The Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall

One of the most iconic symbols of the Cold War was the infamous Berlin Wall which separated East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989.

After World War II, Germany, and the city of Berlin, were divided into American, British, French, and Soviet zones with border crossings such as Checkpoint Charlie.  Relationships quickly disintegrated, and in 1949 the American, British, and French sectors became West Germany, while the Soviet sector became East Germany.

Since the city of Berlin was situated entirely in the Soviet zone, West Berlin became an island of democracy within Communist East Germany.

Between 1949 and 1960, 2.5 million refugees, half under the age of 25, fled East Germany.  Roughly half a million people crossed the borders between East and West Berlin daily allowing an opportunity for citizens to compare living conditions on both sides.  East Germany was on the brink of social and economic collapse.

So on the night of 13 August 1961, while most Berliners slept, the Communist party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) stretched a barbed wire and concrete barricade between East and West Berlin.  Officially, the wall was meant to keep Western “fascists” out of East Germany.  Primarily, though, it served to stem mass defections from East to West. 

Between 1961 and 1988, over 100,000 people tried to escape across the wall which stretched almost 100 miles with an average height of 11.8 feet and wrapped entirely around West Berlin.

As a deterrent to escape attempts, there was also a 300-foot-No-Man’s-Land, an additional inner wall, soldiers patrolling with dogs, a raked ground that showed footprints, anti-vehicle trenches, electric fences, massive light systems, watchtowers, bunkers, and minefields.

Indeed, these measures were major deterrents for escaping, but it is estimated that at least 5,000 managed to make it safely across the border.

In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate celebrating the 750^th anniversary of Berlin on 12 June 1987, US President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet Communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” in support of increasing freedom in the Eastern Bloc.

The Berlin Wall stood until 9 November 1989 when the head of the East German Communist party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border any time they wanted.  Many celebrated by crossing the wall and bringing hammers and picks to chip away the iconic barrier.

After the wall fell, East and West Germany once again unified and Germany became a single state once again on 3 October 1990.

On 13 August 1998, a memorial was erected along Bernauer Strasse where traces of the former strip have been preserved.

But don’t expect to see much of the 100-mile long wall as most of it has been chiseled away and carted off.  Not much remains of the once infamous wall.

Both sides of the wall were featured in the John le Carre book (1963) and movie (1965) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.  You’ll find the full movie here (107:24) and here (112:00), but it requires a lot of buffer time to load.