The Berlin Wall (German: "Berliner Mauer") was a long barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the
surrounding territory of East Germany. Its intent was to restrict access between West Berlin and
East Germany.
It was built in 1961 and fortified over the years, but was opened to unrestricted transit on 9. November 1989
and subsequently almost entirely demolished.
Political Background
After World War II, Berlin, like the rest of Germany, was divided into four sectors, although it was surrounded
on all sides by the Soviet sector of Germany. The Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France
each had a portion of the city under their control. The Soviet sector was by far the largest and covered most of
eastern Berlin.
In 1948, the Berlin Blockade by the Soviet Union led to the Berlin Airlift by the Western Allies.
After 1949, the three sectors controlled by the United States, Britain and France (West Berlin), although nominally
still under Allied sovereignty, were in effect a part of West Germany and were completely surrounded by
East Germany.
Initially the citizens of Berlin were allowed to move freely between all the sectors. However, as the Cold War
developed movement became restricted. The border between East and West Germany proper was closed in 1952, only in
Berlin the border remained open for the time being. Around 2.5 million East Germans crossed into the West between
1949 and 1961. After 1952 this happened almost exclusively by entering West Berlin.
The majority of the professionally skilled workers were already leaving the east.
This drain of labour threatened East Germany with
economic collapse. This had ramifications for the whole Communist bloc and particularly the Soviet Union because
East Germany's economy was being subsidized by the Soviet government.
Construction of the Wall
The impetus for the creation of the Berlin Wall came from East German leader
Walter Ulbricht, who sought the approval
of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev for its construction. Khrushchev agreed, but imposed strict conditions. Ulbricht's
proposal for a second air blockade was refused, and the construction of a barrier was permitted only if it were
composed at first of barbed wire. If the Allies challenged the barbed-wire barrier, the East Germans were to fall
back and were not to fire first under any circumstances.
East German border guard leaps into
West Berlin over barbed wire on
15. August 1961 |
Construction of the barrier around the three western sectors began on 13. August 1961 in East Berlin. It was undertaken
by East German troops and workers, not directly involving the Soviets. The streets along which the barrier
ran were torn up to make them impassable to most vehicles and a barbed-wire fence was erected, which was later built
up into the full-scale Wall. It physically divided the city and it completely surrounded West Berlin, effectively
turning the western sectors into an enclave in East Germany. During the construction of the Wall soldiers
stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect.
Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees but the main candidate for
its location was around the perimeter of the city. Although it was a violation of the postwar Four Powers Agreements,
which gave the United Kingdom, France and the United States a say over the administration of the whole of Berlin, the
western powers decided not to challenge it. The West's implicit acceptance of the Wall's creation was due partly to
political expediency but largely due to a belief that a challenge would risk open conflict in a city which was probably
impossible to defend militarily. A few months after the barbed wire went up, the US government informed the Soviet
government that it accepted the Wall as "a fact of international life" and would not challenge it by force.
The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "antifascist protection barrier", intended to dissuade
aggression from the West. However, this position was viewed with scepticism even in East Germany. Its construction
had caused considerable hardship to families divided by the Wall, and the Western view that the Wall was a means of
preventing the citizens of East Germany from entering West Berlin and West Germany was widely seen as being closer to
the truth.
How the Wall worked
The Wall was over 155 km (103 miles) long. In June 1962 work started on a second parallel fence up to 100 yards
further in, with houses in between the fences torn down and their inhabitants relocated. An empty No Man's Land was
created between the two barriers, which became widely known as the "death strip". It was paved with raked gravel,
making it easy to spot footprints left by escapers; it offered no cover; it was mined and booby-trapped with tripwires;
and, most importantly, it offered a clear field of fire to the watching guards.
Over the years, the Wall went through four distinct phases:
- Basic wire fence (1961)
- Improved wire fence (1962-1965)
- Concrete wall (1965-1975)
- Grenzmauer 75 (Border Wall 75) (1975-1989)
Building the Berlin Wall, 1980 |
The "fourth generation wall", known officially as "Stützwandelement UL 12.11", was the final and most sophisticated
version of the Wall. Begun in 1975, it was constructed from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, each
3.6m high and 1.5m wide, and cost 16,155,000
East German Marks. The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe,
intended to make it more difficult for escapers to scale it. It was reinforced by mesh fencing, signal fencing,
anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire, over 300 watchtowers, and thirty bunkers. This version of the Wall is the one
most commonly seen in photographs, and surviving fragments of Wall in Berlin and elsewhere around the world are
generally pieces of the fourth-generation Wall.
Allied military personnel, officials and diplomats were still able to pass into East Berlin following the
construction of the Wall. West Berliners were initially subject to very severe restrictions. All of the
crossing points were closed to West Berliners between 26. August 1961 and 17. December 1963, and it was not
until September 1971 that travel restrictions were eased. Passage in and out of West Berlin
was limited to a total of twelve crossing points on the Wall. A crossing at Friedrichstraße in central Berlin
gave Westerners their only access between West and East Berlin.
The years of the Wall
During the Wall's existence there were around 5,000 successful escapes into West Berlin. 192 people were killed
trying to cross. Early successful escapes involved people jumping the
initial barbed wire or leaping out of apartment windows along the line. These quickly ended. Other successful
escape attempts included 57 people who escaped through a 145 metre long (475 feet) tunnel dug by West Berliners,
on 3.-5. October 1964. One of the last escapes occurred when two men flew
fixed wing ultralights across the Wall to rescue their brother.
The most notorious failed attempt was by Peter Fechter who was shot and left to bleed to death in full view of
the western media, on 17. August 1962. The last person to be shot trying to cross the border was Chris Gueffroy
on 6. February 1989.
Foreigners frequently and legally crossed the Wall, and the East Germans welcomed
their money. They were of
course always subject to careful checks both entering and leaving. East Germans were
occasionally given permission to cross, particularly when they were too old to work.
Berlin Wall and death strip |
The creation of the Wall had important implications for both the Germanies. By stemming the exodus of people
from East Germany, the government of the GDR was able to reassert its control over the country. However, the
Wall was a propaganda disaster for East Germany and for the communist bloc as a whole. It became a key symbol
of what Western powers regarded as Communist tyranny, particularly after the high-profile shootings of would-be
defectors (which were later treated as acts of murder by the reunified Germany). In 1987, Ronald Reagan gave a
famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate, at which he challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall". In
West Germany, dismay that the Western powers had done nothing to prevent the Wall's creation led directly to
the policy of Ostpolitik or rapprochement with the east, in an effort to stabilise the relationship of the
two Germanies.
The fall of the Wall
On 23. August 1989, Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria, and in September more than 13,000 East
Germans escaped through Hungary. Mass demonstrations against the government in East Germany began in the fall
of 1989. The leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, resigned on
18. October 1989. He was replaced by a short-lived successor, Egon Krenz, a few days later.
The travel restrictions for East Germans were lifted somewhat by the new government on 9. November 1989. After a
misunderstanding, Günter Schabowski announced in a press conference, televised live on East German state TV, that
all restrictions had been abandoned. Upon this news spreading, tens of thousands of people immediately went to the
Wall, where they quickly became a major crowd control problem for the surprised and overwhelmed border guards.
Many hectic telephone calls and much to and fro with the guard's superiors ensued while still more people kept
converging on the major crossing points. It eventually became clear that there was little way to hold back these
huge numbers of East German citizens as the vastly outnumbered border guards had only been equipped for another
day of regular duty. The masses could also not be convinced to turn back or calm down — they had heard of Mr.
Schabowski's statement and they wanted it to be acted upon.
Probably the only way to hold the crowds back would
have been use of lethal force, but this would have meant massacring the country's own citizens in huge numbers —
which at that point the guards and authorities were simply not willing to do. In face of the escalating crowd
safety situation the guards eventually just yielded, opening the access points and allowing people through with
(at most) minimal identity verification checks. The ecstatic East Berliners were soon greeted by jubilant West
Berliners on the other side in an all-out party atmosphere. 9. November is thus considered the date the Wall fell.
Please have a look at some sample banknotes from East Germany.
|
