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The Berlin Wall: History at a Glance History – Testimonies – Relics

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The Berlin Wall: History at a Glance History – Testimonies – Relics The Berlin Wall: History at a Glance Please note: For the respective openings and closings as well as the special protective measures during the pandemic, check the websites of the museums and memorials. History – Testimonies – Relics © Landesarchiv Berlin Checkpoint Charlie, 1961 For more than 28 years East and West Berlin were divided by an almost insurmountable Wall. Not only did it divide families and friends but it also brought much pain and suffering to the city. At least 136 people lost their lives here, mostly when attempting to flee from East to West. The joy which accompanied the fall of the wall on 9th November 1989 generated a feeling of euphoria in which the majority of border posts disappeared. There are only a few original relics left. The following round-up is intended to help with the search for evidence. In addition, it will provide an insight into the history of the Wall and highlight the dramatic events that took place on 9th November 1989. The Wall – the Background up to its Construction in 1961 As early as during the course of the Second World War the Allies had resolved to divide Germany, once defeated, into occupation zones and allow the country to be administered by the victorious powers, that is, the USA, Great Britain and the USSR. France only came on board as the fourth occupying power after the Yalta Conference in February 1945. At the Conference held in Potsdam at the beginning of August 1945, the victorious powers approved the four zones and the four sectors of Berlin, the eastern boundary along the Oder Neiße line as well as the economic unit of Germany. Nevertheless, the first signs of the Cold War were already becoming evident. In the Western and the Eastern Zones a very different pattern of development evolved. In May 1949 the Federal Republic of Germany was established with Bonn as its capital city; in the October of that year the German Democratic Republic was formed (GDR). The borders were still open but they were being watched. However, this situation was set to undergo a rapid change. In a number of operations, one of which went by the (telling) name of “Vermin“, persons who, in the eyes of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), were “not to be trusted” were forcibly expelled from the border area. Although controls on the internal German borders were tightened, Berlin still continued to offer a good escape route for people fleeing from East to West. The Soviet leaders regarded free West Berlin as a “splinter“ in the heart of “socialist Europe“ that had to be removed. In the spring of 1961 the economic situation in the GDR worsened dramatically. There was a significant increase in the flow of refugees. It seemed that the GDR was on the brink of collapse, both economic and political. Thousands of people were turning their backs on the country. The Building of the Wall – 13th August 1961 The summit talks between Nikita Khrushchev, Party Chief and Soviet Head of State, and the American President John F. Kennedy on 3rd and 4th June 1961 in Vienna failed to defuse tensions in the Cold War. On 15th June 1961 SED Chief Walter Ulbricht was still trying to dispel rumours that West Berlin was about to be sealed off. “Nobody has any intention of erecting a wall“, he announced. In the early hours of 13th August 1961 this was exposed as a piece of lying propaganda. Under conditions of the strictest secrecy – only a few hundred officials and civil servants are said to have known about the date – armed workers’ militia groups, police and soldiers embarked on the construction of a barrier made from concrete blocks and barbed wire across the city along the boundary between the sectors of East and West Berlin. The West’s response was initially surprisingly low-key. It was only two days later that the West’s commanders in the city were motivated to launch a protest. Facts The Wall around West Berlin was a total of 156.4 kilometres in length; the border between West and East Berlin accounted for 43.7 kilometres of it. 13th August 1961 may have been the day the Wall was built. All traffic routes between West and East Berlin were cut, but it was several days before an almost complete cordon was in place. The demolition of the internal city wall, which commenced on 10th November 1989 with the opening up of new border crossing points, was officially completed on 30th November 1990. In the surrounding area of Brandenburg the last sections disappeared in November 1991. Some of the sections of the wall can be found today in different places throughout the world. The US Secret Service, the CIA, secured a few artistically decorated segments of the wall for its building A few segments of the wall with St. Michael’s Church painted on them were erected in the Vatican Gardens in August 1994. Another piece of the wall is on view in the House of History (‘Haus der Geschichte’) in Bonn. According to research carried out by the Centre for Research into Contemporary History and the Berlin Wall Memorial Site - between 1961 and 1989 at least 136 people were killed on the Berlin Wall ... or lost their lives in circumstances in which the GDR border regime was directly implicated. In addition, at least 48 travellers from East and West died before, during or after checks at Berlin crossing points. The Circumstances Surrounding the Fall of the Berlin Wall The surprise opening of the barriers at a number of Berlin border crossing points on the evening of 9th November 1989 is frequently represented as the result of misunderstandings within the leadership of East Germany. In fact, there were a number of events that preceded the stampede of thousands of GDR citizens who fell upon the completely unprepared border guards, and the importance of these events in terms of world history could not be foreseen at the time. 1989 –Year of Upheaval: the Opening of the Border in Hungary On 2nd May 1989 Hungarian border soldiers started dismantling the barbed wire fence between Hungary and Austria under the supervision of the Foreign Ministers of both countries. Confident that the border would continue to be secured, the GDR passed this off as simply a “cosmetic border operation“. Initially there was no change to the situation. Even though it had acceded to the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Hungary was still deporting GDR escapees back to their homeland. The situation only began to change over the course of the following few weeks. By mid-July it was being increasingly reported that refugees from the GDR were being handed over to the GDR authorities on fewer and fewer occasions. Finally, on 19th August, the Iron Curtain between East and West opened after more than four decades of the Cold War. On the occasion of a “Pan-European Picnic“, the border gate to Austria was opened for three hours on 19th August. More than 600 GDR citizens made use of this opportunity to flee into the West. And, in other places, tens of thousands of people wanting to leave were waiting for their chance. The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Budapest was hopelessly crammed and the same was true in Prague and Warsaw. Starting on 11th September, Hungary opened its borders up to citizens of the GDR. In the first three days alone, 18 000 of them made their way into Austria and from there on into the Federal Republic of Germany. Embassy Refugees During the summer of 1989, more and more GDR citizens attempted to leave for the West via the Embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany in Prague, Warsaw and Budapest. In September of that year a particularly dramatic situation arose in Prague, with 3 500 people jostling in the building and in the garden. The GDR leadership saw their celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Republic on 7th October in jeopardy, whilst the Federal German government was anxious to do what it could to help the people. To scenes of indescribable jubilation, Foreign Minister Hans- Dietrich Genscher announced, on 30th September, that all embassy refugees could leave. Because by now increasing numbers of GDR citizens were occupying the Embassy, trains were laid on over the next few days to carry a total of 17 000 refugees from Prague to the Federal Republic of Germany via the GDR. On 3rd October the GDR closed its borders to the ČSSR. On 4th October a serious dispute with the police erupted at the main station in Dresden when thousands of extra people tried to board the trains. Monday Demonstrations Rumours were also rife internally in the GDR. The City of Leipzig, through its Monday Demonstrations, became the symbol of the Peaceful Revolution. On 4th September an initial demonstration by around 1 200 people took place following the Monday prayers for peace in St. Nicholas’ Church. Demonstrators anxious to leave shouted “We want out!“ Two weeks later it was the choir, chanting “We are staying here!” who prevailed. Arrests were made. By 2nd October there were 20 000 people taking part in the Monday Demonstrations. It is here that the slogan that subsequently became so meaningful “We are the people! “was chanted for the first time, conceived originally merely as a response to the loudspeaker announcement “This is the People’s Police”. On 23rd October the number of participants had risen to 300 000. In the wake of church services in Magdeburg, Dresden, Schwerin, Zwickau, Halle, Stralsund and Berlin too, thousands of people took the opportunity to demand free elections, authorisation of opposition groups and freedom to travel.
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