Briefly Circumbendibus: Berlin wall

A few weeks back, I was in Berlin for an official trip and had a chance to visit 'the wall'. While history has not always been my stronghold, it has succeeded in gaining my interest recently.

Berlin was celebrating its 25 years of the downfall of the Berlin which clearly marked the end of Cold War. Being the center of cold war between the then USSR and USA, Berlin suffered from the difference in ideologies of East and West while reviving after Hitler's impact. This is one of those cities which is not ashamed to embrace the shame of the past which has helped the city greatly to rise like a phoenix after every defeat of mankind's important wars (WW1, WW2, cold war).

I was reading an article in Mashable with pictures depicting the rise and fall of the wall. Sharing the entire content here.

BTW, here are some of my tour pics if you are interested - https://www.flickr.com/photos/8878828@N08/

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2014/11/09/berlin-wall-construction/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link

http://mashable.com/2014/11/06/berlin-wall-fence/?utm_cid=lf-toc

1961

The men who built

the Berlin Wall

Constructing the Cold War barrier brick by brick

The 140-kilometer Berlin Wall was in fact two barriers. The first was constructed rapidly in August 1961. The second, parallel barrier, 100 meters into the Eastern zone, was erected in June 1962.

The area in between the two barriers was known as the Death Strip.

The wall was initially constructed as a wire fence. By its demise in 1989, it consisted of 45,000 sections of reinforced concrete. At key points, the wall was deliberately made weaker so Soviet military vehicles could swiftly break through in a time of war.

IMAGE: PATRICE HABANS/PARIS MATCH/GETTY IMAGES

No one has the intention of erecting a wall!

WALTER ULBRICHT

EAST GERMAN HEAD OF STATE, JUNE 1961.

IMAGE: KEYSTONE FRANCE

IMAGE: POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES

IMAGE: ROBERT LACKENBACH/THE LIFE IMAGES COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

East Berlin border guards adding barbed wire to the newly built Berlin Wall.

IMAGE: POPPERFOTO/GETTY IMAGES

July 5, 1962

On Berlin's Bernauer Street, the Volkspolice built a larger wall next to the old one.

IMAGE: KEYSTONE-FRANCE

East German workmen reinforce the Berlin Wall by putting glass fragments on top of the brickets.

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

West Berlin children building a play wall.

Berlin is the testicle of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin

NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, LEADER OF THE SOVIET UNION

IMAGE: PATRICE HABANS/PARISMATCH/SCOOP/GETTY IMAGES

After World War II, the Potsdam Conference had divided Germany into four occupied zones, each under the control of one of the allies: France, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. Berlin, the capital, lay in the eastern section controlled by Russia and was itself divided into sectors.

The Soviets had already erected a heavily fortified barrier between East and West Germany, which made West Berlin a small capitalist island in the middle of a Communist state.

In the beginning, subway trains ran between the two territories. New passport rules proved ineffectual at stemming the flow of dissatisfied East Germans to the west, a flow which bled Soviet East Germany of economic power.

IMGE: PATRICE HABANS/PARISMATCH/SCOOP/GETTY IMAGES

Between 1948 and 1961, 3 million people had fled the Communist state, representing one-sixth of East Germany's population. By August 1961, an average 2,000 people made the one-way journey from East to West Berlin each and every day.

IMAGE: PATRICE HABANS/PARISMATCH/SCOOP/GETTY IMAGES

Before the wire barrier, it was still possible to move between East and West Berlin. The barbed wire rendered that close to impossible. But, as these pictures show, even the wire was not strong enough to contain desperate people.

IMAGE: PATRICE HABANS/PARISMATCH/SCOOP/GETTY IMAGES

So began the creation of what was officially dubbed the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart." Checkpoints between the two sides were shut down, and the wire became the wall.

For almost three decades, the wall cut Berlin in two. More than 100 people would die trying to make it across.