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1.Facts
Construction began on The Berlin Wall early in the morning of Sunday, August 13, 1961. It was a desperate – and effective - move by the GDR (German Democratic Republic) to stop East Berliners escaping from the Soviet-controlled East German state into the West of the city, which was then occupied by the Americans, British and French.
Berlin's unique situation as a city half-controlled by Western forces, in the middle of the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany, made it a focal point for tensions between the Allies and the Soviets and a place where conflicting ideologies were enforced side-by-side. However, as more and more people in the Soviet-controlled East grew disillusioned with communism and the increasingly oppressive economic and political conditions, an increasing number began defecting to the West. By 1961 an estimated 1,500 people a day were fleeing to the West, damaging both the credibility and - more importantly - the workforce of the GDR. Soon rumors began to spread about a wall, and it wasn’t long after that those rumors were made a concrete reality.
In a masterfully-planned operation, spanning just 24 hours, the streets of Berlin were torn up, barricades of paving stones were erected, tanks were gathered at crucial places and subways and local railway services were interrupted, so that within a day the West of Berlin was completely sealed off from the East. As of that same day inhabitants of East Berlin and the GDR were no longer allowed to enter the West of the city (including the 60,000 who had been commuters). In response to international criticism that such drastic measures inevitably drew, the GDR claimed that the barricade had been raised as an ‘anti-fascist protection wall’, and that they had moved to prevent a third world war.
The version of the ‘Wall’ that started life in 1961, was in fact not a wall but a 96 miles barbed wire fence. However, after this incarnation proved too easy to scale, work started in 1962 on a second fence, parallel to the first but up to 100 yards further in. The area in between the two fences was demolished to create an empty space, which became widely known as "death strip" as it was here that many would-be escapers met their doom. The strip was covered with raked gravel, making it easy to spot footprints, it offered no cover, was mined and booby-trapped with tripwires and, most importantly, it offered a clear field of fire to the armed guards – who were instructed to shoot on sight.
2. Basic facts
Total border lenght around West Berlin: 96 mi / 155 km
Border between East and West Berlin: 27 mi / 43.1 km
Number of watch towers: 302
Number of bunkers: 20
Persons killed on the Berlin Wall: 192
Persons injured by shooting: 200
3. The system of the Berlin wall
Source of Document: Berlin Wall Archive,Hagen Koch
The system of the Berlin Wall at the end of the 70s
From right to left:
1 - East Berlin 2 - Border area 3 - Backland Wall 4 - Signal fence 5 - Different kind of barriers 6 - Watch towers 7 - Lighting system 8 - Column track 9 - Control track
10 - Anti-vehicle trenches 11 - Last Wall, known as the "Wall" 12 - Border 13 - West Berlin
The whole border area was on the territory of East Berlin/East Germany. The border between East and West Berlin was after the last Wall. This last Wall is known as the Berlin Wall.
However, the Berlin Wall was a complex system of walls, fences, watchtowers and barriers The area between the Backland Wall (3) and the Last Wall (11) was the so-called death strip.
The document above is an original document of the East German border troops.
3. The fall of the Berlin wall
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 government 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.
On November 9th 1989 the Wall comes down. This image taken from the AP Multimedia Archives depicts an East Berlin soldier walking through a segment of the Wall (Cironneau, 1989). West Berliners can be seen celebrating this historic occasion.
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