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German Culture: The Berlin Wall

Robert Easton

For almost thirty years the Berlin Wall divided the city of Berlin in two. Overnight its construction separated friends from friends, family from relatives, and one half of a great city from the other.

Then one day in 1989, among scenes of great rejoicing and delight, this symbol of oppression was torn down by the very people it was designed to control.

That great day will be remembered by many for generations, but so too will the preceding decades of conflict and strife that the Wall represented.

After the Second World War Germany was initially divided into four parts, one Eastern section governed by the Soviet Union, and the three Western sections controlled by Britain, the US and France. The capital city, Berlin, was similarly divided up into four sections although in fact the whole city lay entirely within Soviet ruled East Germany.

In 1946 the Soviet military demarcated the border between East and West Germany and ordered that it be safeguarded. After this Germans were still able to travel freely between the East and West, but they needed a permit which had to be renewed every thirty days.

Co-operation between the Western countries and the Soviet Union deteriorated after 1946 and the Western powers decided to create a separate West German government in their own zones.

The Soviet Union was opposed to this, and tried to stop them by harassing traffic travelling through Soviet territory to West Berlin. The harassment escalated and culminated in the Berlin Blockade, when all overland traffic into West Berlin was blocked.

In response the Western powers started the biggest airlift of supplies ever seen, delivering more than 2 million tonnes of coal, food and other supplies to West Berlin over the next 321 days. 278,228 flights were flown.

Compare this with the multi-national airlift to Sarajevo (July 1992 to January 1996) during which 179,910 tons of cargo was airlifted. During the Berlin Blockade, more supplies were airlifted during a single month in 1949. The blockade was finally ended on May 12th 1949, and the airlift stopped on September 30th the same year.

The two separate republics, The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) were both formed in 1949. In 1952 the border between East and West Germany and between East Germany and West Berlin was closed. Only the border between East and West Berlin remained open.

Between 1949 and 1961, 2.6 million East Germans went to West Germany, out of an East German population of only 17 million. East Germany lost many skilled workers and the existence of two separate currencies in Berlin was another problem.

In 1961 the East German government saw no other choice than to permanently split the city into two parts, allowing no-one to pass from one side to another.

Construction of the wall began during the night of August 13th, 1961, when most Berliners were asleep. That night the East German government erected concrete barriers and fences, tore up roads, and installed barbed wire entanglements throughout Berlin.

Over the next few days people could still escape to West Berlin for example by digging tunnels or by jumping from buildings near the wall, but security was gradually tightened until the wall was almost impregnable. The wall was rebuilt several times.

Its final incarnation, constructed in 1975, used about 45,000 concrete slabs, and cost over 16 million East German Marks, at a time when a loaf of bread cost just 1.04 Marks.

The wall around West Berlin had a total length of 96 miles, with 302 watchtowers and 65 miles of anti-vehicle trenches. 171 people were killed or died trying to escape East Germany at the Berlin Wall between August 13th 1961 and November 9th 1989. About 200 more were shot and injured by East German guards.

Ronald Reagan visited Berlin in 1987 demanding in a speech, "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" It was in West Berlin on June 26, 1963, just after a visit on foot to Checkpoint Charlie, that President Kennedy made his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. A solid avowal of American solidarity, In hindsight it can be seen as a turning point in the Cold War.

By the 1980s Communism was bankrupt and the Soviet Union could no longer afford the Cold War with the United States. States in Soviet Eastern Europe were pushing for their independence and in 1989 the leader of Soviet East Germany, Erich Honecker, was forced to resign.

The East German government began drafting changes to the border-law and on November 9th 1989 one official was asked when the new laws would come into force. He replied "Well, as far as I can see, ... straightaway, immediately."

Thousands of hopeful East Germans headed to the wall and demanded that the border be opened. They were eventually allowed to surge through and were met by jubilant West Berliners.

The ecstatic crowds climbed on top of the wall and began to hack it apart. Modern buildings have been built where the wall once stood and the united Germany is now a central member of the European Union.

The Soviet East German leader, Erich Honecker once said that the Wall "will still exist in 50 and in 100 years, unless the reasons for its existence are eliminated." It wasn't in the way he expected, but happily those reasons were eliminated and now the German nation, with its capital city of Berlin, is once again reunited.

Other articles by Robert Easton
The Amber Room
The Berlin Wall
Austrian Beer
Austrian Food
German Beer
German Cars
German Food
German Music
German Philosophers
German Politics
German Stereotypes
Hiking in Austria
Johannes Gutenberg
Michael Schumacher
Sex in Germany
Sex in Austria
Sex in Switzerland
Skiing in Switzerland
Swiss Stereotypes
William Tell

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