Berlin, the capital of Germany, arose in the first half of the 13th century. Since 1486, the city has been the capital of Brandenburg (then Prussia), since 1871 - Germany. From May 1943 to May 1945, Berlin was subjected to one of the most devastating bombings in world history. On final stage 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 zones of occupation: the eastern one - the USSR and the three western ones - the USA, Great Britain and France. On June 24, 1948, Soviet troops began 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 draw up a constitution and prepare for the creation of a West German state. Its first meeting was held in Bonn on 1 September 1948. The constitution was adopted by the council on 8 May 1949, and on 23 May 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 terms of population East Germany.
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, 44.8 kilometers long (the total length of the border between West Berlin and the GDR was 164 kilometers), ran straight through the streets and houses, the Spree River, and canals. Officially, there were 81 street checkpoints, 13 crossings in the subway 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 Accords of 1945 and announced the abolition of the international status of Berlin 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 subject within six months ("Khrushchev's Ultimatum"). The Western powers rejected the ultimatum.
In August 1960, the government of the GDR put into effect restrictions on visits by citizens of the FRG to East Berlin. In response, West Germany abandoned the 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 FRG", and a corresponding increase production standards, economic difficulties, forced collectivization of 1957-1960, more high level wages in West Berlin encouraged thousands of citizens of the GDR to leave for the West.
In 1949-1961, 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 200,000 people moved to the West.
At the meeting general secretaries On August 5, 1961, the GDR received the necessary consent of 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), it was decided to close the border of the GDR with West Berlin and the FRG. 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 a cobblestone pavement was dug up on the streets connecting East Berlin with West Berlin. The forces of the people's and transport police units, as well as combat workers' teams, interrupted transport connection at the boundaries between sectors. Under the strict guard of the GDR border guards, East Berlin builders set about replacing the barbed wire border fences with concrete slabs and hollow bricks. The complex of border fortifications also included residential buildings on Bernauer Strasse, where the sidewalks now belong to the West Berlin district of Wedding (Wedding), and the houses on the south side of the street - to the East Berlin district of Mitte. Then the government of the GDR 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 eviction of people from apartments began not only on Bernauer Strasse, but also in other border areas.
From 1961 to 1989, on many stretches of the border, the Berlin Wall was rebuilt several times. 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 45,000 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 inner 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 one for 66.5 kilometers, the earthen ditches had a length of 105.5 kilometers, and 127.5 kilometers were under tension. Near the wall, as on the border, a control and trail strip was made.
Despite tough measures against "illegal border crossing" attempts, people continued to escape "over the wall" using sewer pipes, technical means constructing digs. During the years of the wall's existence, about 100 people died trying to overcome it.
The democratic changes that began in the late 1980s in the life of the GDR and other countries of the socialist community sealed the fate of the wall. On November 9, 1989, the new government of the GDR announced an unhindered transition from East to West Berlin and a free return back. About 2 million inhabitants of the GDR visited West Berlin during November 10-12. Immediately began the spontaneous dismantling of the wall. The official dismantling was carried out in January 1990, part of the wall was left as a historical monument.
On October 3, 1990, after the accession of the GDR to the FRG, the status federal capital in united Germany he moved from Bonn to Berlin. In 2000, the government moved from Bonn to Berlin.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
More than a quarter of a century has passed since the fall of the infamous Berlin Wall. Willy Brand, one of the German chancellors, called this building the "wall of shame". The concrete fence became a symbol of the split of Germany into separate states and the Cold War - the time of confrontation between the two superpowers: the USSR and the USA.
A nice bonus only for our readers - a discount coupon when paying for tours on the site until October 31:
- AF500guruturizma - promo code for 500 rubles for tours from 40,000 rubles
- AFTA2000Guru - promo code for 2,000 rubles. for tours to Thailand from 100,000 rubles.
- AF2000TGuruturizma - promo code for 2,000 rubles. for tours to Tunisia from 100,000 rubles.
On the site onlinetours.ru you can buy ANY tour with a discount of up to 3%!
And you will find many more advantageous offers from all tour operators on the website. Compare, choose and book tours at the best prices!
The unconditional surrender of the Third Reich after the Second World War led to the redivision of the world into new spheres of influence. Strengthening the positions of the USSR in Eastern Europe caused fears of the countries of the Western camp, which owned the idea of dividing the defeated power. In February 1945, the participants in the Yalta Conference (America, England, France and the USSR) determined the post-war status of Germany: the allies agreed on the dismemberment of the country. The issue of delimiting the four occupation zones was finally resolved during the negotiations in Potsdam on 07/17-08/02/1945.
Four years later, in May 1949, a new state appeared on the world map - the FRG, and six months later - the GDR. The almost 1,400 km long border ran from Bavaria in the south to the Baltic Sea in the north. It cut through landscapes, settlements and the lives of millions of people. Berlin also turned out to be bipolar, while remaining a free zone. Residents moved without problems between the two parts of the divided city.
Walter Ulbricht, the leader of the GDR, was interested in stopping the ever-increasing outflow of citizens (especially valuable specialists) to the western side. He repeatedly addressed Khrushchev with letters about the need to strengthen control on the border with the FRG. The impetus for the construction of the fence was political conflict 1961. Its participants - the USSR and the USA - claimed undivided ownership of the city. The Vienna talks, the topic of which was the status of Berlin, were unsuccessful, and the Soviet leadership approved the proposal of the GDR to strengthen border control.
Construction history
On the night of August 13, 1961, barbed wire appeared in the eastern part of the city. Further, the armed troops blocked the transport arteries and installed barriers. By August 15, the entire border line was cordoned off. The first blocks appeared. Creating a reinforced concrete structure, the builders blocked the streets, walled up the windows of nearby houses, cut the wires and welded the pipes. The wall knew no obstacles - it passed through metro stations, tram lines, railway crossings and the Spree River.
The Brandenburg Gate located on the way was surrounded by a fence on all sides, making the main symbol of Berlin inaccessible to both western and eastern residents of the city. From 1962 to 1978, the building was completed and refurbished. Each time the wall took on more and more ominous outlines.
What was
The Berlin Wall is an engineering structure 3.60 m high, consisting of reinforced concrete segments. From above, the fence was closed by iron pipes installed in 1975, which did not allow hands to cling to the edge of the fortification. At the same time, to strengthen the protection at the foot of the structure, anti-tank hedgehogs and barrier tapes with spikes, popularly nicknamed "Stalin's lawn", were installed. Several zones were supplemented with live barbed wire.
By the end of the 1970s, a metal grid with signal flares was reinforced in separate sections on the eastern side. It was separated from the wall by an earthen ditch, called the "death strip". This area was guarded by dogs and illuminated by powerful searchlights. An illegal attempt to move to the western part of the city was punishable by imprisonment or death.
The total length of the structure was 155 km, of which Berlin accounted for 44.75 km. The "shameful wall" crossed 192 streets, 3 highways and 44 railway lines. All along there were 20 bunkers, 302 towers and 259 posts guarded by guard dogs. 10 thousand armed soldiers patrolled the defensive fortification, who were ordered to shoot to kill if necessary.
Border crossing
The odious construction divided the city and cut off relatives and friends from each other. Only pensioners were allowed to cross the border. Nevertheless, reckless refugees tried to find loopholes through which they could leave the "socialist paradise". According to various sources, between 136 and 206 East Berliners died trying to escape, most of them within five years of the construction of the fence.
The first person killed was Günter Litfin, who was shot dead in August 1961 by GDR border guards while trying to get to West Berlin along the Spree River. In 1966, 40 shots killed two children. They were 10 and 13 years old. The last two victims were Winfried Freudenberg, who crashed on March 8, 1989, flying over the wall in a makeshift balloon, and Criss Gueffroy, who died in a hail of bullets while trying to cross the border in February of that year.
Fall and destruction
Mikhail Gorbachev, who came to power, began to modernize the state and government apparatus. Under the slogans "Glasnost" and "Perestroika" he reformed the Soviet Union. The leadership of the GDR lost the support of the USSR and could no longer stop its citizens seeking to leave the country. Socialist Hungary, followed by Czechoslovakia, liberalized the border regime. Residents of East Germany filled these states, wanting to get to the FRG through them. The Berlin Wall was no longer needed.
In fact, the beginning of the fall of the wall was the evening of November 9, 1989. At a live press conference on the decision of the authorities to open checkpoints, the question was raised when this decision would come into force. In response, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party of Germany, Schabowski, uttered the famous words: "This will happen, as far as I know ... now, immediately."
Berliners watching the performance on TV were dumbfounded. When the first shock passed, people from both sides of the border rushed to the hated fence. The border guards did not hold back their pressure. The reunion, which was dreamed of for 28 years, took place. The demolition of the Berlin Wall began on June 13, 1990 at Bernauerstrasse. But even before that moment, the townspeople broke many of its fragments, taking pieces of concrete as a souvenir.
For those of you who want to include a visit to the infamous landmark in the excursion program, it will be interesting to know the information that guidebooks do not contain. So, the Berlin Wall: facts and figures.
- On October 27, 1961, a confrontation took place between the American and Soviet troops- 30 battle tanks collided at the border.
- On June 11, 1964, French President Charles de Gaulle informed the USSR ambassador about the possibility of starting nuclear war in the event of a new military conflict in Berlin.
- Despite enhanced security measures, between 1961-1989. 5,000 citizens managed to get over the fence. Taking advantage of their official position, 1,300 GDR soldiers also crossed the border.
- After the opening of the passage, West Berliners showed generosity to the East German border guards - bars near the wall dispensed free beer.
- Today, some of the segments of the concrete monster can be found in different parts of the world, such as the CIA headquarters and the Vatican.
- The construction and protection of the border fence became a great economic burden for the GDR. The cost was more than 400 million marks (200 million euros). Ironically, the "anti-capitalist stronghold" led to the collapse of the socialist country.
- On November 9, 2014, on the day of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, 7,000 rubber luminous balls were installed along the entire perimeter of the former border, which soared into the sky at exactly 19:00.
Berlin Wall today
At present, only small fragments and a double line of paving stones, winding around the city like a long snake, remain from the building, which for 28 years aroused hatred and fear in people. In order for the memory of the victims to remain forever in the hearts of the people, the Berlin authorities opened several museums and memorial centers located next to the remains of the wall.
Memorial on Bernauerstrasse
"Window of Memory" - this is the name of the memorial, created to familiarize contemporaries with the tragic events associated with the split of the capital. It is dedicated to people living in the eastern part and trying to get into the western part by jumping from the windows of houses and breaking to death. The monument is a rusty iron composition containing photographs of the dead.
Nearby is a zone of gray concrete and a border strip, a tower, the Chapel of Peace, built on the site of a blown up Gothic temple, a library, a museum and an observation deck. You can get to the memorial by metro (line U8). Stop Bernauerstrasse.
Topography of terror
This place is reminiscent of the countless tragedies caused by the Nazi regime. The museum is located on the territory of the headquarters of one of the leaders of the SS - Reichsführer Himmler. Now in the pavilion with an area of 800 m2, visitors can look at photographs and documents introducing the genocide and other crimes of fascism. Nearby, in the open air, are the ruins left over from the barracks and cellars of the Gestapo, and part of the Berlin Wall.
Address: Niederkirchnerstrasse 8. You can get here by S-Bahn (city train). Line U2 to Anhalter Bahnhof.
Checkpoint Charlie
At the former border checkpoint for diplomats and officials, where a conflict took place in 1961 - a confrontation between Soviet and American tank divisions, today there is a museum of the Berlin Wall. Among the exhibits are unique photographs and devices with which the East Germans moved to the western side: scuba gear, hang gliders and balloons. Near the museum there is a mock-up of a sentry box with "soldiers" standing nearby, dressed in American military uniform that time. "Border guards" willingly take pictures with everyone.
Checkpoint Charlie is located on Friedrichstrasse next to Kochstrasse metro station. The museum is open every day from 9:00 to 22:00.
Berlin Wall (Germany) - description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.
- Tours for the New Year Worldwide
- Hot tours Worldwide
Previous photo Next photo
Berlin is the city with the richest cultural heritage, with incredible architecture, museums, theaters, galleries, but for many tourists, it is primarily associated with the notorious Berlin Wall. A concrete fence more than three meters high, surrounded by barbed wire, one hundred and sixty kilometers long, was not just a border between the two parts of the German state, it separated thousands of families for almost thirty years in one night.
The Berlin Wall was erected at the end of the summer of 1961, and it fell only in the autumn of 1989, during which time, when trying to cross it, about seventy-five thousand people were detained and convicted, and more than a thousand were shot on the spot, including even children. In November 1989, Germans from East Berlin were allowed to cross the border with special visas, but people did not wait to receive them and by force stormed the wall, behind which they were joyfully greeted by the inhabitants of the FRG.
Some of them adorn large American corporations, museums and even the headquarters of the CIA today.
It became a global event, the reunification of families, the city and the whole state was discussed in all corners of the planet. In a matter of days, no stone was left of the wall, its fragments, which West Berlin artists decorated with eloquent graffiti, were sold for a lot of money to private collections. Interest from tourists to this unique historical object still hasn't subsided. Many people come to Berlin precisely in order to see at least its ruins with their own eyes, but the Berliners themselves cannot answer with certainty exactly where exactly it was located. Therefore, today the initiative group, with the support of a special EU fund, is engaged in the restoration of fragments of the Berlin Wall, trying to use the same building materials and achieving maximum historical correspondence.
So, for example, an almost eight-hundred-meter section of the wall along Bernauer Strasse was reconstructed, it was here that people most often tried to illegally cross the border, and their lives ended tragically. When restoring the wall, they used the same slabs that it originally consisted of, they had to be bought from private collectors around the world at a price of a thousand EUR for each fragment. The completeness of the picture is also provided by three watchtowers, of which there were more than three hundred until the beginning of the 90s of the last century.
Today, these unique objects are of great tourist interest, and are also a symbol of freedom, unity and invincibility of people who once lived in complete isolation.
First time in Berlin. Where to go, what to try:
Older people who remember well the events of the so-called "perestroika", the collapse of the Soviet Union and rapprochement with the West, probably know the famous Berlin Wall. Its destruction has become a real symbol of those events, their visible embodiment. The Berlin Wall, the history of the creation and destruction of this object can tell a lot about the turbulent European changes of the middle and the end of the 20th century.
Historical context
It is impossible to understand the history of the Berlin Wall without refreshing the memory of the historical background that led to its creation. As you know, the second World War in Europe ended with the Act of Surrender of Nazi Germany. The consequences of the war for this country were deplorable: Germany was divided into zones of influence. The eastern part was controlled by the Soviet military-civilian administration, the western part went under the control of the administration of the allies: the USA, Great Britain and France.
Some time later, on the basis of these zones of influence, two independent states: Germany - in the west, with the capital in Bonn, and the GDR - in the east, with the capital in Berlin. West Germany became part of the "camp" of the United States, the east turned out to be part of the socialist camp controlled by the Soviet Union. And since the Cold War was already in full swing between yesterday's allies, the two Germanys found themselves, in fact, in hostile organizations separated by ideological contradictions.
But even earlier, in the first post-war months, between the USSR and Western allies an agreement was signed according to which Berlin - the pre-war capital of Germany - was also divided into zones of influence: western and eastern. Respectively, West Side The city was supposed to actually belong to the FRG, and the eastern one to the GDR. And everything would be fine if not for one important feature: the city of Berlin was deep inside the territory of the GDR!
That is, it turned out that West Berlin turned out to be an enclave, a piece of Germany, surrounded on all sides by the territory of “pro-Soviet” East Germany. While relations between the USSR and the West were relatively good, the city continued to live ordinary life. People moved freely from one part to another, worked, went to visit. Everything changed when the Cold War gained momentum.
Construction of the Berlin Wall
By the beginning of the 60s of the 20th century, it became obvious that relations between the two Germanys were hopelessly damaged. The world was facing the threat of a new global war, tension between the West and the USSR was growing. In addition, there was a huge difference in the rates economic development two blocks. Simply put, it was clear to the layman: living in West Berlin is much more comfortable and convenient than in East. People rushed to West Berlin, and additional NATO troops were transferred here. The city could become a "hot spot" in Europe.
In order to stop such a development of events, the GDR authorities decided to block off the city with a wall that would make it impossible for all contacts between the inhabitants of the once united locality. After careful preparation, consultations with the allies and mandatory approval from the USSR, on the last night of August 1961, the entire city was divided in two!
In the literature, you can often find the words that the wall was built in one night. Actually this is not true. Of course, such a grandiose structure cannot be erected in such a short time. On that memorable night for Berliners, only the main transport arteries connecting East and West Berlin were blocked. Somewhere across the street they raised high concrete slabs, somewhere they simply put up barbed wire barriers, in some places barriers with border guards were installed.
The metro was stopped, the trains of which used to move between the two parts of the city. The astonished Berliners found in the morning that they would no longer be able to go to their work, study or just visit friends, as they had done before. Any attempt to enter West Berlin was considered a violation state border and severely punished. That night, indeed, the city was divided into two parts.
And the wall itself, as an engineering structure, was built more than one year in several stages. Here it must be remembered that the authorities had not only to separate West Berlin from East, but also to protect it from all sides, because it turned out to be a “foreign body” inside the territory of the GDR. As a result, the wall acquired the following parameters:
- 106 km of concrete fence, 3.5 meters high;
- almost 70 km of metal mesh with barbed wire;
- 105.5 km of deep earthen ditches;
- 128 km of signal fence, energized.
And also - a lot of watchtowers, anti-tank pillboxes, firing points. Do not forget that the wall was considered not only as an obstacle to ordinary citizens, but also as a military fortification in case of an offensive by a NATO military group.
When the Berlin Wall was torn down
As long as it existed, the wall remained a symbol of the separation of the two world systems. The attempts to overcome it did not stop. Historians have proven at least 125 deaths while trying to cross the wall. About 5 thousand more attempts were crowned with success, and, among the lucky ones, GDR soldiers prevailed, called upon to protect the wall from crossing by their own fellow citizens.
By the end of the 1980s, so many grandiose changes had already taken place in Eastern Europe that the Berlin Wall looked like a complete anachronism. Moreover, by that time Hungary had already opened its borders with the Western world, and tens of thousands of Germans freely left through it to the FRG. Western leaders pointed out to Gorbachev the need to dismantle the wall. The whole course of events clearly showed that the days of the ugly structure were numbered.
And it happened on the night of October 9-10, 1989! Another mass demonstration of residents of two parts of Berlin ended with the soldiers opening the barriers at the checkpoints and crowds of people rushing towards each other, although the official opening of the checkpoints was to take place the next morning. People did not want to wait, besides, everything that happened was filled with special symbolism. Many TV companies broadcasted this unique event live.
On the same night, enthusiasts began to destroy the wall. At first, the process was spontaneous, looked like amateur performance. Parts of the Berlin Wall stood for some time, completely painted with graffiti. People were photographed near them, and television people filmed their stories. Subsequently, the wall was dismantled with the help of equipment, but in some places its fragments remained as a memorial. The days when the Berlin Wall was destroyed are considered by many historians to be the end of " cold war" in Europe.
The Cold War, which began after the end of the bloodiest World War II in history, was a long conflict between the USSR on the one hand and Europe and the United States on the other. Western politicians considered the communist system the most dangerous of possible opponents, and the presence of both sides nuclear weapons only heightened the tension.
After the end of World War II, the winners divided the territory of Germany among themselves. Soviet Union got five provinces, of which the German Democratic Republic was formed in 1949. The capital of the new state was East Berlin, which, according to the terms of the Yalta Treaty, also fell into the zone of influence of the USSR. The conflict between East and West, as well as the uncontrolled migration of residents to West Berlin, led to the fact that in 1961 the countries Warsaw Pact(a socialist alternative to NATO) came to a decision on the need to build a concrete structure that delimits the western and eastern parts of the city.
Border in the center of Berlin
As soon as possible after the decision to close the border was made, the wall project was implemented. The total length of the Berlin Wall was over 150 kilometers, although in Berlin itself there were only about 40 kilometers. To protect the border, in addition to the directly three-meter wall, wire fences were used, electricity, earthen ditches, anti-tank fortifications, watchtowers and even control trails. All these security measures were used only from the eastern side of the wall - in West Berlin, any resident of the city could approach it.
The ransom of the East Germans cost the German government a total of almost three billion US dollars.
The wall not only divided the city into two parts, rather absurdly (metro stations were closed, windows facing the west had to be walled up in houses), but also became a symbol of confrontation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries. Until the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1990, there were many attempts to illegally cross the border, including undermining, a bulldozer, a hang glider and a balloon. In total, more than five thousand successful escapes were made from the GDR to the FRG. In addition, approximately two hundred and fifty thousand people were released for money.
According to the official point of view of the GDR, during the entire years of the existence of the wall, 125 people were killed trying to cross the border.
In 1989, the beginning of perestroika was announced in the USSR, which prompted Hungary, neighboring the GDR, to open the border with Austria. The existence of the Berlin Wall became meaningless, since everyone who wanted to get to the West could do it through Hungary. After some time, the government of the GDR, under public pressure, was forced to provide its citizens with free access abroad, and in 1990 the already useless Berlin Wall was demolished. However, several of its fragments remained as a memorial complex.
