I have a piece of the Berlin Wall on my refrigerator. This is from 1989, when a friend joined hundreds of thousands, who helped to tear it down.
The piece of the wall is thick concrete, and you can imagine what the Berlin Wall was like for families--a 12-foot high reminder for families who lived under the oppressive Soviet rule during this time.
The Berlin Wall was 26 miles long, and ranged in height from 12 to 15 feet.
Barbed wire and pieces of pipe were placed on top of the fence; machine-gun armed guard posts prevented East Berliners from trying to escape to the West.
Between 1949 and 1961, an estimated 2.5 million people moved from East Berlin to West Berlin.
Here is a short history of how the Berlin Wall came to be:
At the end of World War II, Berlin was divided into four sections. In the West, Berlin belonged to
American, British and the French. In the East, Berlin belonged to the Soviets.
A militarized demarcation line between East and West developed shortly afterward. In 1946 a pass was required for visitors who traveling between the East and West zones of Berlin.
By 1946, two currencies developed in Berlin.
By 1948, the Berlin Blockade began, with the Berlin Airlift.
By 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was established.
By 1953, East German building workers rose in protest against an increase in Soviet working rules
conditions. The Soviet's Red Army suppressed the workers. As of 1953, East German Citizens now needed permission to travel to West Germany.
By 1957, East Germans were prohibited from leaving East Germany to go to West Germany. Violators were prosecuted, with prison terms of up to three years.
Between 1957 and 1961, then-Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Kruschchev pressured President Kennedy to give up West Berlin to the Soviets.
Kennedy refused; Kruschchev responded by building the Berlin Wall.
By August 13, 1961, the beginning of the Wall between East Berlin and West Berlin was built.
The Brandenberg Gate is closed, and within two weeks, all crossing points between East and West Berlin were closed.
This marked the beginning of nearly 30 years where no travel between East and West Berlin
occurred.
During 1961, 170 East Berliners died trying to escape the Berlin Wall into West Berlin.
I remember news reports of this.
In 1987, President Reagan encourages Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the
Berlin Wall.
By September, 1989, Hungary opens its borders to East German refugees.
November 9, 1989: The Berlin Wall comes down.
This process took months, with uncounted hundreds of thousands joining in, people clamoring for their 'piece' of the 'wall,' a horrific souvenir of decades lived under oppressive Soviet rule.
Later today:
The Sixties - Early Stirrings - 16,000 Advisors Sent to Vietnam (6)
The series "The Sixties" is published Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays.
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Comments: 40
Berlin is a wonderful city and I'd strongly recommend it for a visit.
I traveled to Poland when it was still Communist; have been to Germany in the 70s, but never to Berlin. It is on my top lists. Thank you for your most important comment, Damian.
Today, all that remains is the memory that it was bad, everything else about the Berlin Wall is history. If a question on a test were "How can we prevent another Belrin Wall from ever being built ?" How many Americans would even venture a guess ?
As to your question, promote democracy. THough that's what Kennedy did, and the Soviets responded with the wall. We've got a lot of the world left in dictatorships, still way too much potential for human rights abuses.
On Christmas Eve, the family I was staying with received a phone call. It was from Papa Erdmann's sister in the East zone. Her call had been placed months before, and went from East Berlin to Poland, to Lithuania, to Belgium, to France, to West Germany, and thence to West Berlin. His sister lived about twelve blocks away.
After the dictatorship is lifted, comes anarchy, in a lot of cases.
Later today, I publish the beginning of the Vietnam War. Some weeks I;lkl have to publish 2 times a day. Way too much stuff happened in the sixties for just 3 articles a week !!!
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays.
"By September, 1989, Hungary opens its borders to East German refugees."
A bit of clarification: East German citizens were allowed to travel to Hungary before; in fact, Hungary used to be a convenient meeting place for families divided between East and West Germany. What happened in Sept. '89, at a time when Erich Honecker (the East German dictator) was still trying to hold on, was that Hungary "opened" the Hungarian-Austrian border for East German citizens (it was open for Hungarians, and for Westerners, of course), while previously they co-operated with the East German regime and did not allow people with East German passports to cross into Austria (from where they could easily get to their relatives in West Germany).
Why don't you write an article, ir you haven't done so already? I bet lots of us would loooove to read it. A good lesson to us all, those of us who either came after or lived here in a free country.
lol, plus which it's simply great to be reading your informative articles again. the other day there was a thing on telly about the top twenty memorable televised moments and the wall coming down was right up there near the top. it was a wonderful opportunity to try to explain it all to my big boy but hard to do without all the facts. now i can show him this!!
Gene and Dale are as delightful as always. i've had a thing half-written for weeks about them actually.. will pull it out again this weekend and see if i can get it up to par. i'll be looking out for your next sixties thingie for sure!