Berlin Wall

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The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer), known in the Soviet Union and in the German Democratic Republic as the "Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart," was a separation barrier between West Berlin and East Germany (the German Democratic Republic), which closed the border between East and West Berlin for 28 years. Construction on the wall began on August 13, 1961, and it was dismantled in the weeks following November 9, 1989. The Berlin Wall was the most prominent part of the inner German border and an iconic symbol of the Cold War.

Conceived by the East German administration of Walter Ulbricht and approved by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev,^[1] it was built during the post-World War II period of divided Germany, in an effort to stop the drain of labour and economic output associated with the daily migration of huge numbers of professionals and skilled workers from East to West Berlin, and the attendant defections, which hurt the Communist bloc economically and politically.

The Wall was successful at decreasing emigration (escapes - "Republikflucht" in German) from 2.5 million between 1949 and 1962 to 5,000 between 1962 and 1989.^[2] However, it was a propaganda disaster for East Germany and the Communist bloc. It became a key symbol of what Western powers regarded as Communist tyranny, particularly after the high-profile shootings of would-be defectors. Political liberalization in the late 1980s, associated with the decline of the Soviet Union, led East Germany to relax border restrictions, culminating in mass demonstrations and the fall of the East German government. On November 9, 1989, the government announced that crossing of the border would be permitted. Masses of East Germans approached and then crossed the wall, and were joined by crowds of West Germans in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; it was later removed using industrial equipment. Its so-called "fall" prepared the way for Nationalist tendencies, which gained ascendancy in East Germany towards the end of 1989. Following extravagant promises of "blooming landscapes" and "economic wonders", the East German voters were convinced of the need for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Divergence of German states 1.2 Proposed barrier 2 Construction begins, 1961 2.1 Immediate effects 2.2 Secondary response 3 Layout and modifications 4 Official crossings and usage 4.1 Escape attempts 5 The fall, 1989 5.1 Celebrations 5.2 Aftermath and implications 6 Legacy 6.1 Museum 6.2 Cultural differences 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links 10.1 Images and personal accounts

Background

After the end of World War II in Europe, what territorially remained of Nazi Germany was divided into four occupation zones (per the Yalta Conference), each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers: the Americans, British, French and Soviets. The old capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was itself similarly subdivided into four zones despite the city itself lying deep inside the zone of the Soviet Union. Although the intent was for the occupying powers to govern Germany together inside the 1947 borders, the advent of Cold War tension caused the French, British and American zones to be formed into the Federal Republic of Germany (and West Berlin) in 1949, excluding the Soviet zone which then formed the German Democratic Republic (including East Berlin) the same year.

Divergence of German states

From 1948 onwards, West Germany developed into a western capitalist country with a social market economy ("Soziale Marktwirtschaft" in German) and a democratic parliamentary government. Prolonged economic growth starting in the 1950s fuelled a 30-year "economic miracle" or "Wirtschaftswunder" in German. Across the inner-German border, East Germany established an authoritarian government with a Soviet-style command economy. While East Germany became one of the richest, most advanced countries in the Eastern bloc, many of its citizens still looked to the significantly wealthier West for political freedoms and economic prosperity. The flight of growing numbers of East Germans to non-communist countries via West Berlin led to Germany erecting the inner German border (of which the Berlin Wall was a part) to prevent any further exodus.

Proposed barrier

The impetus for the creation of the Berlin Wall came from East German leader Walter Ulbricht, approved by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, but with conditions imposed. Ulbricht's proposal for a second air blockade was refused and the construction of a barrier was permitted provided that it was composed at first of barbed wire. If the Allies challenged the barrier, the East Germans were to fall back and were not to fire first under any circumstances.

Construction begins, 1961

On 15 June 1961 — two months before the construction of the Berlin Wall started — Walter Ulbricht pretended in an international press meeting: "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" (No one intends to set up a wall). It was the first time the colloquial term Mauer (Wall) was used.

Construction of 45 km (28 miles) around the three western sectors began early on Sunday, the 13th of August, 1961 in East Berlin. That morning the zonal boundary had been sealed by East German troops. The barrier was built by East German troops and workers, not directly involving the Soviets. It was built slightly inside East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point; if one stood next to the West Berlin side of the barrier (and later the Wall), one was actually standing on East Berlin soil. Some streets running alongside the barrier were torn up to make them impassable to most vehicles, and a barbed-wire fence was erected, which was later built up into the full-scale Wall. It physically divided the city and completely surrounded West Berlin. During the construction of the Wall, NVA and KdA soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect. Additionally, the whole length of the border between East and West Germany was closed with chain-fences, walls, minefields, and other installations (see GDR border system).

Immediate effects

Many families were split. Many East Berliners were cut off from their jobs and from chances for financial improvement; West Berlin became an isolated enclave in a hostile land. West Berliners demonstrated against the wall, led by their mayor Willy Brandt, who strongly criticised the United States for failing to respond. Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees but the main candidate for its location was around the perimeter of the city.

John F. Kennedy had acknowledged in a speech on 25 July, 1961, that the United States could hope to defend only West Berliners and West Germans; to attempt to stand up for East Germans would result only in an embarrassing climbdown. Accordingly, the administration made polite protests at length via the usual channels, but without fervour, even though it was a violation of the postwar Four Powers Agreements, which gave the United Kingdom, France and the United States a say over the administration of the whole of Berlin. Indeed, a few months after the barbed wire went up, the U.S. government informed the Soviet government that it accepted the Wall as "a fact of international life" and would not challenge it by force. The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "anti-fascist protection barrier" ("antifaschistischer Schutzwall") intended to dissuade aggression from the West, despite the fact that all of the wall's defenses pointed inward to East German territory.

Thus, this position was viewed with skepticism even in East Germany; its construction had caused considerable hardship to families divided by the Wall and the Western view that the Wall was a means of preventing the citizens of East Germany from entering West Berlin was widely seen as being the truth.

Secondary response

It was clear both that West German morale needed more and that there was a serious potential threat to the viability of West Berlin. If West Berlin fell after all the efforts of the Berlin Airlift, how could any of America's other allies rely on it? On the other hand, in the face of any serious Soviet threat, an enclave like West Berlin could not be defended except with nuclear weapons.^[3] As such, it was vitally important for the Americans to show the Soviets that they could push their luck no further.

Accordingly, General Lucius D. Clay, who was deeply respected by Berliners after commanding the American effort during the Berlin Airlift (1948–49), and was known to have a firm attitude towards the Soviets, was sent to Berlin with ambassadorial rank as Kennedy's special advisor. He and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived at Tempelhof Airport on the afternoon of Saturday 19 August.

They arrived in a city defended by what would soon be known as the "Berlin Brigade", which then consisted of the 2nd and 3rd Battle Groups of the 6th Infantry, with Company F, 40th Armor. The battle groups were "pentatomic" (equipped with tactical nuclear weapons), with 1362 officers and men each. On 16 August, Kennedy had given the order for them to be reinforced. Early on 19 August, the 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry (commanded by Col. Glover S. Johns Jr.) was alerted.

On Sunday morning, lead elements in a column of 491 vehicles and trailers carrying 1500 men divided into five march units and left the Helmstedt-Marienborn checkpoint at 06:34. At Marienborn, the Soviet checkpoint next to Helmstedt on the West German/East German border, U.S. personnel were counted by guards. The column was 160 km (~100 miles) long, and covered 177 km (~110 miles) from Marienborn to Berlin in full battle gear, with VoPos (East German police) watching from beside trees next to the autobahn all the way along. The front of the convoy arrived at the outskirts of Berlin just before noon, to be met by Clay and Johnson, before parading through the streets of Berlin to an adoring crowd. At 0400 on Monday, 21 August, Lyndon Johnson left a visibly reassured West Berlin in the hands of Gen. Frederick O. Hartel and his brigade, now of 4224 officers and men. Every three months for the next three and a half years, a new American battalion was rotated into West Berlin by autobahn to demonstrate Allied rights.

The creation of the Wall had important implications for both Germanies. By stemming the exodus of people from East Germany, the East German government was able to reassert its control over the country, in spite of discontent with the wall, economic sabotage caused by dual currency and the blackmarket was now largely eliminated and the economy in the east grew. However, the Wall proved a propaganda disaster for the communist bloc as a whole. Western powers used it as a symbol of Communist tyranny, particularly after the shootings of would-be defectors (which would later be treated as acts of murder by the reunified Germany). In 1987, Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate, at which he challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". In West Germany, dismay that the Western powers had done nothing to prevent the Wall's creation led directly to the policy of Ostpolitik or rapprochement with the east, in an effort to stabilize the relationship of the two Germanies.

On August 13 1961, Berlin was cut in two by a concrete wall. The purpose of the wall: to hinder the people of socialist East Germany from fleeing into the normal world. The wall was constantly perfected and strengthened, transformed from a normal wall into a system of impassable technical hindrances of traps, elaborate signals, concrete shooting cells, watchtowers, anti-tank tetrahedrons, “hedgehogs” and self-firing guns, which killed the fugitives without the intervention of the border guards.
But the more work, ingenuity, money and steel the communists allocated to the further development of the wall, the clearer it became: human beings can be kept in a communist society only by impenetrable obstructions, barbed wire, dogs and by shooting in the back. The wall meant that the system which the communists had built attracted no-one. It repelled.

– Viktor Suvorov, 'The Shadow of the Victory, chapter 7

Layout and modifications

The Wall was over 155km (96 miles) long. In June 1962, work started on a second parallel fence up to 91 meters (100 yards) further into East German territory, with houses in between the fences torn down and their inhabitants relocated. A no man's land was created between the two barriers, which became widely known as the "death strip". It was paved with raked gravel, making it easy to spot footprints left by escapees; it offered no cover; it was booby-trapped with tripwires; and, most importantly, it offered a clear field of fire to the watching guards.

Over the years, the Wall went through four distinct phases:

1. Basic wire fence (1961)
2. Improved wire fence (1962-1965)
3. Concrete wall (1965-1975)
4. Grenzmauer 75 (Border Wall 75) (1975-1989)

The "fourth generation wall", known officially as "Stützwandelement UL 12.11"(Retaining wall element UL 12.11), was the final and most sophisticated version of the Wall. Begun in 1975^[4] and completed about 1980,^[5] it was constructed from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, each 3.6 m (12 ft) high and 1.2 m (4 ft) wide, and cost 16,155,000 East German Marks.^[6] The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe, intended to make it more difficult for escapers to scale it. It was reinforced by mesh fencing, signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire, over 116 watchtowers,^[7] and twenty bunkers. This version of the Wall is the one most commonly seen in photographs, and surviving fragments of Wall in Berlin and elsewhere around the world are generally pieces of the fourth-generation Wall.

Official crossings and usage

There were eight border crossings between East and West Berlin, allowing visits by West Berliners, West Germans, western foreigners and Allied personnel into East Berlin, as well as visits of East German citizens into West Berlin, provided they held the necessary permit. Those crossings were restricted according to which nationality was allowed to use it (East Germans, West Germans, West Berliners, other countries). The most famous was Friedrichstraße (Checkpoint Charlie), which was restricted to Allied personnel and non-German citizens.

Several other border crossings existed between West Berlin and surrounding East Germany. These could be used for transit between West Germany and West Berlin, for visits by West Berliners into East Germany, for transit into countries neighbouring East Germany (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Denmark), and for visits by East Germans into West Berlin carrying a permit. After the 1972 agreements, new crossings were opened to allow West Berlin waste be transported into East German dumps, as well as some crossings for access to West Berlin's exclaves (see Steinstücken).

During most of the history of the Wall, Allied military personnel, officials, and diplomats were able to pass into East Berlin without passport check; likewise Soviet patrols could pass into West Berlin. This was a requirement of the post-war Four Powers Agreements. West Berliners were initially subject to very severe restrictions; all crossing points were closed to West Berliners between August 26, 1961 and December 17, 1963, and it was not until September 1971 that travel restrictions were eased following a Four Powers Agreement on transit issues. Passage in and out of West Berlin was limited to twelve crossing points on the Wall, though all but two of these were reserved for Germans.

Four motorways usable by West Germans connected West Berlin to West Germany, the most famous being Berlin-Helmstedt autobahn, which entered East German territory at the town of Helmstedt (Checkpoint Alpha) and connected to Berlin at Dreilinden (Checkpoint Bravo) in south-western Berlin. Access to West Berlin was also possible by railway (four routes) and by boat using canals and rivers.

Foreigners frequently and legally crossed the Wall, and the East Germans welcomed their hard currency. They were, of course, always subject to careful checks both entering and leaving. When exiting, the police would typically run a mirror under each vehicle to look for persons clinging to the undercarriage. East Germans were occasionally given permission to cross, and all pensioners were able to travel to the west freely. The border section in Potsdam was where the captured U-2 pilot Gary Powers was traded for Russian spy Rudolf Abel.

Westerners could cross the border at Friedrichstraße station in East Berlin and at Checkpoint Charlie. When the Wall was erected, Berlin's complex public transit networks, the S-Bahn and U-Bahn, were divided with it.^[8] Some lines were cut in half; many stations were shut down. Three Western lines traveled through brief sections of East Berlin territory, passing through eastern stations (called Geisterbahnhöfe, or ghost stations) without stopping. Both the eastern and western networks converged at Friedrichstrasse, which became a major crossing point for those (mostly Westerners) with permission to cross.

Escape attempts

During the Wall's existence there were around 5,000 successful escapes into West Berlin. Varying reports claim around 192 people were killed trying to cross^[9][10] and many more injured.

Early successful escapes involved people jumping the initial barbed wire or leaping out of apartment windows along the line but these ended as the wall improved. On August 15, 1961, Conrad Schumann was the first East German border guard to escape by jumping the barbed wire to West Berlin. Later successful escape attempts included long tunnels, waiting for favorable winds and taking a hot air balloon, sliding along aerial wires, flying ultralights, and in one instance, simply driving a sports car at full speed through the basic, initial fortifications. When a metal beam was placed at checkpoints to prevent this kind of escape, up to four escapees (two in the front and possibly two in the boot) drove under the bar in a sports car that had been modified to allow the roof and wind screen to come away when it made contact with the beam. They simply lay flat and kept driving forwards. This issue was rectified with zig-zagging roads at checkpoints.

Another airborne escape was by Thomas Kruger, who landed a Zlin Z-42M light aircraft of the Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik, an East German youth military training organization, at RAF Gatow. His aircraft, registration DDR-WOH, was dismantled and returned to the East Germans by road, complete with humorous slogans painted on by RAF Airmen such as "Wish you were here" and "Come back soon". DDR-WOH is still flying today, but under the registration D-EWOH.

If an escapee were wounded in a crossing attempt and lay on the death strip, no matter how close they were to the Western wall, they could not be rescued for fear of triggering engaging fire from the 'Grepos', the East Berlin border guards. The guards often left escapees to bleed to death in the middle of this ground.

The most notorious failed attempt was that of Peter Fechter (aged 18) who was shot and left to bleed to death in full view of the western media, on August 17, 1962. The last person to be shot dead while trying to cross the border was Chris Gueffroy on February 6, 1989.

The fall, 1989

On August 23, 1989, communist Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria, and in September more than 13,000 East German tourists in Hungary escaped to Austria. Mass demonstrations against the government in East Germany began in the autumn of 1989. The long-time leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, resigned on October 18, 1989 and was replaced by Egon Krenz a few days later. Honecker had predicted in January of that year that the wall would stand for a "hundred more years" if the conditions which had caused its construction did not change.

Protest demonstrations broke out all over East Germany from September 1989, initially they were of people wanting to leave to the west chanting "Wir wollen raus" We want to leave", then protestors began to chant "wir bleiben hier" "We are staying here" this was the start of what East Germans generally call the peaceful revolution of autumn 1989. The protest demonstrations wanted to create a "socialism with a human face," and by November 4, 1989, the protests had swelled significantly, with 1 million people gathered that day on Alexander Platz in East Berlin.

Meanwhile the wave of refugees leaving East Germany for the West had increased and had found its way through Czechoslovakia, tolerated by the new Krenz government and in agreement with the still communist Czech government. In order to ease the complications, the politburo led by Krenz decided on November 9 1989 to allow refugees to exit directly through crossing points between East Germany and West Germany, including West Berlin. On the same day, the ministerial administration modified the proposal to include private travel. The new regulations were to take effect on November 10. Günter Schabowski, the East German Minister of Propaganda, had the task of announcing this; however he had been on vacation prior to this decision and had not been fully updated. Shortly before a press conference on November 9, 1989, he was handed a note that said that East Berliners would be allowed to cross the border with proper permission, but gave no further instructions on how to handle the information. These regulations had only been completed a few hours earlier, and were to take effect the following day, so as to allow time to inform the border guards. However, nobody had informed Schabowski. He read the note out loud at the end of the conference and when asked when the regulations would come into effect, he assumed it would be the same day based on the wording of the note and replied "As far as I know effective immediately, right now".

Tens of thousands of East Berliners heard Schabowski's statement live on East German television and flooded the checkpoints in the Wall demanding entry into West Berlin. The surprised and overwhelmed border guards made many hectic telephone calls with their superiors, but it became clear that there was no-one within the East German authorities who would dare to take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force, so there was no way for the vastly outnumbered soldiers to hold back the huge crowd of East German citizens. In face of the escalating crowd the guards finally yielded, opening the checkpoints and allowing people through with little or no identity checks. The ecstatic East Berliners were soon greeted by West Berliners on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. November 9 is thus considered the date the Wall fell. In the days and weeks that followed people came to the wall with sledgehammers in order to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts of it in the process. These people were nicknamed "Mauerspechte" (wall woodpeckers).

The East German regime announced the opening of ten new border crossings the following weekend, including some in symbolic locations (Potsdamer Platz, Glienicker Brücke, Bernauer Straße). Crowds on both sides waited there for hours, cheering at the bulldozers who took parts of the Wall away to reinstate old roads. Photos and television footage of these events is sometimes mislabelled "dismantling of the Wall", even though it was merely the construction of new crossings. New border crossings continued to be opened through summer 1990, including the most famous one at the Brandenburg Gate on December 22, 1989.

West Germans and West Berliners were allowed visa free travel starting December 23, 1989. Until then they could visit East Germany and East Berlin under the restrictive conditions prevalent before, which involved application for a visa several days or weeks in advance, and obligatory exchange of at least 25 DM per day of their planned stay, all of which hindered spontaneous visits. Thus, in the weeks between November 9 and December 23, East Germans could travel "more freely" than Westerners.

Technically the Wall remained guarded for some time after November 9, even though at an ever decreasing intensity. In the first months, the East German military even tried to repair some of the damages done by the "wall peckers". Gradually these attempts ceased, and guards became more and more lax, tolerating the increasing demolitions and "unauthorised" border crossing through the holes. On June 13, 1990, the official dismantling of the Wall by the East German military began in Bernauer Straße. On July 1, the day East Germany adopted the West German currency, all border controls ceased, although the inter-German border had become meaningless for some time before that. The dismantling continued to be carried out by military units (after unification under the Bundeswehr) and took until November 1991. Only a few short sections and watchtowers were left standing as memorials.

The fall of the Wall was the first step toward German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

Celebrations

On December 25, 1989 Leonard Bernstein gave a concert in Berlin celebrating the end of the Wall, including Beethoven's 9th symphony (Ode to Joy) with the word "Joy" (Freude) changed to "Freedom" (Freiheit) in the sung text. The orchestra and chorus were drawn from both East and West Germany, as well as the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States.^[11]

Roger Waters performed the Pink Floyd album The Wall in Potsdamer Platz on 21 July 1990, with guests including Scorpions, Bryan Adams, and Van Morrison. David Hasselhoff performed his song "Looking for Freedom", which was very popular in Germany at that time, standing on the Berlin wall.

Some believe November 9 would have made a suitable German National Holiday, since it both marks the emotional apogee of East Germany's peaceful revolution and is also the date of the declaration of the first German republic, the Weimar Republic, in 1918. However, November 9 is also the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch and the infamous Kristallnacht pogroms of 1938 and, therefore, October 3 was chosen instead. Part of this decision was that the East German government wanted to conclude reunification before East Germany could celebrate a 41st anniversary on October 7, 1990.

Aftermath and implications

The fall of the Wall altered road and M-bahn traffic patterns. An experimental magnetic levitation train system around 1.6 km (1 mile) in length was demolished just months after its official opening in July 1991 as it used part of the track bed of an underground line previously severed by the wall that was needed again to reconnect the underground line.

Legacy

Little is left of the Wall, which was destroyed almost everywhere. There are three sections still standing: an 80-meter (263 ft) piece near Potsdamer Platz; a longer section along the Spree River near the Oberbaumbrücke nicknamed East Side Gallery; and a third section in the north at Bernauer Straße, which was turned into a memorial in 1999. None still accurately represent the Wall's original appearance. They are badly damaged by souvenir seekers, and fragments of the Wall both with and without certificates of authenticity are a staple on the online auction service eBay as well as German souvenir shops. Moreover, the eastern side is covered in graffiti that did not exist while the Wall was guarded by the armed soldiers of East Germany. Previously, graffiti appeared only on the western side.

Museum

Fifteen years after the fall, a private museum rebuilt a 200-metre (656 ft) section close to Checkpoint Charlie, although not in the location of the original wall. They also raised more than 1,000 crosses in memory of those who died attempting to flee to the West. The memorial was installed in October 2004 and demolished in July 2005.^[12][13]

Cultural differences

Even now, some years after reunification, there is still talk in Germany of cultural differences between East and West Germans (colloquially Ossis and Wessis), sometimes described as "Mauer im Kopf" ("The wall in the head"). A September 2004 poll found that 25% of West Germans and 12% of East Germans wished that East Germany and West Germany were again cut off by the Berlin Wall.^[14] Many German public figures have called these numbers "alarming."

See also

• List of walls
• Brandenburg Gate
• Der Tunnel, a film about a mass evacuation to West Berlin through a tunnel
• Diplomatic incident of October 1961 – See Checkpoint Charlie
• Operation Gold
• Ostalgie
• Schießbefehl
• List of Portions of the Berlin Wall
• Solidarity Movement

Notes

References

• Buckley, William F., Jr. (2004). The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-26736-8.  (A concise, very readable account of the history of the wall.)
• Cate, Curtis (1978). The Ides of August: The Berlin Wall Crisis—1961. New York City: M. Evans. 
• Catudal, Honoré M. (1980). Kennedy and the Berlin Wall Crisis. West Berlin: Berlin Verlag. 
• Kennedy, John F.. July 25 1961 speech.
• Maclean, Rory (1992). Stalin's Nose: Across the Face of Europe. London: HarperCollins. 

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