Berlin Wall

After East Germany was founded in 1949, over 3,000,000 people left for the West, most before the Berlin Wall existed. The Berlin Wall was built, starting on the 13th of August 1961, and was torn down, starting on the 10th of November 1989. Up to 1980, the government mainly let old people and sick people leave without much argument — that way the government no longer had to support them and provide medical care.

Surrounded, by the Berlin Wall (the 28.5 mile City Wall), and by the barbed wire and guns of East Germany (the 75-mile Country Wall), West Berlin was home to over 2,000,000 people.

In 1980, in West Berlin, we climbed a flight of stairs to a platform that permitted us to look over the Berlin Wall into East Berlin. We could see the tank-traps, barbed wire, the killing zone, and the guard towers that protected the Wall, and imprisoned their people. Thousands of people died as they tried to cross the Berlin Wall in spite of the armed guards, mines, and automatic shooting devices. Other thousands succeeded in escaping, one way or another.

President Ronald Reagan’s demand (June 12, 1987), “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall,” had a lasting effect on world history. About two years later, on November 10, 1989, after twenty-eight years and three months, the Berlin Wall finally came down. Politically it came down then, but it took a little while longer for most of the Wall to be physically demolished. We have a couple of chunks of concrete, maybe 10 inches long, that we know came from the Berlin Wall, along with the hammer that did it.

In 1991 street vendors by the dozens offered hats, coats, and brass emblems of Soviet Army uniforms, and small pieces of the Wall (they said), for sale. We wondered if all the little shards of concrete, complete with paint, were really authentic, or were they the result of entrepreneurial and artistic skill.

At the former Checkpoint Charlie we asked a Berlin Policeman if it was possible for us to “liberate” a piece of the wall, somewhere in the neighborhood. As he gave us directions to nearby Mühlen Straße, he put his hand over his eyes, as if to say, “If I don’t see you … … .” With his tacit permission, we helped remove the Wall. On September 4, 1991, two 10” pieces from the Berlin Wall joined our collection, along with the hammer that did it.

We’ve seen Berlin with and without the Wall, and believe it, we prefer without.