BEFORE DE BERLIN WALL

The story of the wall begins as World War II ends. When the Nazis surrendered in 1945, Berlin,
the capital of Germany, was a ruined city.
 
Quick history:
World War II's victors – the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union –
divided Germany into four zones, each controlled by one of the four countries.
Berlin also was divided into four zones, the same way the rest of Germany was.
At first, Berlin's citizens could move freely between the zones to work or visit family and
friends.
The U.S., British and French zones became capitalist and democratic. The Soviet zone
became a communist dictatorship.

By 1948 the democratic Allies and the communist Soviet Union argued over how to govern
Berlin. Berlin was in the Soviet part of Germany, an island surrounded by capitalism. Western
nations assumed they would have free access to the city. But on April 1, 1948 the Soviet Union
blockaded routes in and out of East Germany, trapping 2 million West Berliners with little food
or fuel. The Allies countered with the Berlin Airlift, flying planes with food and supplies into
West Berlin for 462 straight days. The Soviets lifted the blockade in 1949.
 
Also in 1949, Western and Eastern Germany formed separate governments. In the 1950s, the
West-East gap continued to widen. In West Berlin and West Germany, rebuilding boomed. In
the East, food and housing were scarce. People began "voting with their feet" – fleeing to the
West. "I no longer had any reason to stay on in what I had considered my homeland," said
Walter Kocher, after his East Berlin business had been seized by the government.
 
More than 3 million people left East Germany for a better life in the West. By 1961, the
communist government knew it had to stop the exodus.

BUILDING THE WALL

At 2 a.m. on Aug. 13, 1961, a low, barbed-wire barrier was strung between East and West
Berlin. It effectively divided the city in half. Within days, workers cemented concrete blocks
into a low wall through the city.
 
Moscow called the wall a barrier to Western imperialism. "It pleases me tremendously," Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev said. "The working class of Germany has erected a wall so that no
wolf can break into the German Democratic Republic again."
 
The West Germans called it Schandmaur, the "Wall of Shame." It was rebuilt at least three
times – each time bigger, stronger and more repressive – hand-mortared bricks, pre-cast
blocks and finally concrete slabs. Towers, guards, and dogs stood watch over a barren no
man's land. A pipe, too large in diameter for a climber's grip, ran along the top of the wall.
"Forbidden zones," miles wide, were created behind the wall. No one was allowed to enter the
zones. Anyone trying to escape was shot on sight.
 
The East German government saw the Berlin Wall as a symbol of its superior technology. But,
as strong as the wall was, it would never be strong enough.
 
Heroism
More stories of people who went over, under, around, or through the Berlin Wall to the West:
A truck carrying a group of East Berliners simply crashed through the wall. The driver, though
shot, kept going. He later died from his wounds.
One young woman in West Berlin made a U.S. Army uniform. She got buttons and badges
from officers by saying they were for a play. She borrowed an American car, drove over to East
Berlin and brought back two friends.
A team of young mechanics engineered a chain of folding ladders guided by pulleys and
ropes. They scaled the electrified wall without touching it.
Two men used an archery bow to shoot a cable over the wall and onto a roof on the Western
side. They attached pulleys to the cable and sailed across the wall - 65 feet - in 30 seconds.
At a blind spot between two checkpoints, people could swim across a small river and climb
to freedom. British soldiers hung a rope ladder at the spot to help escapees.
More than 100 people escaped through a sewer that the East German authorities had
forgotten about

In  all, 246 people died at the wall. Perhaps the best known was 18-year-old bricklayer Peter
Fechter. On Aug. 17, 1962, he tried to jump the barbed wire near Checkpoint Charlie, a key
border crossing between the American and Soviet sectors of Berlin. East German soldiers fired.
Fechter fell. The East Germans would not allow anyone to help him as he bled to death.

FIGHTING THE WALL

By the 1980s, communism was bankrupt. In East Germany, wages were low. Homes bombed
during World War II were still unrepaired. Citizens lived in poverty; communist leaders lived in
luxury.
 
"The Berlin Wall," said East German leader Erich Honecker, "will still exist in 50 and in 100
years, unless the reasons for its existence are eliminated."
 
But the end was near. The Soviet Union no longer could afford the Cold War - decades of
military, political, and economic rivalry with the United States. Two U.S. presidents who visited
the wall made strong statements in support of West Berlin and democracy. In 1963, John F.
Kennedy visited. In 1987, Ronald Reagan visited Berlin and demanded: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear
down this wall!"
 
Earlier in the 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had introduced the policies
of glasnost (openness) and perestroika(democratic reform). Slowly, Eastern Europeans began
to test their new freedoms. Mass protests in Dresden, Leipzig and Potsdam demanded
freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom to travel.
 
On Friday, Nov. 9, 1989, the people won. That weekend, the East German government opened
its borders, allowing its citizens to visit the West. The world watched the celebrations on
television. After 28 years, the Berlin Wall had falle

20th anniversary celebrations

In the United States, the German Embassy coordinated a public diplomacy campaign with the
motto "Freedom Without Walls" to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin
Wall. The campaign was focused on promoting awareness of the fall of the Berlin Wall among
current college students, and students at over 20 universities will participate in "Freedom
Without Walls" events in late 2009.[68]

An international project called "Mauerreise" – Journey of the Wall took place in various
countries. Twenty symbolic wall bricks were sent from Berlin starting in May 2009. Their
destination: Korea, Cyprus, Yemen and other places where everyday life is characterised by
division and border experience. In these places the bricks will become a blank canvas for
artists, intellectuals and young people to tackle the 「wall」 phenomenon.[69]

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Twinity has reconstructed a
true-to-scale section of the wall in virtual Berlin. [70]

The MTV Europe Music Awards, on the 5th of November, had U2 and Tokio Hotel perform
songs dedicated to, and about the Berlin Wall. U2 performed at the Brandenburg Gate, and
Tokio Hotel performed "World Behind My Wall".

Palestinians in the town of Kalandia, West Bank pulled down parts of the Israeli West Bank
barrier, in a demonstration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall