The Berlin Wall shortly after construction.
If you want to keep water out, you build a dam. If you want to block the wind, you plant trees. If you want to keep people in, you build a wall. That was the thinking of the East German leadership in the early 1960s.
After Germany fell at the end of WW2, it was split into four sectors. Each sector was controlled by a major player in its demise. The Americans, English and French each had a sector, as did the Soviets. The three lovers of freedom united their sectors in what became known as West Germany, technically the Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviets, keen on having a satellite country in western Europe, kept their sector separate in what would become known as East Germany, or the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR). Like the country, its capital of Berlin was divided. And like the country, the western allies united their sectors but the Soviets maintained control of theirs.
The problem with this is the Soviets were better at oppression than anything else. The oppressed people in East Berlin could look across the street and see the freedom being enjoyed by their neighbors, family members and coworkers in the western districts of the city. This led to many defections, something Khrushchev could not tolerate.
The solution was decidedly low-tech, but very effective. Construct a wall. Actually, it was a series of fences, walls and other methods meant to prevent a person from crossing over to West Berlin without the proper papers. In 1961 the first wall was constructed, which was a barbed wire fence patrolled by soldiers and dogs. This fence was improved over the next few years before construction of a concrete wall between 1965 and 1975. The new wall, made famous by David Hasselhoff, was an improved version built between 1975 and 1980. That wall, the Grenzmauer 75 (“border wall 75) included a barbed wire fence, anti-vehicle trench, guard dog runs, guard towers, bunkers, and the main wall. It wasn’t just a wall, but a complete system meant to keep people in.
The wall immediately separated families, neighborhoods and workers from their jobs. It had a chilling effect on relations between the West and the Soviet Union. It represented not just a border, but the Iron Curtain separating the democratic countries of western Europe from the Soviet-sponsored oppressive regimes in eastern Europe.
As technology it was basic. As a symbol it was powerful.
[Image Credit: BBC]
For all the evil that it represented, the construction of the Wall ended up defusing a USA-USSR crisis that threatened to turn into open war. From Wiki:
In reality Kennedy was pragmatic concerning the Wall: "It's not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war."[16]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Crisis_of_196…
That was a very scary and ugly time in the world (early 60's). We didn't have a war with the USSR then, but you always thought in your mind that one could break out at any moment. The US was building missile sites all over Europe that was really pissing the commies off, so they started building missiles sites in Cuba for parity. Fooking crazy people running the world. I'm glad we survived.
I hear it was also quite the concert venue.
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8b/RWTheWall03.jpg/220px-RWTheWall03.jpg" width="400">
Image courtesy of wikipedia
I'm not keen on keepsakes, but the bits of rubble that I collected during the Berlin reunification ceremony are prized possessions.
You seem to have passed me for king of the points!
A victory of quantity over quality.
I spent a week in Berlin in 1983, when I was in the Army, and it was an experience. We ran in the morning along the wall, trained with the Berlin Brigade all day, and ran wild throughout the city at night. It was quite the happening town. At the end of the visit, on a Saturday, we took a bus tour of East Berlin, entering through Checkpoint Charlie. The place sucked. Depressing. Everybody was wearing the same crummy clothes, moping around. The general feel of the place was depressing, compared to West Berlin. We got to check out a department store (where I ended up buying a fedora), and there was hardly any selection, and most of the stuff was cheap looking. The beer wasn't bad at the restaurant, but the food wasn't all that great. We felt sorry for the people living there. No wonder they wanted out.
I forgot to mention the fact that they were driving Trabants and other lousy little Commie cars, the air was foul, and there was still rubble from the war laying around. Seriously, the Hautbanhof, the main train station, from prewar days, was still a pile of rubble. The Russian Embassy was the only building that was immaculate. So were the Communist war memorials. However, the shitty Communist concrete buildings that I'm sure still stand are still there, and I'll bet that they still stand as a monument to horrible Commie design. Lousy architecture, for sure.
You probably would not recognize a lot if you went back now. I went to Berlin a few times when I lived in Dresden, and aside from a line that runs throughout the city where the wall once stood, you can barely tell there was a wall. Potsdamer Platz is completely modern now, as is the Hauptbahnhof.
As an aside, people still drive Trabants.
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