"The Berlin Wall..." Berlin Travelogue by coceng

The Berlin Wall was erected in the night of August 13, 1961.
It was a weekend and most Berliners slept while the East German government begun to close the border. In the early morning of that Sunday most of the first work was done: the border to West Berlin was closed. The East German troups had begun to tear up streets and to install barbed wire entanglement and fences through Berlin.

The first concrete elements and large square blocks were used first on August 15, 1961. Within the next months the first generation of the Berlin Wall was build up: a wall consisting of concrete elements and square blocks.

A second Wall was build in June 1962 in order to prevent from escaping to the West.
The first Wall was improved during the next years and it's difficult to distinguish between the first and the second generation of the Wall.

These two first generations were removed by the third generation beginning about 1965. The third generation of Wall consisted of concrete slabs between steel girder and concrete posts with a concrete sewage pipe on top of the Wall.

From the year 1975 the third generation of Wall was replaced by the fourth generation. New concrete segments were used which were easy to build up and were more resistant to breakthroughs and to environmental polutions.

<font face=tahoma size=2>Until 1961 East German citizen were allowed to travel to West Berlin.
Travelling to West Germany became difficult after closing the border between East and West Germany in 1952.
The Wall was erected in 1961 because more than 2.6 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 to 1961 (total population of East Germany was about 17 million!).

The life in the West was much better than in the East after 1948. West Germany including West Berlin had got financial help through the Marshallplan from the USA. In East Germany a communist system was established and many people had to suffer under repressions of the Communist party.

In May 1952 the open border (Zonengrenze) between East and West Germany was closed by the East German government.
In the years after 1952 it became more difficult and dangerous to escape to the West over this border.
However, the sectorial borders between East and West Berlin were not closed. Many East German citizen went to East Berlin and from there to West Berlin. Once arrived in West Berlin they stayed there or were fled out to West Germany.

East Germany lost too many skilled workers in these years.
Another big problem were the two currencies in Germany and especially in Berlin. West German DM had been exchanged into East German DM at a rate of 1:4 (1 DM West = 4 DM Ost) in West Berlin.
People with West German DM could get goods very cheaply in the Eastern part of Berlin.

The East German government saw no other way to prevent from escaping to the West via Berlin than closing the border between East and West Berlin on August 13, 1961.

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<font face=system size=3>The fall of the Berlin Wall had begun with the building of the Wall in 1961.
However it took about three decades until the Wall was torn down.
Several times people in the Communist countries rised up against the Communist system but they failed.
The victims of the uprisings against the Communist dictatorship in Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956 or Prague 1968 will never been forgotten.
In 1989 the first free labor union was founded in the communist Poland. The end of the communist system had begun.
The Soviet Union could control their satellites yet but with the new leader Gorbatshov their politics changed in 1984.
Gorbatshov's reforms, Perestroika and Glasnost should renew the stalinistic system in the Soviet Union but not replace the communist system.
The reforms in the Soviet Union also had its effects on the other communist countries, especially in Poland and Hungary.
On August 23, 1989 Hungary opened the iron curtain to Austria.
Months before East German tourists used their chance to escape to Austria from Hungary and in September 1989 more than 13 000 East German escaped via Hungary within three days. It was the first mass exodus of East Germans after the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
Mass demonstrations against the government and the system in East Germany begun at the end of September and took until November 1989.
Erich Honecker, East Germany's head of state, had to resign on October 18, 1989.
The new governement prepared a new law to lift the travel restrictions for East German citizen.
At 06.53 pm on November 9, 1989 a member of the new East German government was asked at a press conference when the new East German travel law comes into force.
He answered: "Well, as far as I can see, ... straightaway, immediately."
Thousands of East Berliners went to the border crossings. At Bornholmer Strasse the people demanded to open the border and at 10.30 pm the border was opened there.
That moment meant the end of the Berlin Wall.
Soon other border crossing points opened the gates to the West
In that night the deadly border was opened by East Germans peacefully.

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<font face=garamond size=3>May 8, 1945
World War II is over and Berlin is divided into 4 sectors:
the American, British, French in the West and
the Soviet in the East

June 30, 1946 At the instigation of the Soviet Military administration the demarcation line between East and West Germany is safeguarded

October 29, 1946 A 30 day valid Interzonenpass is required to travel between the sectors in Germany

June 23, 1948 Currency reform in Berlin, Berlin is divided into two different currency zones

June 24, 1948 Begin of the Berlin blockade

June 25, 1948 Berlin Airlift begins

May 12, 1949 End of Berlin blockade

May 24, 1949 Federal Republic of Germany is founded
(West Germany)

September 30, 1949 End of Berlin Airlift

October 7, 1949 German Democratic Republic is founded
(East Germany)

May 26, 1952 Border between East and West Germany and between East Germany and West Berlin is closed. Only the border between East and West Berlin is still opened

June 17, 1953 Uprising of East Berlin building workers against the imposition of increased working norms, suppression by Red Army tanks

November 14, 1953 The Western Powers waive the Interzonenpass, the Soviet Union follows but East German citizen need a permission to travel to the West

December 11, 1957 Leaving East Germany without permission is forbidden and violations are prosecuted with prison up to three years

August 13, 1961 The Berlin sectorial border between East and West Berlin is closed, barriers are built

August 14, 1961 Brandenburg Gate is closed

August 26, 1961 All crossing points are closed for West Berlin citizens

June 26, 1963 President J. F. Kennedy visits Berlin and says: "Ich bin ein Berliner." ("I am a Berliner.")

December 17, 1963 West Berliner citizen may visit East Berlin the first time after more than two years

September 3, 1971 Four Power's Agreement over Berlin
visiting becomes easier for West Berliners

June 12, 1987 President Ronald Reagan visits Berlin and urges Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

September 10, 1989 Hungarian government opens border for East German refugees

November 9, 1989 Berlin Wall is opened

December 22, 1989 Brandenburg Gate is opened

October 3, 1990 Germany is reunited ...