N ever before in the history of mankind has there been such a symbol of people's struggle to be free and a government's struggle to contain its people. The Berlin Wall was erected not only to keep the people of West Berlin out of Eastern Germany, but more often, to keep the people of Eastern Germany from seeing, feeling, sensing the freedoms of the West.
To be sure, the concept of a government-funded wall separating a nation from its enemies isn't anything new. From the ancient Romans who built Hadrian's Wall across Britain to the Great Wall of China to Israel's security wall, the concept seems fundamental. However, unlike the Romans, the Chinese, and the Israelis, the Berlin Wall was designed to keep its citizens in, not to keep enemies at bay.
At the end of the Second World War, the city of Berlin was divided into four zones, each in the charge of one of the Allies -- The United States, Britain, The Soviet Union, and France. However, Soviet territorial ambitions made this an uneasy alliance. Tensions increased until the night of August 13th, 1961. In the middle of the night, East German troops began construction. They started by digging up the streets, laying barbed wire, and erecting anti-tank barricades. Once this preliminary work was done, a shocked world watched as they put bricks, mortar, and concrete to work encircling West Berlin. When they were finished, West Berlin was a city surrounded by a wall and by a hostile Soviet government. It splits streets, homes, families, transit lines, even cemeteries.
The design of the wall was clearly intended to keep the people of East Germany from getting to West Berlin. More than 45,000 pre-formed concrete slabs were created for the final version of the wall. They were 12 feet tall with a base extending toward the East German side. This helped make them difficult to push over from the east -- the same way a doorstop uses the force of the door to keep it from moving. At the top was a long round railing which protruded over either side, preventing anyone from getting a grip on the top. In some places the concrete wall runs right up to the street. In others the frontier is a quarter mile wide with guard towers, light standards, trenches, barbed wire, intrusion detectors, soldiers, and guard dogs.
Ten days after the border closed, Checkpoint Charlie was established. This was the border crossing on Friedrichstrasse which allowed diplomats and tourists to move back and forth. (Checkpoint Alpha was on Helmstedt, and Checkpoint Bravo on Dreilinden.) The station was manned by military personnel and all who went across had to undergo scrutiny. The Allied guard post is now in a museum, and a replica has been erected on the location of the original.
Not everyone was allowed to cross through that point, and those who tried other means to cross the wall were arrested, beaten, or even shot as they ran for freedom. 192 people died trying to cross the border. Hundreds more are wounded. Still, an estimated 5,000 made it. But as the months and years passed, it became a common practice for families separated by the wall to stand on opposite sides and hold up their children so relatives on the other side could see how they'd grown.
The ideologic and philosophic reasons the wall was erected are well discussed. But the economic reasons are sometimes neglected. After the Second World War, the United States government spent billions of dollars to rebuild Germany. But the money doled out under the Marshall Plan did not flow to Soviet zones because their Communist ideals ran contrary to America's ideals. The Soviets offered some meager aid to its zones, but it was nothing compared to what was delivered by the nations of the West, in part because the Soviets were more interested in empire building than stabilization. West Berlin was a recipient of millions of dollars in American aid and it was situated right in the middle of East Germany. As West Berlin rebuilt, grew, thrived, and prospered with the help of American money, millions of East German citizens left their cities to seek a better life in West Berlin. Almost 20% of the East German population, including some of its best and brightest, were siphoned off to the west in this fashion. The East German government feared that if something wasn't done to stem the tide, it would be left a pauper state.
The man credited with the fall of the Berlin Wall is Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. When he came to power in 1984 he introduced a series of economic and social reforms. That small loosening of the noose was all the people in Soviet satellite states needed to start work on their freedom. In Poland, a free labor union was formed in opposition to the government. The Baltic nations broke away from the Soviet Union. And when the East Germans started taking sledgehammers to the Berlin Wall, local authorities appealed to Moscow for guidance. Gorbachev refused to give order to stop them.
11 December, 1957 - East Germans are officially prohibited from visiting West Berlin without permission.
13 August, 1961 - Construction of the Berlin Wall begins.
14 August, 1961 - The Brandenburg Gate closes.
24 August, 1961 - Günter Litwin becomes the first East German to be shot and killed while trying to cross the border to West Berlin.
26 August, 1961 - All border crossings close.
1984 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes President of the Soviet Union. He introduces the policies of Perestroika ("restructuring") which embarked on economic reforms, and Glasnost ("publicity") which advocates the open discussion of social problems and loosens restrictions on the media.
12 June, 1987 - American President Ronald Reagan visits the Berlin Wall and gives his famous speech, "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
1989 - The first free labor union is former in Poland -- the first sustained internal threat to the Soviet Empire.
23 August, 1989 - A flood of more than 13,000 East Germans cross the border from Hungary into Austria. It is the first time people are allowed to travel freely.
September, 1989 - Demonstrations are held in East Germany by people demanding freedom of movement.
18 October, 1989 - East German Chancellor Erich Honecker resigns.
9 November, 1989 - The new East German government lifts travel restrictions on its citizens. At 10:30pm, the first gates are open.
9 November, 1989 - East Germans begin tearing down the wall. West Germans join in. It is almost completely gone within a year.
22 December, 1989 - The Brandenburg Gate reopens.
22 June, 1990 - Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled.
3 October, 1990 - Germany becomes a united nation.
13 August, 2000 - A replica of the Allied guard shack is erected in the location of the original.
9 December, 2000 - The Soviet watch tower at Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled. It is replaced by offices and shops.
31 October, 2004 - A re-built segment of the Berlin Wall is unveiled at the location of what once was Checkpoint Charlie, accompanied by 1,065 crosses -- each one representing someone killed trying to escape East Germany. Critics say it uses a painful chapter of German history to create another Berlin Wall tourist trap.
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