Berlin

With our heads full of history from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the golden age of classical music and tales of Prince-Bishops we have now venntured as far north as we will travel this trip to dive into the history of the Cold War period.

Almost the entire focus during our brief stay in Berlin was stories and history relating to the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart (also known as the Berlin Wall).

Alignment of Berlin Wall

Aerial view of Bernauer Strasse
Blue Line - Inner (backland) wall
Red Line - Outer (Berlin) wall

It became part of what Winston Churchill described as the Iron Curtain separating the Soviet and Western blocs from 1961 to 1989 and marked the boundary between two ideological systems - Capitalism and Communism.

Brandenburg Gate prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall

The version of the Wall most commonly seen in photographs (the one which the rest of the world is most familiar), is in fact known as the fourth-generation outer wall and is the structure closest to the West Berlin side.

Our visit to Berlin helped clarify for us that

1. the outer wall was upgraded three times from 1961 to 1989 - the first generation wall being constructed using coils of barbed wire then  immediately replaced by a wall of concrete slabs and hollow blocks
2. the barrier underwent a process of constant expansion and reinforcement on the East Berlin side to create what gradually became a multi-layered security system.

The final arrangement prior to the Wall being torn down consisted of :-

Berlin Wall arrangement of barriers

• Outer (Berlin) wall
• Control strip (no man's land)
• Floodlights
• Anti-vehicle trench
• Outermost boundary of manned area
• Border patrol road
• Wire guiding dog patrols
• Signal device
• Observation tower
• Electrified signal fence
• Inner (backland) wall

Construction of the new concrete segments (fourth generation) took place in 1975. Precast segments were used which were easy to build up and were more resistant to breakthroughs.

Fourth Generation wall segment

Surviving segments of the Wall can still be seen in still in eighty three places both in Berlin and various institutions around the world.

In Berlin a few short sections and watchtowers have been preserved as memorials. The best preserved section is in Bernauer Strasse. Here at the Berlin Wall Memorial a section of no man's land has been preserved.

Berlin Wall Memorial - Bernauer Strasse

The adjacent Documentation Centre and the Chapel of Reconciliation helped to focus our attention especially on the stories of people whose lives were disrupted or restricted by the Wall, who were expelled from their homes because of it, or who attempted to escape over it.

Chapel of Reconciliation near site of the original church 

The Chapel of Reconciliation was built to replace the Church of Reconciliation - destroyed by the East Germans for blocking a clear view of the Death Strip.

Church of Reconciliation during demolition in 1985

Our hotel located just a few hundred metres from the former border crossing at Friedrichstrasse (Checkpoint Charlie).

Checkpoint Charlie (recent photo with actors)

Because this was the crossing point for the members of the Allied armed forces, it became the scene of a confrontation between U.S. and Soviet tanks in October 1961.

Checkpoint Charlie looking towards the GDR controlled East Berlin

As a symbol of the conflict between the two world powers, Checkpoint Charlie became the city's most famous border crossing.

Stand-off between Soviet and US tanks in October 1961

The land "acquired" by East Germany to manage the crossing remains largely undeveloped.

Land within East Berlin occupied by the checkpoint infrastructure

Blue Line - Inner (backland) wall

Red Line - Outer (Berlin) wall

Hoardings around the site provide a huge canvas  to expose the history, stories and photos about the Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the operation of this border crossing.

Outdoor exhibition at Checkpoint Charlie

We spent ages in the cold studying this outdoor museum before heading down the street to the nearby Checkpoint Charlie Museum.

The Checkpoint Charlie Museum was created the historian Rainer Hildebrandt in a tiny apartment in 1962 then moved to its present location opposite the border crossing in 1963. The museum is filled with photos and related documents about escape attempts from East Germany (both successful and unsuccessful), together with the escape apparatus: hot-air balloons, getaway cars, chairlifts, and a mini-U-Boat. It's exposure of the ongoing international fight for human rights Hildebrandt described it as the first museum of international nonviolent protest.

Escape vehicle

At least 136 people died in shootings, were killed in accidents or committed suicide after failing to cross the Wall attempting to escape from the communist Eastern Bloc. Despite this all occurring during our lifetime, we discovered how little of the Cold War we really knew (or remembered) and how isolated and politically sheltered (some would say ignorant) we are down under.

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