofberlinwall

Cold War – Episode 23: The Wall Comes Down

Cold War is a twenty-four episode television documentary series about the Cold War that aired in 1998. It features interviews and footage of the events that shaped the tense relationships between the Soviet Union and the United States.

In this episode, Gorbachev makes clear Eastern European countries were free to determine their own destinies. In Poland Solidarity enters into negotiations with the Government, and would end up winning a landslide election. In Hungary the Government chooses to symbolically reinter Imre Nagy, and open its frontier with Austria, which is then crossed by increasing numbers of holidaying East Germans. Erich Honecker refuses to implement reforms, despite subtle pressure from Gorbachev and growing protests across East Germany. The bloody end to dissent in China is never far from the minds of protesters. Just as protests reach a peak, Soviet forces in East Germany are stood down, and Honecker is replaced by an unimpressive Egon Krenz. As a concession travel restrictions are lifted but the new regulations are miscommunicated, and the Berlin Wall is suddenly and irrevocably breached by masses of East Germans. In the momentum, the fate of communism in East Germany is sealed. Interviewees include Miklós Németh, Egon Krenz and George H. W. Bush. The pre-credits scene includes Gorbachev explaining that by 1989, force alone could not secure the world.

What YOU can think about:

what are the events that led up to the fall of the berlin wall?

why didn't the USSR do anything?

if the USSR had done something, could the collapse of communism be prevented?

#video

Fall of the Berlin Wall

For more than 28 years, the Berlin wall was a major symbol of both the Cold War and the oppressive Soviet regime, but it became obsolete in 1989 when Hungary opened its borders to East Germans. With Hungary open, emigrants could pass through to West Germany with little difficulty. In a desperate last attempt to restore stability, the East German leader Egon Krenz decided to grant passage through the Berlin Wall itself. On November 9, 1989, East Germans poured into West Germany, partially destroying the wall on the way, while communist officials watched their regime crumble. In West Germany, the immigrants were welcomed with a gift of 100 marks ($50), as their East German money had become worthless. East and West Germany then worked together to remove the wall and reunite themselves as the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was a major turning point in recent history. It marked the end of communism in Germany, and was a symbol for the end of communism throughout Europe. Soon after the collapse of the German regime, communist governments began to fall in other nations such as Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia. In 1991, after a failed coup by Soviet leaders against President Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union itself dissolved, completely ending the reign of oppression that had begun in 1917. Many European countries that were under Soviet control broke out in civil war, and the former members of the U.S.S.R. became 15 independent republics and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

#editorial #fallofberlinwall

Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker discusses 40 years spent chronicling life in strange, sad, vicious and sometimes hilarious East Berlin.

What YOU can think about:

Try to be in the shoes of the lives of the different people living in East Germany

Along with previous knowledge, think about how this differs with the life in West Germany

#video

German Propaganda Brochure

Background: The following is the text of a 1962 brochure from the GDR defending (indeed, boasting of) the Berlin Wall. It was published in English for foreign distribution. The document is not clearly dated, but I suspect it was published in February.

What You Should Know About the Wall

Newspapers, radio and television report daily about Berlin and West Berlin in many languages throughout the world. They often speak or write of a state frontier, or of a wall.

It may be very difficult for you to form a valid picture from all these reports which frequently contradict each other. We want to help you to do so.

We tried to imagine what would be the considerations of a citizen of a foreign state if he wanted to gain clarity about the problems in West Berlin. And we would like to reply to these considerations.

1st CONSIDERATION. Where, exactly, is Berlin situated?

A glance at the map suffices: Berlin lies in the middle of the German Democratic Republic, exactly 180 kilometres (112.5 miles) to the east of its western frontier. A quite normal locality for the capital of a state. Only one thing is not normal at all: that a hostile, undermining policy and disruptive acts have for years been carried on from the western part of this city against the surrounding state territory. West Berlin Mayor Willi Brandt called West Berlin a “thorn in the side of the GDR.” Would you like to have a thorn in your side? We don’t either! But Brandt even proclaims quite frankly: “We want to be the disturber of the peace.”

2nd CONSIDERATION. Did the wall fall out of the sky?

No. It was the result of developments of many years standing in West Germany and West Berlin. Let us recall preceding events: In 1948 a separate currency reform was introduced in West Germany and West Berlin - the West German reactionaries thereby split Germany and even west Berlin in to two currency areas.

The West German separatist state was founded in 1949 - Bonn thereby turned the zonal border into a state frontier.

In 1954 West Germany was included in NATO - Bonn thereby converted the state frontier into the front-line between two pact systems.

The decision on the atomic armament of the West German Bundeswehr was made in 1958 - thus, Bonn continues to aggravate the situation in Germany and Berlin. Repeatedly the annexation of the GDR is proclaimed as the official aim of Bonn policy, most recently in a statement of the Adenauer Christian Democratic Union (CDU), on 11 July 1961.

Thus did the anti-national, aggressive NATO policy create the wall which today separates the two German states and also goes through the middle of Berlin. The Bonn government and the West Berlin Senate have systematically converted West Berlin into a centre of provocation from where 90 espionage organizations, the RIAS American broadcasting station in West Berlin (Radio in American Sector) and revanchist associations organize acts of sabotage against the GDR and the other socialist countries. Through our protective measures of 13 August 1961 we have only safeguarded and strengthened that frontier which was already drawn years ago and made into a dangerous front-line by the people in Bonn and West Berlin. How high and how strongly fortified a frontier must be, depends, as is common knowledge, on the kind of relations existing between the states of each side of the frontier.

3rd CONSIDERATION. Did the wall have to come?

Yes and no. We have submitted more than one hundred proposals for understanding, on the renunciation of atomic armament, and on the withdrawal of the two German states from NATO or the Warsaw Treaty. If things had gone according to our proposals the situation in Germany would not have been aggravated and, consequently, there would have been no wall. Especially since 1958 the GDR and the Soviet Union have repeatedly told the West Berlin Senate, the Bonn government, and the western powers: Be reasonable! Let us eliminate the abnormal situation in West Berlin together. Let us start negotiations. Why did Bonn and West Berlin reject these proposals? Why did they, instead, step up agitation to an unprecedented degree before 13 August? - The wall had to come because they were bringing about the danger of a conflict. Those who do not want to hear, must feel.

4th CONSIDERATION. What did the wall prevent?

We no longer wanted to stand by passively and see how doctors, engineers, and skilled workers were induced by refined methods unworthy of the dignity of man to give up their secure existence in the GDR and work in West Germany or West Berlin. These and other manipulations cost the GDR annual losses amounting to 3.5 thousand million marks.

But we prevented something much more important with the wall - West Berlin’s becoming the starting point for a military conflict. The measures we introduced in 13 August in conjunction with the Warsaw Treaty states have cooled off a number of hotheads in Bonn and West Berlin. For the first time in German history the match which was to set fire to another war was extinguished before it had fulfilled its purpose.

5th CONSIDERATION. Was peace really threatened?

Indian journalists R. K. Karanjia shall give you the answer to the question. He published a sensational report from Berlin in the biggest Indian weekly, Blitz in which the world public is warned against the West Berlin powder-keg. K. R. Karanjia wrote:

“It (the protective wall of the GDR) served the cause of world peace since it halted the advance of the German neo-Hitlerites toward the East, forced the world to recognize the reality of the division of Germany and thus supports negotiation.” (retranslated from German)

If further evidence of the aggressive intentions of the West German government is needed it is provided by the authoritative West German employers’ newspaper, the Industriekurier, which regretfully wrote, exactly 19 days after 13 August 1961: “A reunification with the Bundeswehr marching victoriously through the Brandenburg Gate to the beating of drums - such a reunification will not take place in the foreseeable future.”

Bonn heads were really haunted by ideas of such a victorious entry. That would have meant war.

6th CONSIDERATION. Who is walled in?

According to the exceedingly intelligent explanations of the West Berlin Senate we have walled ourselves in and are living in a concentration camp. But in that case why are the gentlemen so excited? Obviously, because in reality their espionage centres, their revanchist radio stations, their fascist solders’ associations, their youth poisoners, and their currency racketeers have been walled in. They are excited because we have erected the wall as an antifascist, protective wall against them.

Does something not occur to you? West Berlin Mayor Brandt wails that half of the GDR, including the workers in the enterprise militia groups, is armed. What do you think of a concentration camp whose inmates have weapons in their hands?

7th CONSIDERATION. Who breaks off human contacts?

Of course, it is bitter for many Berliners not to be able to visit each other at present. But it would be more bitter if a new war were to separate them for ever. Moreover, when the GDR was forced to introduce compulsory entry permits for West Berlin citizens on 23 August in the interests of its security we at the same time offered to open up entry permit offices in municipal railway stations in West Berlin. In fact we opened them and issued the first permits. Who closed them by force? The same Senate of that Mr. Brandt who is today shedding crocodile tears about “contacts being broken”! The GDR has maintained its offer. If we had our way Berliners could visit each other despite the wall.

8th CONSIDERATION. Does the wall threaten anyone?

Bonn propaganda describes the wall as a “monstrous evidence of the aggressiveness of world communism.” Have you ever considered it to be a sign of aggressiveness when someone builds a fence around his property?

9th CONSIDERATION. Who is aggravating the situation?

The wall? It stands there quite calmly. Former French Premier Reynaud said already on 19 August 1961, according to UPI: “The sealing-off measures of the East Berlin government did not increase, but lessened, the danger of a third world war.” In reality, the situation is being aggravated by persons who play at being the strong man on our state frontier, who are turning West Berlin into a NATO base and daily inciting West Berliners against the GDR. Municipal railway cars are being destroyed, frontier guards attacked and brutally shot, tunnels dug for agents and bomb attacks made on the GDR’s frontier security installations. Does that serve relaxation? One must really ask why attacks on the GDR state frontier in West Berlin are not subject to court prosecution as in other states. The Brandt Senate even presents “its respects” to the provocateurs.

10th CONSIDERATION. Is the wall a gymnastic apparatus?

The wall is the state frontier of the German Democratic Republic. The state frontier of a sovereign state must be respected. That is so the world over. He who does not treat it with respect can not complain if he comes to harm. West German and West Berlin politicians demand that “the wall be removed.” We are not particularly fond of walls, either. But please consider where the actual wall runs in Germany, the wall which must be pulled down in your and our interest. It is the wall which was erected because of the fateful Bonn NATO policy. On the stones of this wall stand atomic armament, entry into NATO, revanchist demands, anti-communist incitement, non recognition of the GDR, rejection of negotiations, the front-line city of West Berlin.

So, make your contribution to the pulling down of this wall by advocating a reasonable policy of military neutrality, peaceful co-existence, normal relations between the two German states, the conclusion of a peace treaty with Germany, a demilitarized Free City of West Berlin. That is the only way to improve the situation in Berlin, to safeguard peace, a way which can, one day also lead to the reunification of Germany. The wall says to the war-mongers:

He who lives on an island should not make an enemy of the ocean.

-------

What YOU can think about:

To what extent do you agree with the points brought up in this brochure that supports the construction of the Berlin Wall?

To what extent is this source a reliable source?

What do you think the purpose of this brochure was for?

#editorial #lifeduringberlinwall

Top 10 Depressing Stories from the Berlin Wall

10. The Young Man Who Died In Everyone’s Sight

Peter Fechter was an eighteen-year-old who wanted nothing more than to taste the sweet air of West Germany. His plan was simple: he and a friend would wait until an opportune moment, then sprint across the “death strip” (it was actually called that) and vault the wall to freedom.

Although his friend made it, Peter was shot in the pelvis by a guard and fell inches short of his goal. The whole drama took place in front of hundreds of witnesses, soldiers and journalists on the western side of the wall. Peter lay in agony for more than an hour, while sympathetic bystanders literally a few feet away could do nothing but watch as he died. When he finally passed away, an East German soldier picked up his body and carried it back to East Berlin, followed by thousands of futile boos.

9. The Tunnel of Death

Tunneling out of East Germany was a fairly common activity during the time of the Berlin Wall. Tunneling into East Germany, on the other hand, was almost unheard of. But that was exactly what two men did one day, in a desperate attempt to help their wives and children escape the East.

When the two men arrived in East Germany, armed guards were waiting; it turned out that one of the wives’ family members had betrayed them. One of the men was shot to death by the guards who greeted them on the other side of the tunnel, and the other spent ten years in prison. Bringing a whole new meaning to rubbing salt in the wound, his wife divorced him while he was in there.

8. The Drowned Children

When six-year-old Andreas Senk was accidentally pushed into the water by a friend during play, it seemed at first that he was rather lucky. The stretch of water he fell into was heavily guarded by dozens of soldiers in patrol boats and watchtowers.

But no attempt was made by any East German official to rescue the child. Though it’s arguable that the guards simply failed to notice the boy, they also refused to assist a West German rescue effort—even going so far as to train their guns on the firemen conducting the search. Four more children died in a similar way before an agreement was reached that put safety precautions in place.

7. The Medal for Exemplary Border Service

It’s easy to forget that the guards stationed at the Berlin Wall were genuine soldiers, and that they therefore enjoyed all the perks normally offered to soldiers, such as glittering medals. One of the more infamous of these was the Medal For Exemplary Border Service.

Its infamy stemmed from the fact that it was generally given to guards who had successfully shot unarmed civilians. For example, the soldier who shot forty-year-old Ernst Munst was given the medal due to the fact he “handled his weapon superbly and put it to use masterfully”—in other words, he shot the unarmed Munst in the head.

Interestingly, almost no guards were arrested as a result of any death on the wall. One of the harsher sentences was passed to a guard who shot Walter Kittel: he received a two-year suspended sentence for manslaughter after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

6. The Berlin Rabbits

Bunny rabbits thrived in the so-called Death Strip, between the two walls. With virtually no human interference, the rabbits were free to frolic and breed.

So although the collapse of the wall was a great event for the people of Germany, it turned out to be a death sentence for the Berlin bunnies. Many were trampled to death by elated Germans desperately trying to reach loved ones. The rabbits that did survive managed to hide in nearby bushes, where many of them starved to death.

5. The Diligent Student

Bernd Lünser was a twenty-two-year-old student from one of Berlin’s universities. When the wall went up, he was left stranded and unable to reach his place of study. Eager to continue on his academic path, Bernd planned to scale a rooftop and then use a clothes line to descend into West Germany.

But his plan was foiled by a group of guards. Bernd, struggling with the men, called for West Germans to aid him in some way; his compatriots quickly responded by creating a makeshift net for Bernd to leap into. Tragically, the struggle caused Bernd to miss his jump by a few feet, and he was killed instantly.

4. The Lonely Funerals

The Berlin Wall split many families in two, which is part of the reason why escape attempts were so common: people simply wanted to go home.

Strict border regulations meant that if your family member died trying to escape across the wall, you weren’t even allowed to attend their funeral. The dead would often be buried anonymously—as was the case with Klaus Brueske, whose mother and seven siblings were prevented from visiting him, even in death.

3. The Soldiers Who Tried To Be Friendly

Though painted as inhuman monsters by the other side, the border guards were essentially regular people doing their (admittedly rather evil) job. They were for the most part members of the community, and part of the fabric of everyday life.

When a group of children asked some border guards to show them the weapons they carried, the guards eventually relented and explained the functions of the guns. But in a freak accident, one of the weapons discharged and struck a nearby thirteen-year-old schoolboy, Wolfgang Glöde. The fate of Private K (the guard responsible) isn’t known.

2. The Unknown Victim

Almost every person who died anywhere near the Berlin Wall has had their lives very thoroughly researched and put on display, so that people today might appreciate what they went through. To date, only one person has never been identified.

All we know about this man is that he drowned in the full view of onlookers, and that no one ever came to claim his body from either East or West Germany. Despite decades of scholarly work and research, nothing else has ever been discovered about this man. If dying is one of the worst things that can happen to a person, then dying completely anonymously—with no one around to care—must take bad luck to a whole new level.

1. The Mother Who Accidentally Smothered Her Child

It’s unknown exactly what prompted Ingrid and Klause H. to escape East Berlin, but the reason was presumably a very good one.

While hiding in the back of a truck, Ingrid’s young child Holger began to stir. Terrified that a guard would hear, Ingrid muffled the baby’s cries with her hand. But Ingrid was completely unaware that little Holger was suffering from bronchitis, and was therefore unable to breathe through his nose.

When the truck arrived in West Germany, Ingrid and Klause had gained their freedom, but had lost their son.

#editorial #information

Berlin Wall: A dissident's story

Tom Sello, a dissident in communist East Berlin, recalls his role producing anti-GDR literature in an underground information centre.

What YOU can think about:

the perseverance of these people in opposing the government through underground opposition organizations

the secret police's response to these underground opposition

#video

Life during the Berlin Wall

East Germany [German Democratic Republic]

East Berlin, being a part of Germany under the USSR's rule, was Communist. The people living under the Communist's rule generally have a worse life as compared to those in the West as they were deprived of many things. Even though they had the very basic necessities like housing, health care, education, food and jobs, they did not have their own rights, privacy, individuality and the freedom to travel to West Germany. Even for those basic necessities, there were sometimes shortages. For example, there were times when there were shortages of food and one would often have to queue very long to get their own food through rationings.

Overall, it was possible to live another day in East Germany, but it would be in suffering as the standards of living were comparatively low. There were propaganda posters urging the people to work harder for the GDR, but yet their living conditions were poor. Moreover, there were also Stasi spies everywhere to catch anyone who dared to say anything against the government and its policies. Some were even scared of expressing their inner thoughts to their family members as some of them have been influenced by the government propaganda.

In terms of advancement in areas of scientific research and technologies, East Germany was very technologically "backwards". Taking cars for example, East Germany produced the Trabant. With its poor performance, outdated and inefficient two-stroke engine (which returned poor fuel economy for the car's size and produced smoky exhaust), and production shortages, the Trabant is often cited as an example of the disadvantages of centralized planning, and as a symbol of the failed East Germany.

West Germany [Federal Republic of Germany]

West Berlin, being on the other side of the wall, was generally a better place to live in. They had shops full of goods, great freedom, great wealth and great variety. West Germany managed to achieve an ‘economic miracle’. This was because of the economic aid and support provided by the USA through the Marshall Plan, and the currency reform of 1948, which replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark and halted rampant inflation. Evidence of the economic success in West Germany can be seen in economic reports published. In 1973, West Germany featured the world's fourth largest GDP of 944 billion (5.9% of the world total). In 1987, the FRG held a 7.4% share of total world production

In terms of scientific advancement, West Germany was also ahead of the East. Taking cars for example again, they have produced the world famous Volkswagen Beetle. It is now the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single design platform, worldwide!

#editorial #lifeduringberlinwall

Living behind the Berlin Wall

Heidemarie Ehwald lived in former communist East Berlin and her flat overlooked the Wall.

She describes watching East German authorities blow up a church in the border strip outside her home, and finding out that there was an escape tunnel next door.

What YOU can think about:

think about the thoughts and experience of Heidemarie Ehwald

what do you think would have happened if they had not escaped?

consider the different experiences of people during the Berlin Wall

#video #lifebehindthewall

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