Читать книгу Where in the World is the Berlin Wall? - Группа авторов - Страница 7

Maria Nooke

On 13^th August 1961 at 1:00am, the lights went out at the Brandenburg Gate and police and members of the East German army moved towards the sector border. Ten minutes later, the GDR announced that measures were being taken which would help to “guard and control”.¹

Within a few hours, the GDR government had closed the border to West Berlin with barbed wire. An impermeable border fortification was built over the next days and weeks – the Berlin Wall. Pictures of this formidable border installation were sent around the world. Confused faces and a Wall of armed soldiers at the Brandenburg Gate have become engraved in the collective memory. On November 9, 1989, the Brandenburg Gate was once again the focus of worldwide interest: The Wall had fallen. There were images of people dancing with joy on the concrete Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

The euphoria felt when the division came to an end was not only felt by Berliners, not only by Germans in the East and the West, but by people all over the world.

The Wall had divided Berlin for over 28 years. The beginning and end of the Berlin Wall marked significant landmarks in world history, which history books would later refer to as the “Cold War”. The Berlin Wall was a physical construction which showed the inhumanity of the GDR government. A government that became known for shooting its own citizens if they tried to escape. When the Wall fell on 9^th November 1989, it became a symbol for the peaceful victory over German division. The end of the GDR was sealed and the reunification of Germany became possible.²

The Brandenburg Gate after the Fall of the Wall

© Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung / Bestand Uwe Gerig Nr. 4563