Destruction of the Berlin Wall year. Twist of history
25 years ago, on November 9, 1989, the leadership of East Germany announced the opening of the border with West Germany. The next day, East German authorities begin demolishing sections of the Berlin Wall. The famous fall of the Berlin Wall took place. Historical material about how the Berlin Wall was built. Some photographs have not been published before on the RuNet.
In 1959, the border between eastern and western Germany looked like this.
Before the construction of the wall, the border between the western and eastern parts of Berlin was open. But on the morning of August 13, 1961, Berlin residents were surprised to discover that the western part of the city was separated from the eastern part by a cordon of soldiers and military equipment. The living wall stood until a real one grew in its place. Within two days, the city was cut by a line of barbed wire fence with checkpoints.
The wall started with a line.
Then they made a temporary barrier. In the photo, soldiers are building barbed wire barriers. From West Berlin, citizens look at this process with curiosity and amusement. By August 15, the entire western zone was surrounded by barbed wire, and the actual construction of the wall began.
On August 13, four lines of the Berlin metro - U-Bahn - and some lines of the city railway - S-Bahn were also closed (during the period when the city was not divided, any Berliner could move freely around the city).
Construction of the wall, from West Berlin many curious citizens watch this process while in East Berlin people were prohibited from approaching the wall being built as it was a secret facility.
The dividing line, 44.75 km long (the total length of West Berlin's border with the GDR was 164 km), ran right through streets and houses, canals and waterways.
In this place in Berlin, the role of a wall was temporarily filled by Soviet tanks.
View of the Brandenburg Gate from West Berlin, August 13, 1961. The wall has not yet been built, but there is a border.
After a couple of months the appearance changed to this.
Brandenburg Gate in fog, Berlin Wall and a man on a watchtower, November 25, 1961
At this point the wall ran right along the tram tracks. Soviet specialists were not at all worried about the fact that they were complicating life primarily for their citizens.
The “security” of the workers far outnumbered the builders themselves.
Soldiers from the National People's Army of the GDR monitor construction and order.
August 22, 1961. Two East German construction workers are working on a huge, almost five-meter-tall wall and placing pieces of broken glass on top of it to prevent East Berliners from escaping.
When the wall was built, no one knew what would happen next. Many people feared that the wall would serve as a provocation to turn the Cold War into a hot war.
The border between the British zone and the Soviet one. The poster warns, “You are leaving the British Sector.”
Discussion between the parties on the correctness of the construction of the wall, September 1961.
The construction of the wall continues, residents of the surrounding houses are watching the process from their windows, September 9, 1961.
Some sections of the wall passed through a park and forest, which had to be partially cut down, on October 1, 1961.
The lack of a clear physical boundary between the zones led to frequent conflicts and a massive outflow of specialists to Germany. East Germans preferred to receive education in the GDR, where it was free, and to work in Germany.
A typical picture: the windows are blocked with bricks to prevent escape attempts. The back side of the house faces West Berlin, this side and the sidewalk are already East Berlin. October 6, 1961
October 16, 1961. An attempt to escape from “communist happiness.” Unfortunately, it is not known how successful the attempt was. It is known that the police and military of the GDR usually fired to kill in such cases.
By the way, in the period from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989, there were 5,075 successful escapes to West Berlin or Germany, including 574 cases of desertion...
On October 26-27, the Americans tried to break through the wall. This incident is known as the Checkpoint Charlie incident. Several bulldozers approached the wall. They were covered by 10 tanks, as well as soldiers who arrived in three jeeps. On the opposite side, Soviet tanks of the third battalion of the 68th Soviet Guards Tank Regiment lined up. The combat vehicles stood all night. As the coordinator of the French intelligence services of those years, K.K., later recalled. Melnik-Botkin, the world was close to nuclear war. When the Soviet ambassador in Paris was informed that NATO was ready to use atomic bombs, he replied: “Then we will all die together.” Of course! After all, the USSR held a trump card in its hands: the most powerful weapon ever created on the planet - a 57-megaton thermonuclear bomb.
The superpowers were wise enough not to start World War III. On October 28, Soviet tanks finally left their positions, after which the Americans immediately retreated. The wall remains.
American military police on the roof of a house, October 29, 1961, near the Friedrichstrasse border.
American soldiers anxiously look over the wall at the “Soviet” military, November 20, 1961.
Brandenburg Gate in fog, Berlin Wall and a man on a watchtower, November 25, 1961.
Western senior military officials observe the construction of the wall from the French zone, December 7, 1961.
Construction and renovation of the wall continued from 1962 to 1975. By 1975, it acquired its final form, becoming a complex engineering structure called Grenzmauer-75.
November 9, 1989 went down in German history as the day the Berlin Wall fell. Today's politicians view the unification of West and East Berlin as a symbol of the unification of Europe, which in the 20th century was divided into two camps by historical cataclysms. A unification that is much more difficult than the tragic disunity and construction of a wall.
Previously, we talked about the events of Red May in 1968.
The very fact that in just one night on August 13, 1961, not a mental, but the most material barrier of concrete and iron divided, as if for some unprecedented experiment, an ordinary European city, will shock the imagination of people for a long time, and serves as an object of analysis not only political scientists, but also cultural scientists, sociologists, researchers of architecture and urban studies.
Who built the Berlin Wall and why?
The wall was the initiative and property of the socialist bloc and was built to combat smugglers and border violators. Teachers recommended that GDR schoolchildren call the wall “a barrier against fascist and capitalist aggression.” An additional reason to close the border was that since its formation in 1949, the GDR was rapidly losing its young population: it was more profitable to receive free education in the GDR and work in the Federal Republic of Germany. Which, by the way, speaks of the high level of education in the Soviet bloc. There was an unspoken competition between the socialist economy of the East and the market economy of the West, and the GDR gradually lost it. During the 1950s, about 3 million East Germans moved to the West.
It was thanks to the wall and strict border that the Federal Republic of Germany seemed more attractive to the residents of eastern Germany than it actually was. And maybe that’s why they were so eager to go there. And perhaps the stronger the disappointment was, and that’s why famous stories of people with a socialist upbringing returning to the GDR happened.
How is it possible that the wall grew overnight?
From August 13 to 15, 1961, West Berlin was covered with a low mesh of barbed wire - this was the first wall. Since August 13 was a Sunday, many Berliners learned about the wall only on August 14, when they were not allowed to work in another sector - this increased the effect of surprise. In the first days, more than 200 border guards fled to the West. Then, soldiers began to be recruited into the border troops from remote regions of the GDR, avoiding putting fellow countrymen on the same guard, so that there would be no conspiracies. At the same time, the construction of the main grid began - from hollow blocks. The block wall could even be rammed by the plastic GDR cars that many citizens owned, so the blocks were soon replaced with durable concrete slabs.
What did the wall look like from the eastern side?
In 1975, the wall acquired its final form. For some GDR citizens who managed to jump over the concrete fence, it was a “discovery” that they could only see the outer fortification from the city. The fugitives found themselves in the so-called “death strip” of the usual border between states, habitually equipped with towers, mined, patrolled by cars and shepherd dogs: there was still 100 meters left to wall No. 2, the main one as the West Germans saw it. Of course, everything on top was covered with barbed wire. In the outer wall there were “service” doors to West Berlin.
Smugglers dug into the wall, jumped over poles, and flew over in homemade airships and airplanes. Then the border guards blocked off the Spree with underwater gratings and installed sensors in the ground to listen to whether the residents who inhabited the houses adjacent to the wall were digging tunnels. It was 28 years of relentless technological progress.
What did the Berlin Wall look like from the western side?
It is well known that in the West one could approach a wall, touch it, and even leave graffiti on it, which famous artists from all over the world eagerly took advantage of. What is less known is that this was dangerous: in order to save money when building the wall, the GDR authorities cut corners, reserving the right to patrol the territory that remained in the West. So, captured by the work of an artist who was painting on the wall, a border guard could be dragged into the “death strip” through open doors in the wall and punished for damaging GDR property. Respectable burghers knew this and were generally afraid to approach the wall. Housing near the wall was cheap, and mainly emigrants and declassed elements settled there. After November 9, everything turned upside down: the outskirts of West Berlin found themselves in the very center of the united city.
Could residents of West Berlin travel to East Berlin?
Citizens of not only West Berlin, but the Federal Republic of Germany and any Western bloc country could go on a day trip to East Berlin with relative freedom. An eyewitness, a philologist who speaks excellent Russian and who spent his student years in West Berlin in the 1980s, says: “The secret of such loyalty was a one-day visa: it cost 25 Western marks - sensitive money at that time, and for the leadership of the GDR this there was good business. In addition, according to the laws of the GDR, visitors were required to change a certain amount of Western marks at the border, but they could not change it back. If you leave the Soviet sector, you either hand over the money at customs or throw it away.”
Robert took American friends on a tour to East Berlin. Moreover, the purpose of the cultural trip was not only to “look at the GDR” - in the eastern part there remained the Dome Cathedral, the Island of Museums and other monuments of general German heritage. The Germans were wary of such tourism. Robert also went to bookstores there: he bought dictionaries and books on Russian studies - beautifully published, they cost a penny. “Thanks to these Russian books, when I was returning home, I was once taken to a box and interrogated for a long time: it was unpleasant and could have ended badly for me,” recalls Robert.
But the main purpose of the visit to the East was to visit relatives: the wall separated the families. We had to return to the West before 2 am. At the crossing on Friedrichstrasse, in a building known as the “Palace of Tears,” residents of West and East Berlin said goodbye at night.
Could residents of East Berlin travel to West Berlin?
GDR citizens were released into West Berlin after strict checks. But upon retirement, any citizen of the GDR received the right to travel to the West. In a socialist state, it was important to keep youth and labor on its territory, but pensioners were not eager to go to the West. There, according to the laws of Germany, Eastern pensioners received free treatment. In addition, after crossing the border, every citizen of the GDR had the right to “welcome money” - 100 marks. Taking this money from the bank, pensioners bought food and took it to the East.
How else did the GDR cooperate with the Federal Republic of Germany?
The wall not only divided the streets - it cut through the waters of the Spree, as well as the metro and sewerage systems. Lines B-6 and B-8 of the Berlin metro began and ended in West Berlin, and in the middle there were stations that belonged to East Berlin. The train passed all these stations without stopping, except for Friedrichstrasse - where there was a stop. At this station there was a stall with alcoholic drinks, which was popular among West Berliners: they went for cheap drinks - and even without visas.
Once a year, Germany ransomed criminals who were caught trying to escape from the GDR or at prohibited protests. For the ransom of one fugitive in the East, they took from 40 to 150 thousand marks, depending on the level of education of the criminal - sometimes not in money, but in goods. Most often, the GDR handed over to the West criminals, whom Western propaganda called “political prisoners.” “I lived next to one in West Berlin,” says Robert. - He said that he stabbed his wife to death in the East and promised that the same would happen to us. He didn’t work anywhere, and by nightfall he was drinking with friends and getting rowdy. He terrorized the house for three years, until we got him evicted through complaints.”
There was less flow of citizens in the other direction. However, several figures of socialist convictions deliberately moved to live in the GDR from the Federal Republic of Germany over the years. Among them are playwright Bertolt Brecht and the father of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Lutheran pastor. Of course, there were quite a lot of such cases.
How is it possible that the Berlin Wall came down overnight?
Of course, it all started long before the night the wall fell. And not in East Berlin, whose population was quite content with a socialistically calm and well-fed life, because the GDR was the most developed power of the socialist bloc. The dissidents did the job. They came to Leipzig from all over the country. An activist in the so-called “peaceful revolution” of 1989, Oliver Klos moved to Leipzig from Dresden in 1982 and, despite his atheistic beliefs, entered the theological faculty of the University of Leipzig. “The church in the GDR existed separately from the state and became the engine of the opposition movement,” says Oliver, “and in theology we had the opportunity to study using Western methods, professors from the West came to teach us and brought books.” The second subversive force of the GDR were the “conservationists”: the industry of the GDR cared about the environment no less than the FRG, but the greens have always been the West’s main weapon for organizing color revolutions.
In 1988, “dissenters” began to group around the Protestant community of St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig. The gatherings took place on Mondays, and quickly people stopped fitting into the church and went out to the square. The Stasi persuaded militant demonstrators to disperse and used legal methods to disperse the crowd, but this did not stop the rioting dissidents. The symbol of the “peaceful revolution,” as it is now called in the West, was candles: if you carry a sacred fire in your hands, there is no place for weapons in them. People demanded “democratic elections” and “visa-free travel to Hawaii.” On Monday, November 9, 1989, Berliners learned that a “hundred-thousand-strong demonstration” was taking place in Leipzig. The actual number of demonstrators is now estimated at 10-20 thousand people.
It is interesting that the dissidents did not even dream of breaking the wall: for them its fall was a shock. This was the decision of Gorbachev, who simply betrayed the GDR and all citizens of the USSR who wanted to remain in an independent state. The spectacular fall of the wall began at the decision of several people and therefore looked like a miracle: something that neither the West nor the East could fully believe. It is believed that Communist Party member Günther Schabowski misspoke when he said on live television that the decree on opening the GDR's borders would come into force "immediately." People moved towards the wall, and the border guards did not stop them.
In Leipzig, the symbol of the victory of the West over the East was the moment when demonstrators occupied the Stasi building.
Does the border between West and East really still exist – in the minds of the Germans?
Today, in the era of decorative concrete, when the remains of the wall are distributed among museums and souvenir shops, when emigrant actors from Russia and Poland, dressed as Soviet and American soldiers, pose for tourists against the backdrop of the Brenderburg Gate, the Germans finally look like an indivisible happy nation. But those who have lived in the capital of Germany for many years see the situation differently. Opinion of eyewitness Andrei from Berlin:
“This is not advertised, but modern Germany is a sad story of self-assertion of rich Westerners at the expense of the poorest East and a complex interweaving of mutual grievances. One of the most long-standing is that East German propaganda declared the Federal Republic of Germany the heir to Nazism, and itself the new Germany. For this reason, Nazism raises its head more easily in East Germany, because in the West, from childhood, Germans were instilled with a guilt complex for the crimes of their ancestors. East Germans begin to hate Muslim emigration from scratch.
On the other hand, after unification it turned out that the GDR exaggerated the wealth of its western neighbors. It is not surprising that the majority of Germans in the East claim that they lived better under socialism.”
Watch the video about the disunity between the Germans of Germany and the GDR today.
(1961-08-13 )USSR(political and military support)
state
public
East Berlin.
Treaty of the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany
The location of the wall is plotted on a modern satellite image
Story
General information
The construction of the Berlin Wall began on August 13, 1961, on the recommendation of a meeting of secretaries of communist and workers' parties of the Warsaw Pact countries (August 3-5, 1961) and on the basis of a decision of the People's Chamber of the GDR of August 11, 1961. During its existence, it was rebuilt and improved several times. The last major reconstruction was carried out in 1975.
By 1989, it was a complex complex consisting of:
- concrete fencing with a total length of 106 km and an average height of 3.6 meters;
- metal mesh fencing with a length of 66.5 km;
- electric signal fence with a length of 127.5 km;
- earthen ditches with a length of 105.5 km;
- anti-tank fortifications in certain areas;
- 302 guard towers and other border structures;
- strips 14 km long of sharp spikes and a control strip with constantly leveled sand.
There were no fences where the border passed along rivers and reservoirs. There were initially 13 border checkpoints, but by 1989 the number had been reduced to three.
On November 9, 1989, under the influence of mass popular uprisings, the Government of the GDR lifted restrictions on communications with West Berlin, and from June 1, 1990, completely abolished border controls. During January - November 1990, all border structures were demolished, with the exception of a 1.3 km section left as a monument to one of the most famous symbols of the Cold War (see Berlin Crisis of 1961).
Prerequisites
The situation worsened in the summer of 1961. The tough course of the 1st Chairman of the State Council of the GDR Walter Ulbricht, economic policy aimed at “catching up and overtaking the Federal Republic of Germany”, and the corresponding increase in production standards, economic difficulties, forced collectivization of 1957-1960, foreign policy Tensions and higher wages in West Berlin prompted thousands of GDR citizens to leave for the West. In total, more than 207 thousand people left the country in 1961. In July 1961 alone, more than 30 thousand East Germans fled the country. These were predominantly young and qualified specialists. Outraged East German authorities accused West Berlin and Germany of “human trafficking,” “poaching” personnel and attempts to thwart their economic plans. They claimed that the East Berlin economy loses 2.5 billion marks annually because of this. In the context of the aggravation of the situation around Berlin, the leaders of the ATS countries decided to close the border. Rumors of such plans were in the air as early as June 1961, but the leader of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht, then denied such intentions. In fact, at that time they had not yet received final consent from the USSR and other members of the Eastern Bloc. From August 3 to 5, 1961, a meeting of the first secretaries of the ruling communist parties of the ATS states was held in Moscow, at which Ulbricht insisted on closing the border in Berlin. This time he received support from the Allies. On August 7, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED - East German Communist Party), a decision was made to close the border of the GDR with West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany. On August 12, the Council of Ministers of the GDR adopted a corresponding resolution. The East Berlin police were put on full alert. At 1 am on August 13, 1961, the project began. About 25 thousand members of paramilitary “battle groups” from GDR enterprises occupied the border line with West Berlin; their actions covered parts of the East German army. The Soviet army was in a state of readiness. Construction of the wall
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It still remains an event, all the circumstances of which are not clear. There is also no clear answer to the question: where did the idea of the literal division of Germany originate - in Moscow or in East Berlin? Martin Sabrow, director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary History (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung) in Potsdam, has his own assessment of the events of those years.
Deutsche Welle: Who is to blame for the fact that the German people were also divided by the Berlin Wall?
Martin Zabrov: For historians, there cannot be one reason, just as there cannot be one blame. This is already the sphere of morality. If we consider the situation from a historical point of view, then responsibility can be placed both on certain people and on the system itself. After all, the division of Germany is a consequence of the Second World War and the struggle between two political forces: the attractive Western and the less attractive Eastern, communism. The confrontation led to an outflow of population from the East to the West.
Of course, certain individuals also influenced the situation. First of all, the leader of East Germany, Walter Ulbricht, who was much more interested than Khrushchev in stopping the outflow of people. Khrushchev believed in utopia, believing that socialism would triumph in Berlin without any walls or borders. He was truly convinced of the superiority of the Soviet system. Ulbricht realized that the situation was getting worse every day, and began to bombard the Soviet leadership with letters and talk about the blockade. He considered the Wall a necessary measure to save the GDR. The second Berlin crisis also contributed to the decision to build the Wall.
- But, let’s say, it’s customary to place responsibility on the Soviet Union...
There are different points of view, and there is still heated debate about who is responsible for starting the construction of the Wall: the Soviet Union or the East German leadership. Of course, by and large both sides are responsible for this, but still it was Ulbricht who was the initiator. After the decision was made, the Soviet Union took everything into its own hands, organizing the construction itself. So the USSR has its share of responsibility. But the driving force behind this process was Ulbricht. Our research allows us to draw this conclusion. Of course, many see the situation differently. I cannot say that everything was exactly like this down to the details. But this is my vision of events.
Why are there such differences in the interpretation of facts?
For various reasons. Firstly, it all depends on what documents to take as a basis. There are, for example, authors who believe that Kennedy played an important role, and such a study has literally just been published. If you work with the sources of the GDR, then the USSR goes into the shadows. Soviet sources, and not all of them are available, bring the Soviet Union to the fore. In addition, there are simply different views of researchers on the situation.
The wall and its entire history are a treasure trove of interpretation. Old politicians, former members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, are of the opinion that the Soviet Union is responsible. Thus, they seem to absolve themselves of blame. People who look at all this from a West German perspective call Ulbricht a liar. At the same time, they refer to his famous phrase that no one was going to build the Wall. I am not at all sure that Ulbricht meant exactly what is attributed to him. Because the idea of the Wall as a permanent structure did not appear until months after August 1961. Initially, the talk was about temporarily dividing the city with barbed wire.
Context
The capital of Germany, Berlin, arose in the first half of the 13th century. Since 1486, the city has been the capital of Brandenburg (then Prussia), since 1871 - of Germany. From May 1943 to May 1945, Berlin suffered one of the most destructive bombings in world history. At the final stage of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) in Europe, Soviet troops completely captured the city on May 2, 1945. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the territory of Berlin was divided into occupation zones: the eastern one - the USSR and the three western ones - the USA, Great Britain and France. On June 24, 1948, Soviet troops began the blockade of West Berlin.
In 1948, the Western powers authorized the heads of state governments in their zones of occupation to convene a parliamentary council to draft a constitution and prepare for the creation of a West German state. Its first meeting took place in Bonn on September 1, 1948. The constitution was adopted by the council on May 8, 1949, and on May 23 the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was proclaimed. In response, in the eastern part controlled by the USSR, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was proclaimed on October 7, 1949, and Berlin was declared its capital.
East Berlin covered an area of 403 square kilometers and was the largest city in East Germany by population.
West Berlin covered an area of 480 square kilometers.
At first, the border between the western and eastern parts of Berlin was open. The dividing line was 44.8 kilometers long (the total length of the border between West Berlin and the GDR was 164 kilometers) ran right through the streets and houses, the Spree River, and canals. There were officially 81 street checkpoints, 13 crossings in the metro and on the city railway.
In 1957, the West German government led by Konrad Adenauer enacted the Hallstein Doctrine, which provided for the automatic severance of diplomatic relations with any country that recognized the GDR.
In November 1958, the head of the Soviet government, Nikita Khrushchev, accused the Western powers of violating the Potsdam Agreements of 1945 and announced the abolition of Berlin's international status by the Soviet Union. The Soviet government proposed turning West Berlin into a “demilitarized free city” and demanded that the United States, Great Britain and France negotiate on this topic within six months (“Khrushchev’s Ultimatum”). The Western powers rejected the ultimatum.
In August 1960, the GDR government introduced restrictions on visits by German citizens to East Berlin. In response, West Germany refused a trade agreement between both parts of the country, which the GDR regarded as an “economic war.”
After lengthy and difficult negotiations, the agreement was put into effect on January 1, 1961.
The situation worsened in the summer of 1961. The economic policy of the GDR, aimed at “catching up and overtaking the Federal Republic of Germany,” and the corresponding increase in production standards, economic difficulties, forced collectivization of 1957-1960, and higher wages in West Berlin encouraged thousands of GDR citizens to leave for the West.
Between 1949 and 1961, almost 2.7 million people left the GDR and East Berlin. Almost half of the refugee flow consisted of young people under the age of 25. Every day, about half a million people crossed the borders of the Berlin sectors in both directions, who could compare living conditions here and there. In 1960 alone, about 200 thousand people moved to the West.
At a meeting of the general secretaries of the communist parties of the socialist countries on August 5, 1961, the GDR received the necessary consent from the Eastern European countries, and on August 7, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED - East German Communist Party), a decision was made to close the border of the GDR with West Berlin and Germany. On August 12, a corresponding resolution was adopted by the Council of Ministers of the GDR.
In the early morning of August 13, 1961, temporary barriers were erected on the border with West Berlin, and cobblestones were dug up on the streets connecting East Berlin with West Berlin. The forces of the people's and transport police, as well as combat workers' squads, interrupted all transport links at the borders between the sectors. Under strict guard by East Berlin border guards, East Berlin construction workers began replacing barbed wire border fences with concrete slabs and hollow bricks. The border fortification complex also included residential buildings on Bernauer Strasse, where the sidewalks now belonged to the West Berlin district of Wedding, and the houses on the south side of the street belonged to the East Berlin district of Mitte. Then the GDR government ordered the doors of the houses and the windows of the lower floors to be walled up - residents could only get into their apartments through the entrance from the courtyard, which belonged to East Berlin. A wave of forced evictions of people from apartments began not only on Bernauer Strasse, but also in other border zones.
From 1961 to 1989, the Berlin Wall was rebuilt several times along many sections of the border. At first it was built of stone, and then was replaced by reinforced concrete. In 1975, the last reconstruction of the wall began. The wall was built from 45 thousand concrete blocks measuring 3.6 by 1.5 meters, which were rounded at the top to make it difficult to escape. Outside the city, this front barrier also included metal bars.
By 1989, the total length of the Berlin Wall was 155 kilometers, the intra-city border between East and West Berlin was 43 kilometers, the border between West Berlin and the GDR (outer ring) was 112 kilometers. Closest to West Berlin, the front concrete barrier wall reached a height of 3.6 meters. It encircled the entire western sector of Berlin.
The concrete fence stretched for 106 kilometers, the metal fence for 66.5 kilometers, the earthen ditches had a length of 105.5 kilometers, and 127.5 kilometers were under tension. A control strip was made near the wall, like on the border.
Despite strict measures against attempts to “illegally cross the border,” people continued to flee “over the wall,” using sewer pipes, technical means, and constructing tunnels. Over the years of the wall's existence, about 100 people died trying to overcome it.
The democratic changes in the life of the GDR and other countries of the socialist community that began in the late 1980s sealed the fate of the wall. On November 9, 1989, the new government of the GDR announced an unimpeded transition from East Berlin to West Berlin and free return. About 2 million residents of the GDR visited West Berlin during November 10-12. The spontaneous dismantling of the wall immediately began. Official dismantling took place in January 1990, and part of the wall was left as a historical monument.
On October 3, 1990, after the annexation of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany, the status of the federal capital in a united Germany passed from Bonn to Berlin. In 2000, the government moved from Bonn to Berlin.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources