On the night of Sunday, August 13, 1961, a first-degree alert was declared in East Berlin. Military personnel, police and workers' squads took up the indicated positions, where building materials for the construction of barriers were prepared in advance. By morning, the city of three million was cut into two parts. Barbed wire blocked 193 streets, 8 tram tracks and 4 metro lines. In places close to the border, with German punctuality, water and gas pipes were welded shut, electric and telephone cables were cut, and sewer tunnels were blocked with bricks. The dividing line ran through squares, bridges, boulevards, cemeteries, vacant lots, ponds, and parks. Early in the morning, Berliners learned that from now on they live in two different cities... .
40 years ago, Khrushchev said about West Berlin: “This is a bone in the throat of the Soviet Union.” Apparently, the Secretary General knew what he was saying. By 1961, it became clear to everyone: the dull counter of the GDR socialism could not withstand any competition with the showcase of capitalist Germany bursting with goods. The worst thing is that anyone could be convinced of this - go to the western side and jostle along crowded boulevards, look into busy restaurants, study the content of advertisements, sniff the mouth-watering aromas that come from the open doors of shops. It doesn’t matter that you don’t even have money for a glass of beer, it’s enough just to look at how people live. They seem to be the same Germans, only they have everything. And on free sale, without cards and queues...
Berlin was divided into 4 sectors at the beginning of 1945, when it became clear that victory over fascism was a matter of time. The highest governing body of the city became the Union Commandant's Office, which included representatives of all countries. Over time, the USSR broke all agreements, resigned from the allied governing body, declaring East Berlin the capital of the GDR and telling the heads of the three Western powers that they must leave West Berlin and turn it into a demilitarized city. The Western powers rejected the ultimatum. During the Vienna meeting in 1961, the following dialogue took place between Kennedy and Khrushchev:
Khrushchev: War or peace - now everything depends on you. If you send one division to Berlin, I will send two there.
Kennedy: You want to achieve change at any cost, but I don't.
Khrushchev: A peace treaty with the GDR with all the ensuing consequences will be signed by December of this year.
Kennedy: If this is true, then we are in for a cold winter.
By “peace treaty,” Nikita Sergeevich meant the establishment of a real border between the two Germanys under the control of Soviet troops. He later recalled: “What was I supposed to do? In July 1961 alone, more than 30 thousand residents, including the best and most diligent, left the GDR. It was not difficult to calculate that the East German economy would collapse if we did not take some measures against the exodus. There were only two possibilities: an air barrier or a wall. An air barrier would lead to a serious conflict with the United States, and possibly even war. So, there was a wall left.”
And here is a recording of Kennedy’s thoughts: “Having lost East Germany, the Soviet Union would have lost Poland, and indeed all of Eastern Europe. He must do something to stop the flow of refugees. Maybe a wall? We won't be able to oppose it. I can unite the alliance (NATO) to protect West Berlin, but I cannot keep East Berlin open.”
At a meeting of the Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact states held in Moscow in March 1961, the idea of closing the border with West Berlin was rejected. For the next four months, the leader of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht, convinced the leaders of the socialist camp of the need to build a barrier between the Germans. 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 from the Eastern European countries, and on the 7th, at a closed meeting of the Politburo of the SED Central Committee, day “X” was appointed, in other words, the day of the construction of the wall, which became August 13.
...Huge crowds gathered on both sides of the barbed wire. People were confused. The wedding party, which was noisy until the morning, went to the bride's parents to finish the walk - and was stopped by armed border guards a few steps from the house. The postman never delivered the correspondence home, the kindergarten was left without a teacher, the conductor did not appear at the concert, the doctor tried until the evening to explain that he was needed at the hospital. A certain Peter Zelle found himself in the most absurd position - they refused to allow his legal wife to visit him in the western part of the city. After many unsuccessful attempts to reunite his family through official means, he decided to take a desperate step - he found a woman in Germany who was exactly like his wife and tried to use her passport. As the GDR press noted, vigilant border guards stopped this “ill-fated provocation.”
The luckiest ones were those who lived in houses through which the border between sectors passed, for example on Bernauer Strasse. In the first hours they jumped from the windows into the free territory. West Berliners stretched tents and blankets under the windows and caught those jumping, but border guards began to break into apartments and brick up the windows. The wall was brought to perfection for another 10 years - first they built a stone one, and then began to replace it with reinforced concrete. Even the magician Copperfield would have been unable to get through such a machine. The wall seemed like a completely impregnable structure. But the dream of freedom sharpens ingenuity, and some attempts to break through the wall ended successfully. Hundreds, if not thousands of people tried to overcome it. Many fled with non-existent UN passports. One family managed to throw a cable from the roof of their house and move to the other side on a roller. Circus performer Renata Hagen escaped with the help of a Western diplomat, hiding in an amplifier speaker. One day, the sailors got the captain drunk and fled under bullets on a ship sailing along the Spree. In October 1964, after breaking through an underground passage 145 meters long and 60 centimeters high, 57 people escaped: from the eastern side they climbed into the box, three at a time, from the western side they pulled it by a rope. Since diving equipment was not sold in the GDR, one man made a submarine suit himself, using fire equipment, an oxygen bag and a welding hose. He plunged into the water and was gone. Two friends - an electrical engineer and a truck driver - built a hot air balloon, put their wives and children on board (8 people in total) and flew to the west side at night.
Some of the citizens of the GDR believed that by erecting a concrete rampart, the East Germans had reliably protected their freedom from outside attacks and could now build a new, happy life in a calm environment. Others realized that they were locked in a stone cage. “What kind of socialism is this that forces itself to be walled up so that its people do not run away?” — German dissident Stefan Heim wrote bitterly.
...But the years take their toll. Over time, people get used to everything - so the wall already seemed like an unshakable stronghold. Erich Honecker never tired of repeating: “The wall will stand for another 50 and 100 years - until the reasons that led to its construction are eliminated.” But he was wrong... The breath of perestroika is beginning to blow across the Soviet Union. On June 8, 1987, during a rock concert near the Reichstag building in Berlin, major riots occur. US President Reagan, addressing the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR, utters his significant phrase: “Mr. Gorbachev, destroy this wall!” Events begin to unfold at lightning speed, and two years later the climax comes.
A few days before the fortieth anniversary of the GDR, the people's police disperse a demonstration in Leipzig. When Gorbachev arrived in Berlin to celebrate his anniversary, people greeted him with posters: “Gorbi, help us!” Mikhail Sergeevich sees a crowd of thousands, draws conclusions and works with GDR leaders. Immediately after this, 6 thousand GDR citizens who had received asylum in the German embassies in Prague and Warsaw were transported by special train to West Germany. On October 27, the State Council of the GDR announces an amnesty to all those convicted of attempting to escape to the West. On November 9, 1989, a new law on border crossings was read out on television, containing some relaxations. Party Secretary Günter Schabowski makes a reservation at a press conference: “From now on, the border is practically open.” What he meant by “practically” is still unclear. What is known is that by 10 pm many East Germans had gathered at the wall on Bornholmer Strasse. "What's happened?" - asked the border guards. “The wall is gone,” the people answered. "Who said?" - “It was announced on TV!” The border guards scratched their heads: “If they announced it on TV, then we have nothing to do here.” The rumor spread throughout the city. What started here! Throughout the next week, world television played the same stories: people were climbing over the wall, dancing, fraternizing and breaking off pieces from the fallen barrier. The multi-thousand-ton wall of concrete and iron crumbled overnight. This is the consequence that just one accidental slip can have.
Today's Berlin is no longer the same city it was 12 years ago. Its total area is 889 square kilometers, which approximately corresponds to the area of Moscow. The employment problem is being solved thanks to a gigantic construction project that has engulfed the entire center - in the new century, Berlin will become the true capital with the parliament and government of Germany. The Reichstag building, which had undergone alterations, now has a glass dome created by the English architect Norman Foster. A commission for processing Stasi materials has settled on Normanstrasse - people come to the reading room and study their files. Musicians play and acrobats perform at the Brandenburg Gate, boys roller skate on Alexanderplatz, beer and sausages are sold near the Kaiser Wilhelm Church. Here is the legendary “Checkpoint Charlie”. Before the fall of the wall, there was a checkpoint between the West and the East. Only embassy workers and citizens of countries allied to the anti-Hitler coalition were allowed to enter - except the USSR. Outdated billboards warn: “Attention! You are leaving the American sector! Now on the site of the checkpoint there is a museum of the Berlin Wall. The wall itself, where it is still preserved, is also a museum - the longest gallery in the world (a 1.3-kilometer segment from the Oberbaumbrücke bridge to the Central Station). In 1990, 118 artists from 21 countries received a fragment of it and painted the gray hulk - each in their own style. The most important symbol of this project was the work of Russian Dmitry Vrubel.
He used as a sample a historical photo published in 1988 in the Pari-Match magazine: the kiss of Brezhnev and Honecker. I primed a piece of the wall and transferred the image using acrylic paints. “My work went around the leading publications around the world, it was printed on T-shirts, posters, postcards, disks, badges,” said Dmitry. Success was the result of a coincidence of historical circumstances.
...Now the wall can no longer be taken apart for souvenirs. Only in one place (the Heimatmuseum in the residential East Berlin district of Treptow) was the last block left to be torn to pieces. And in the center of the city, the few remaining pieces are fenced off with barriers on which it is written: “It is prohibited to approach.”
If from a physical point of view the wall is long gone, then psychologically it still remains in the minds of many Germans. It is difficult to call the relations that have developed between Western and Eastern citizens fraternal. “Westerners” complain that neighbors from the East have turned the city into something resembling a garbage dump and have introduced smoking on subway platforms. And East Berliners accuse Westerners of moral decay and arrogance. According to public opinion polls, every 11th resident of East Germany would like to return to the days of the GDR. There are also many who would like to see the wall restored. The most popular joke of the last decade: “Do you know why the Chinese smile all the time? They didn't knock down their wall."
20 years ago, on November 9, 1989, the infamous Berlin Wall fell. This event is widely celebrated throughout Eastern Europe. In Russia, it was also reflected in a number of photo exhibitions and other events, held, however, less widely.
On both sides of the death strip
East Germany began to fence itself off from West Germany in 1952. And on August 13, 1961, the border was closed with the construction of the Berlin Wall, which stopped the mass outflow of residents of communist countries to the West. It was laid through a virtually living city. It blocked the metro lines and the railway. Many Berlin families were torn apart. 155 km of concrete bastion split the city in half for 28 years.
On the eastern side, the Berlin Wall was crammed with electronics. From observation towers, snipers shot at daredevils rushing into the free world. Russian tanks and machine gunners coexisted with German shepherds.
On the western side, the wall was guarded by NATO troops. But it was possible to approach the wall calmly. Even those who wanted to climb on it and look at their eastern neighbors were not prevented. This is understandable - there were no people suffering to get to the other side. Over time, artists and artists began to gather at the western wall. The wall was covered with drawings and graffiti, some of which are now known throughout the world.
Despite such strict protection of the Berlin Wall, there were plenty of brave souls from the eastern side who wanted to breathe the air of freedom. Their ingenuity knew no bounds: they tried to fly over the wall on a hang glider and in a hot air balloon, sailed across the Baltic Sea, hid in car hiding places, dug tunnels under the Berlin Wall, which had a length of 30 to 200 m. Some tunnels could only be crawled, in others, even walk at full height. About 300 people were able to escape to West Berlin in this way.
But not always everything ended well. When trying to get to the other side of the Berlin Wall, according to various sources, from 125 to 1245 people died. “An 18-year-old boy tried to jump over the wall - he fell, he didn’t die, he could have been helped, he just broke his head and lost a lot of blood. For five hours no one approached him. People and children looked at him as he died before their eyes. And he died,” says Olga Sviblova, curator of a photo exhibition at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall dedicated to this event. On August 12, 2007, a BBC broadcast announced that documents were found in the archives of the GDR Ministry of State Security that confirm that the GDR authorities ordered the extermination of all fugitives, including children.
Fall of the wall
In the mid-80s, perestroika began in the USSR. The situation in the GDR is becoming very tense. The leadership of the GDR is trying to pretend that everything is calm, but the number of people wishing to leave the GDR is growing uncontrollably. In August 1989, about 600 tourists from the GDR, who were spending their holidays in Hungary, flee to Austria.
The leadership of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) is trying to block the flow. After this, crowds of people eager to leave for the West begin to besiege the diplomatic missions of the Federal Republic of Germany in Prague and Warsaw.
Celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the founding of the GDR in October 1989 are turning into farce and window dressing. The head of the party and government, Erich Honecker, despite the events taking place in the country, praises the virtues of the socialist socialist system in Germany. Even Mikhail Gorbachev's calls for reforms in the GDR remain unanswered.
However, on October 8, Honecker was forced to cede power to Egon Krenz, who promises the people speedy reforms. But the people are already tired of waiting. On November 4, about 400 thousand demonstrators gather at Alexanderplatz Square in Berlin. The people demand the resignation of the government, free elections and freedom of speech. In Leipzig, the opposition united around the local Evangelical Church of St. Nicholas. On November 6, over half a million people take part in the demonstration. Unrest begins throughout the GDR.
On November 9, at a press conference held by the SED, in response to a question from Italian news agency ANSA correspondent Ehrmann about the new procedure for East German citizens leaving the country, party official Günther Schabowski announced that a new law was being adopted that would allow residents of the GDR to travel abroad. “When will it come into force?” - suddenly a voice came from the hall. Schabowski glanced at the papers through his rimless glasses and stammered, “It will… as far as I know… from now on.”
This news instantly spread throughout East Berlin. And on the same day, many city residents went to the Berlin Wall to find out everything thoroughly for themselves. Border guards, who had not yet heard anything about the new exit rules, tried to block the road. However, they were soon forced to retreat and open the passages.
The unification of Germany was no longer just an internal affair of the Germans. According to the results of the GDR elections in March 1990, the East German Christian Democrats won. Their leader, Lothar de Maizières, becomes head of the GDR government. In mid-May, Kohl and de Maizières signed an agreement on the creation of a single economic space. And in May, negotiations on the “2 plus 4” formula begin in Bonn with the participation of both German states and the four victorious powers: the USSR, the USA, France and Great Britain. There were many controversial issues.
At the next meeting in Zheleznovodsk on July 16, 1990, Kohl and Gorbachev agreed on all controversial points. Gorbachev agrees to the entry of a united Germany into NATO. The deadline for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the territory of the GDR is determined. In turn, the German government assumes obligations within the framework of economic cooperation with the Soviet Union. Germany recognizes the borders of western Poland along the Oder and Neisse.
On October 3, 1990, the GDR joins the zone of application of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. In other words, Germany is finally becoming a single country.
On November 9 of this year, Berliners took to the streets of their city to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the unification of the two parts and the fall of the notorious Berlin Wall - the main symbol of the end, as it seemed then, of the Cold War.
SHOOT EVERYONE
The birth of this ugly monster, which stood for 28 years, was preceded by the Second Berlin Crisis. While the Soviet Union actually handed over its sector of the occupation of Berlin to the GDR, its western part remained under the rule of the occupation forces, and. In this regard, the USSR demanded the transformation of West Berlin into a demilitarized free city. It was not possible to reach an agreement with the former allies, and the German question continued to remain a stumbling block in relations between the USSR and Western countries. During this period, it came down mainly to the problem of the status of West Berlin. In February 1958, Khrushchev proposed convening a conference of the four great powers and reconsidering the status of this city. During his visit to the United States in September 1959, he reached an agreement with Eisenhower to convene such a conference in Paris the following May.
However, the conference did not take place - it was torpedoed by the flight of a spy plane. On May 1, 1960, an American reconnaissance aircraft 11-2, making another spy flight over the Urals, was shot down by a Soviet missile, and the surviving pilot, Powers, was captured and convicted. A huge scandal followed, as a result of which Eisenhower's visit to the Union and the Paris Conference were cancelled.
Meanwhile, the situation in Berlin became tense. In the summer of 1961, American and Soviet tanks that drove out onto the city streets almost rested their foreheads against each other. On August 12, 1961, free movement in Berlin from east to west was prohibited in violation of the Potsdam Agreement. Early on Sunday morning, August 13, East German authorities began the process of separating East Berlin from West Berlin using barbed wire and anti-tank hedgehogs. A few days later, teams of construction workers, guarded by submachine gunners, began replacing the temporary barriers with a foundation wall.
By August 22, residents of East Berlin were completely deprived of the opportunity to visit West Berlin. On the same day, the first victim appeared at the wall: Ida Zikman fell to her death while trying to jump over it from the window of her apartment. Then, Gunter Liftin, a resident of East Berlin who worked in the western part of the city, was shot dead while trying to move from the eastern sector to the western sector. He planned his move there on the very day that the GDR authorities closed the border. On September 20, the evacuation of buildings located directly near the border began. In August 1962, Peter Fechter was shot and killed by a patrol while trying to get over the Berlin Wall. The 18-year-old was left to bleed to death in front of scores of witnesses. The exact number of deaths during the attempt to overcome the wall that separated the two worlds is unknown: it is believed that the victims were from 136 to 245. The unspoken order to shoot fugitives from the GDR was given back in 1960, and it was legalized only in October 1974. After the reunification of Germany, orders were found in the archives of the GDR security service (Stasi) ordering that all fugitives, including women and children, be shot to kill. The last victim of the wall was 20-year-old Berliner Chris Gefroy, shot dead on the night of February 6, 1989. He lived only 9 months before freedom and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
DEATH STRIP
The length of the border between West Berlin and the GDR was 168 km, 45 of which were inside the city. The border fortifications around West Berlin, 3 to 4 meters high, stretched for 156 km, 112 of them were concrete or stone walls, the rest were fences made of metal bars. The gigantic structure also included 186 observation towers, 31 command posts, communication and alarm lines. Five hundred guard dogs served at the Berlin Wall. On the eastern side in front of the wall there was a strip illuminated by searchlights, called the “death strip”. The fugitives caught in the spotlight were shot without warning.
The border cut off 192 streets, 97 of which led from West Berlin to East Berlin, the rest - inside the territory of the GDR. The Wall literally cemented the division of Germans into two Germanys for many decades. In addition to the mass of practical inconveniences that the wall brought to Berliners (severance of business and family ties, etc.), it put a certain oppressive pressure on people. The author of this material had the opportunity to visit divided Berlin in the 1960s and feel it. A gloomy gray wall ran along the axis of the street along the dark facades of empty houses, looking at it with blind, tightly bricked windows. Patrols circulated periodically - open jeeps with machine gunners in helmets of a characteristic German “cut”, familiar to us from war films. It all smacked of something sinister.
DEFEATED MONSTER
So who was the initiator of the creation of this structure and the culprit of the tragedies associated with it? Here is what Martin Zabrow, director of the German Center for the Study of Contemporary History, says about this: “For historians, there cannot be one reason, just as there cannot be one blame... one can blame both certain people and the system itself. After all, the division of Germany is a consequence of the Second World War and the struggle of two political forces, the confrontation of which led to an outflow of population from east to west. Of course, specific individuals also influenced the situation. First of all, the leader of East Germany, Walter Ulbricht, who was much more interested than Khrushchev in stopping the outflow of people. Khrushchev believed in utopia, believing that socialism would triumph in Berlin without any walls or borders. Ulbricht understood that the situation was getting worse every day, and considered the Berlin Wall a necessary measure to save the GDR. There are different points of view about the role of the Soviet Union - by and large, both sides are responsible for this, but still it was Ulbricht who was the initiator."
But time does not stand still. As Ecclesiastes teaches, “There is a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.” Documents have been preserved that back in 1987, Gorbachev and Shevardnadze discussed the possibility of demolishing the Berlin Wall and the unification of two Germanys - the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. The West called them to do this.
In May 1989, under the influence of perestroika in the Soviet Union, the GDR's Warsaw Pact partner destroyed fortifications on the border with Austria. The leadership of the GDR was not going to follow her example, but it soon lost control over the rapidly unfolding events. Thousands of GDR citizens flocked to other Eastern European countries in the hope of getting from there to West Germany. Hundreds of East Germans fled west through Hungary. When Hungary announced the full opening of its borders in September 1989, the Berlin Wall lost its meaning: within three days, 15 thousand citizens left the GDR through Hungarian territory. Rallies and demonstrations began across the country. As a result of mass protests, the party leadership of the GDR resigned. On November 4, a mass rally took place in Berlin demanding freedom of speech and assembly. On November 9, 1989, speaking on television, GDR government member Günter Schabowski announced new rules for entry into and exit from the country, according to which GDR citizens could now visit West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany. Hundreds of thousands of East Germans, without waiting for the deadline set by this decision, rushed to the border on the evening of November 9. The border guards, who had not received orders, first tried to push back the crowd using water cannons, but then, yielding to the massive pressure, they opened the border. Thousands of West Berliners came out to greet the guests from the east. What was happening was reminiscent of a national holiday. Then the demolition of the wall began, first spontaneously, and then in an organized manner with the help of heavy equipment. People took away small fragments of the defeated monster for souvenirs. Some fragments of the Berlin Wall, heavily decorated with graffiti, were left as a monument to the dark past and became a tourist attraction. The area with the painting “ Brezhnev's hot kiss with Honecker».
However, the end of the GDR for many of its inhabitants meant more than just the acquisition of freedom. Many did not know what to do with it, many still experience attacks to this day." ostalgia”, as they call here the longing for the bygone socialist past of East (Ost) Germany, or maybe just for the times of one’s youth. Romantics got freedom, practitioners got the capitalist world of opportunities, pessimists got fears for the future. According to sociologists, from 10 to 15% of former East Germans want a return to the past, and only every second resident of a united Germany today is able to remember the date when construction of the Berlin Wall began. However, it is much more important that the people remember when, why and thanks to whom it fell.
Fragment of the Berlin WallAn undestroyed section of the Berlin Wall is located on Bernauer Straße, a street that divides the lives of Berliners in two. At one time, this border, equipped and fortified with the latest technology, ran along it. In the German Democratic Republic it was officially called the "Anti-Fascist Defense Wall". In the West, with the light hand of the then Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Willy Brandt, it was called nothing less than the “Shameful Wall,” and also quite officially. Today, it’s hard to believe that the cordon between the two states could have been exactly like this - cutting to the quick: 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 with 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 are not just nice 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 metropolis of millions in two, not only along the streets and the Spree River, but also through residential areas. Not to mention the separated families, shattered human destinies and the lives taken of innocent people who, in desperation, 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 the construction
At the time the wall appeared, the two Germanys, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, were still very young entities and there was no clearly defined border between them. The same thing was observed in Berlin, the division of which into eastern and western parts was more a legal fact than a real one. Such transparency led to conflicts at the political level and a massive outflow of specialists from the Soviet occupation zone to the West. And this is not surprising: after all, they paid more in the Federal Republic, so East Germans (Ossies) preferred to work there and simply ran away from the “socialist paradise.” At the same time, both states that arose 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 Germanys, several so-called Berlin crises took place. The first two happened in 1948-1949 and 1953. The third erupted in 1958 and lasted three years: it turned out to be especially intense. By this point, the eastern districts of Berlin, while legally remaining under Soviet occupation, were effectively controlled by the GDR. The rest of the city was under both de jure and de facto rule of the Americans, British and French. The Soviet Union demanded free city status for West Berlin. 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 distortions in the economic policy pursued by the government of the German Democratic Republic led by Walter Ulbricht. It sought to “catch up and overtake” Germany and, it seems, was ready to sacrifice anything to achieve its goal. Following the example of the USSR, collective farms were forcibly created in the agricultural sector, and labor standards were increased for workers in cities. However, low wages 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 abandoned their homeland. The leadership understood perfectly well: if this process is not stopped, the young state will die for a long time.
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 countries that were part of the Warsaw Pact 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 object, but had little idea how to implement this in practice. Nikita Khrushchev, first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, proposed two options. The first, an air barrier, was ultimately rejected by the negotiators because it was fraught with problems in the international arena, and above all complications with the United States. The second remained - a wall that would divide Berlin in two. We decided to stop there.
Construction of the Berlin Wall
The appearance of a physical border between both parts of Berlin came as a complete surprise to the population. It all started on the night of August 13, 1961, when the GDR troops were drawn to the conditional dividing line. They quickly, using barbed wire, closed all sections of the border within the city limits. The Berliners, who had gathered on both sides of it the next morning, were ordered by the military to disperse, but the people did not listen to them. It is unknown what this spontaneous rally would have developed into if it had not been for the water cannons brought by the authorities, which they used to hit the crowd, dispersing it in less than an hour.
For two days, military personnel, together with workers' squads and the police, surrounded the entire western zone with barbed wire. About 200 streets, a dozen trams and several lines of the Berlin metro were blocked. In places adjacent to the new border, telephone communications and power lines were cut off. At the same time, the water and sewer pipes running here were plugged. Then the construction of the Berlin Wall began, which lasted until the first half of the 70s. During this time, the concrete border acquired its ominous appearance. There were high-rise buildings adjacent to it, where it was, of course, no longer possible to live, so the apartment owners were relocated, and the windows facing the “enemy” were blocked with bricks. Potsdamer Platz, which instantly became a border area, was also closed to the public.
Interestingly, the Brandenburg Gate, the calling card of Berlin and one of the symbols of all of Germany, stood in the way of the odious structure. But it could not become an obstacle to construction. The authorities didn’t think long and decided... to surround them with a wall, 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 odious border looked like
The border, which could only be compared to a fortress gate, was more than just a wall. It was a complex structure, consisting of a concrete structure itself (length - 106 km, height on average 3.6 m), as well as two types of fences. The first is made of metal mesh (66.5 km), the second is made of barbed wire (127.5 km), stretched over a wall through which voltage was released. When trying to penetrate through it, flares went off, and border guards immediately headed to the site of the illegal crossing of the Berlin Wall. A meeting with them, as you understand, turned into big troubles for the violators.
The “shameful wall” stretched for as much as 155 km, of which 43.1 km were within the city limits. The border was also fortified with a system of earthen ditches stretching for 105.5 km. In some areas there were anti-tank fortifications and stripes strewn 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 zone with warning signs, in which it was strictly forbidden to be present.
Fall and destruction of the wall
In June 1987, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, took part in the celebrations in honor of the 750th anniversary of Berlin. 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 these gates! Mr. Gorbachev, destroy this wall!” It is difficult to say whether the American leader believed that his Soviet colleague was heeding 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 Kennedy, called “a slap in the face of all humanity,” an unexpected role was played by... Hungary. In May 1989, the authorities of this country, thanks to perestroika in the USSR, were no longer afraid of the “big brother”, decided to lift the “iron curtain” at the border 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 60s, the leadership of the GDR could not contain 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-time leader Erich Honecker and those close to him, the outflow of people to the West became even larger, and this circumstance only emphasized the meaninglessness of the existence of the Berlin Wall. On November 9, 1989, it was announced on television that the Politburo of the SED Central Committee had decided to lift restrictions on crossing the border with West Berlin and Germany. The Ossies did not wait for the new norms to come into force, 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 help of an already tested means - water cannons, but ultimately gave in to the pressure and opened the border. On the other side, people also gathered, rushing 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 its original place, but little remained of its former terrifying appearance. In some places it was already broken, in some places it was painted with a lot of graffiti. People painted drawings on it and left inscriptions. Not only tourists, but also the townspeople themselves could not deny themselves the desire to break off at least one piece from the wall - as a keepsake, realizing that this was not just a souvenir, but a priceless historical artifact. Moreover, the wall was soon demolished altogether; this happened several months after the unification of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic into a single state, which took place on the night of October 3, 1990.
Berlin Wall today
An object such as the Berlin Wall, having ceased to exist physically, still could not disappear without a trace. She left behind a bad memory that is unlikely to be erased from public consciousness. And it’s hardly worth forgetting such sad lessons from history, which are needed in order to prevent this from happening in the future. This border not only divided an entire city, it became a place sprinkled with the blood of innocent people who were desperately trying to escape from a totalitarian state, but died while crossing it. The exact number of victims is still unknown. According to official statistics of the former GDR, there were 125 people. A number of 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 sources citing the archives of the Stasi (East Germany's secret police), the death toll is 1,245.
Most of the Berlin Wall memorial complex, opened on May 21, 2010, which was called the “Window of Memory,” was dedicated to the innocent victims of political confrontation. Made of rusted steel, the monument weighs about a ton. There are several rows of black and white photographs of the dead on it. Some met their death by jumping from the windows of houses on Bernauer Strasse - the same ones that were later blocked with bricks. Others died trying to cross from East Berlin to the western part of the city. The memorial, located on Bernauer Straße, was completed in 2012 and covers an area of 4 hectares. The Chapel of Reconciliation, built back in 2000 on the site of the church of the same name, which was blown up in 1985, also became part of it. The construction of the complex - 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 on the site of the Berlin Wall
All these years, the surviving fragment of the Berlin Wall, 1316 meters long, remains a “living” reminder of the tragic times of division and confrontation. When the border, embodied in concrete, fell, artists from all over the world rushed here, inspired by the spirit of freedom. They painted the remaining section of the wall with their paintings. Thus, unexpectedly and completely spontaneously, an entire open-air art gallery arose, called the East Side Gallery, which translates as “East Side Gallery.” The result of spontaneous creativity was the appearance of 106 paintings, united by the theme of political detente of 1989-1990 in East Germany. The most famous and recognizable work was the fresco made 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.
Special mention should be made of the former checkpoint Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse, the most famous of the three checkpoints under American control. Only high-ranking officials could cross the border through Checkpoint Charlie. Attempts by ordinary Germans to illegally enter West Berlin from here were brutally suppressed by the GDR border guards, who without warning shot to kill every violator.
At the above-mentioned border point there is now the Berlin Wall Museum, among the exhibits of which are various equipment and devices with which the inhabitants of the “socialist paradise” tried to escape into “decaying capitalism”. These include parachutes, paragliders, small submarines and even armored vehicles and hot air balloons. The collection contains many photographs depicting watchtowers, bunkers, technical means of warning and much more for which the Berlin Wall became notorious throughout the civilized world. Relatives of Berliners who died trying to cross the wall often come here.
One of the popular exhibitions is of Soviet and American soldiers looking at each other, whose portraits are placed in light boxes (by artist Frank Thiel). Another famous exhibition, “From Gandhi to Walesa,” is dedicated to the theme of a person’s struggle for his civil rights, but only through peaceful means, without violence and bloodshed. The history of Checkpoint Charlie itself is told in an open-air exhibition: comments on the photographic materials are available in both German and Russian. The museum will also show tourists a documentary film telling about the stages of destruction of this terrible border, which seemed to last forever.
How to get there
Considering that the Berlin Wall stretched for several tens of kilometers within the city, it does not have an address in the usual sense.
The surviving fragments of this engineered concrete structure are scattered in various areas along its entire perimeter. You can get to the most preserved and significant sections of the legendary border by metro, reaching the Niederkirchenstracce and Warschauer Straße stations.
Official website of the Berlin Wall memorial complex: www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de. Materials are duplicated in three languages: German, English and French.
The fall of the Berlin Wall united not only one people together, but also families separated by borders. This event marked the unification of the nation. The slogans at the demonstrations read: “We are one people.” The year of the fall of the Berlin Wall is considered to be the year of the beginning of a new life in Germany.
Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall, whose construction began in 1961, symbolized the end of the Cold War. During construction, wire fencing was first laid out, which later grew into a 5-meter concrete fortification, complemented by watchtowers and barbed wire. The main purpose of the wall is to reduce refugees from the GDR to (before this, 2 million people had already managed to cross). The wall stretched for several hundred kilometers. The indignation of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic was transmitted to Western countries, but no protests or rallies could influence the decision to install a fence.
28 years behind the fence
It stood for a little more than a quarter of a century - 28 years. During this time, three generations were born. Of course, many were unhappy with this state of affairs. People strived for a new life, from which they were separated by a wall. One can only imagine what they felt for her - hatred, contempt. The inhabitants were imprisoned as if in a cage, and they tried to escape to the west of the country. However, according to official data, about 700 people were shot dead. And these are only documented cases. Today, you can also visit the Berlin Wall Museum, which preserves stories about the tricks people had to resort to to overcome it. For example, one child was literally catapulted over a fence by his parents. One family was transported by balloon.
Fall of the Berlin Wall - 1989
The communist regime of the GDR fell. It was followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall, the date of this high-profile incident was 1989, November 9. These events immediately caused people to react. And joyful Berliners began to destroy the wall. Very soon, most of the pieces became souvenirs. November 9 is also called the "Feast of All Germans". The fall of the Berlin Wall became one of the most notorious events of the twentieth century and was perceived as a sign. In the same 1989, no one yet knew what course of events fate had in store for them. (leader of the GDR) at the beginning of the year argued that the wall would remain in place for at least half a century, or even the entire century. The opinion that it was indestructible dominated both among the ruling circles and among ordinary residents. However, May of the same year showed the opposite.
The fall of the Berlin Wall - how it happened
Hungary removed its “wall” with Austria, and therefore there was no point in the Berlin Wall. According to eyewitnesses, even a few hours before the fall, many still had no idea what would happen. A huge mass of people, when news of the simplification of the access regime reached them, moved towards the wall. The border guards on duty, who did not have orders for precise actions in this situation, attempted to push the people back. But the pressure of the residents was so great that they had no choice but to open the border. On this day, thousands of West Berliners came out to meet East Berliners to greet them and congratulate them on their “liberation.” November 9 was indeed a national holiday.
15th anniversary of the destruction
In 2004, marking the 15th anniversary of the destruction of the symbol of the Cold War, a large ceremony was held in the German capital to commemorate the opening of a monument to the Berlin Wall. It is a restored part of the former fence, but now its length is only a few hundred meters. The monument is located where the former location of a checkpoint called "Charlie" was located, which served as the main connection between the two parts of the city. Here you can also see 1,065 crosses erected in memory of those who were killed from 1961 to 1989 for attempting to escape from Eastern Germany. However, there is no exact information about the number of those killed, since different resources report completely different data.
25th anniversary
On November 9, 2014, German residents celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The festive event was attended by the President of Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel. Foreign guests also visited it, including Mikhail Gorbachev (former President of the USSR). On the same day, a concert and a ceremonial meeting took place in the Konzerthaus, which was also attended by the President and Federal Chancellor. Mikhail Gorbachev expressed his opinion about the events that took place, saying that Berlin is saying goodbye to the wall, because there is a new life and history ahead. On the occasion of the holiday, an installation of 6880 glowing balls was installed. In the evening, filled with gel, they flew away into the darkness of the night, being a symbol of the destruction of the barrier and separation.
Europe's reaction
The fall of the Berlin Wall became an event that the whole world talked about. A large number of historians argue that the country would have come to unity if in the late 80s, as it happened, which means a little later. But this process was inevitable. Before this, lengthy negotiations took place. By the way, Mikhail Gorbachev also played a role, speaking for the unity of Germany (for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize). Although some assessed these events from a different point of view - as a loss of geopolitical influence. Despite this, Moscow has demonstrated that it can be trusted to negotiate complex and fairly fundamental issues. It is worth noting that some European leaders were against the reunification of Germany, for example, Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister of Britain) and (President of France). Germany in their eyes was a political and economic competitor, as well as an aggressor and military adversary. They were concerned about the reunification of the German people, and Margaret Thatcher even tried to convince Mikhail Gorbachev to back down from his position, but he was adamant. Some European leaders saw Germany as a future enemy and openly feared it.
End of the Cold War?
After November the wall was still standing (it was not completely destroyed). And in the mid-nineties, a decision was made to demolish it. Only a small “segment” was left intact in memory of the past. The world community perceived the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall as a unification not only of Germany. And throughout Europe.
Putin, while still an employee of the KGB representative office in the GDR, supported the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as the unification of Germany. He also starred in a documentary film dedicated to this event, which premiered on the 20th anniversary of the reunification of the German people. By the way, it was he who persuaded the demonstrators not to destroy the building of the KGB representative office. V.V. Putin was not invited to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the collapse of the wall (D.A. Medvedev was present at the 20th anniversary) - after the “Ukrainian events”, many world leaders, like Angela Merkel, who acted as the hostess of the meeting, considered his presence inappropriate.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was a good sign for the whole world. However, unfortunately, history shows that fraternal peoples can be fenced off from each other without tangible walls. Cold wars exist between states even in the 21st century.