Berlin - the Wall

I suspect all readers of this travel blog know what the Berlin Wall was: in 1961, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany - the Soviet-run sector, that is) built a wall that divided Berlin. The wall ran around the three Western sectors of Berlin. Everyone knew why the Wall was built: to keep East Berliners from escaping the communist life of East Berlin for the opportunities in the democratic West. (A similiar wall separated East Germany from West Germany; it ran about 100 miles west of Berlin; West Berlin was, literally, an island of the Western Allies in East Germany.) In the East German mind, though, the wall was not there to keep East Germans from escaping; the official East German rationale for the Wall was to keep West Germans from coming to the East to kidnap good East German Communists - the Wall was officially titled the "Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier."

For those of my generation, that wall was the focal point of the Cold War. It separated a city, a country; it split families apart, with members on both sides unable to see each other. West Berlin built towers on its side so that people could climb up and wave to family members still in the East. East Berlin built towers on its side so that guards could shoot people trying to escape across the Wall to the West.

The Berlin Wall is mostly gone now, torn down in 1989 when two things happened: several countries bordering on Germany opened their borders, allowing people to leave East Germany, if they wanted, without risking their lives to cross the Wall; and the Soviet Union told East Germany it would no longer support it militarily or financially. Almost overnight the Wall was gone.

I find the Wall and its remnants fascinating. The Wall reminds me of what Power will do to maintain itself. Lie? Of course. Tear families apart? Sure. Kill anyone trying to escape? No problem.

In many ways, Berlin has tried to keep the ugly parts of its history in its day-to-day life; there has been no effort to sweep the ugly parts under the rug and pretend it never happened. So there are quite a few places where bits and pieces of the Wall remain, and one memorial in particular, at Bernauerstrasse, which has an excellent museum accompanying a stretch of the remaining Wall. But I also find that anytime I come upon a section, I stop and look at it and, if I can, I put a hand on it, thinking of all it represents.

These pictures were taken at the Wall memorial at Bernauerstrasse. Here an original part of the Wall remains and is maintained (everywhere else, Wall remnants are literally covered with grafitti). Though you can't see it, here the Memorial also retains the 100-yard wide "death strip" behind it, which was guarded by towers with armed guards, patrolled by dogs and soldiers, and covered with sand and touch-sensitive fences. Can't do too much to keep those Fascists out of the East German workers' paradise.

Location:Invalidenstraße,Berlin,Germany