Blog #3
The Wall Beginning to End
The Berlin Wall was constructed in the night of August 13, 1961, which was on a weekend when most Berliners slept. In the early morning of that Sunday most of the work was done and the border to West Berlin was closed. East German soldiers teared up streets and installed barbed wire fences throughout Berlin, separating the East and the West.
The first generation of the wall consisted of concrete elements and square blocks. Early on, there were residential buildings along 23 miles of the wall and people attempted to simply jump over the wall from upstairs windows and roofs. Shortly the second generation of the wall was built to prevent those escapes. Between 1961 and 1988 the estimated number of escape attempts from East to West Germany varies widely. There is a verified figure of close to 5000 escape attempts, but some estimate numbers as high as 100000. Along the Berlin Wall alone, from 1961 to 1989 at least 136 people were killed or died in other ways directly connected to the GDR border regime. The figures vary so widely because of the secretive nature of the East German government and its reluctance to share news that would obviously hurt the country’s political image. Powerful spotlights lit the area between the two fences and it was layered with sand and fine gravel so that footprints would be easily seen. This area became known as the “Death Strip” because so many who tried to defect and made it through the first fence found themselves in an impossible situation and were often shot for their efforts. The dimensions of the Berlin Wall were impressive. It measured 103 miles in length and stood 12 feet tall and at its peak, held 302 watchtowers and 20 bunkers. There were hundreds of armed guards as well as guard dogs. In total there were four generation of the wall. The last one consist of 45 000 segments, which each was 11.81 ft. high, almost 4 ft. wide and weight 2750 kg. The total purchase price was 16 million Mark (nowadays around 8.5 Million Euros/ 11 Million US Dollars).
In Marons story “Place of Birth: Berlin” she mentions how significant the wall was for her. The wall was always in her life, she didn’t know a life in a united Germany. For her, East Germany was all she knew, East Berlin was all she knew and she loved. When the wall came down Monica remembers standing “in the middle of a group of forty or fifty people with a stupid beautiful look on my face and watch as the workers dismantle the wall with pneumatic drills and other machinery.” She remembers “We all stay put, we don’t want to go through the bridge, we could go via Bornholmer Strasse or other crossing points which are already open if we wanted; we want to see the end of world being carried away, meter by meter.” just like Monicas memories many East German citizens had the same. They were happy, smiled at each other, hugged one another, cheered for joy and were excited to cross the border.
After 28 years as prisoners of their own country, euphoric East Germans streamed to checkpoints and rushed past bewildered guards, many falling tearfully into the arms of West Germans welcoming them on the other side.
Many Berliners grew up not knowing how the West looked like. Monica “really understood for the first time in fact that the two halves of the city were part of a whole and their parts belonged to the same body.”
"Part 6: Berlin and the Two Germanies." Homepage: Adolph N. Hofmann. Web. 05 May 2011. <http://art.members.sonic.net/unify90/ber6.html>.
