The rise and collapse of the wall of shame in Berlin

Although 59 years have passed since the start of construction of the infamous Berlin Wall, curiosity about the causes, reasons, and way of building it continues to be great. According to data from the official and public sources of the time, the idea for its establishment was adopted in March 1961 in Moscow during a meeting of the Warsaw Treaty. However, at a press conference on June 15, 1961, in response to Anna Marie Doherr's question, correspondent of the prestigious German daily “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, former head of The GDR of that time, Walter Ulbricht, declared that “nobody aimed at setting up any “wall. What happened later openly denied Ulbricht.

Years ago, German historian Mathias Uhl, after researching Russian archives, has found Hrushov-Ulbricht's secret call protocol whitened on August 1, 1961, about two weeks before the establishment of the Wall. It's a 75-minute conversation published in 2009 in the book “Die Teilung Deutschlands. That conversation discussed the overall situation in the RDG, its economic setback compared to the western part, justifiative motives, effects and effects of the Wall's rise in the political life of both Germanys and beyond. Ulbricht on this occasion also asked for labour aid from Bulgaria and Poland, while Hrushov was ready to send new commomolas as “aid for GDG to” It also discussed concrete infrastructure aspects. In that case, the excuse for that absurd wall, which Ulbricht would call “mified anti-fascist defense”, was adopted.

Thus, after Khrushchev made official consent on Sunday, August 13, 1961, exactly at 1:54, thousands of German-Easter police and militia troops, supported by an arsenal of all machinery and tanks, all lined up on the line of division, began the establishment of the Berlin Wall at a length of 46 miles [46 km] within the city and 110 km between it and the western, fenced and thorn wire.

A giant machine was introduced to build and function the Wall, turning Moore into a deadly facility. In fact, his murderous technological solidarity continued until the early 1980s. At first, it consisted of 12 miles [12 km] of concrete plates and 137 miles [137 km] of razor wire, but after 1964 it became a real and frightening border with all the necessary equipment.

In the final phase, the wall consisted of four reinforced generations. The first generation was four metres tall and with concrete blocks; the second generation, or “the death zone” was lit with 20100 feet long (so called because anyone trying to get into that area was killed in the place); the third generation was made up of canals and transfers, designed to prevent automotive; and the fourth generation was an untainted beam with numerous guards, with 302 watchtowers, from which were within the city 32 units and 20 bunkers.

The rise of the Wall of Shame signaled the fatal failure of an artificial system without a future. As some experts known decades ago put it, in the former - RDG “socialism was for the powers, but not for the” measures. Despite Honnecker's arrival at the top of the German-lish red dome, failures followed each other. Even though the RDG claimed to return to a “During 1949-1961, the number of fugitives to the west exceeded 2.5 million. Only during January-August 1961 did 160 thousand eastern refugees cross the western part. In short, East Berlin failed to become “virine” of victorious socialism and model for the western part, but “kafazi” of closure and shame. This was of great political significance, as Berlin represented the demarcation line between two worlds and systems, East and West, capitalism and communism, opening and closing, past and future, isolation and integration.

True, the Wall held back, even significantly the number of attempts to cross the border, which was reduced to 5,000 to its collapse. However, the desire to go to the other side of the border, the hatred for the regime and the hope that one day that Moore will shake in front of them fermented even more the feeling of freedom and democracy to millions of German-incarnated people. The data on the death toll is different, but according to a recent study, 136 victims are thought to be.

Escapes to the west began on the third day of the wall. It was in those days, the <x0fographo that took the world's lap”, of the photographer Peter Leibing, which immediately became a symbol of the Cold War, was the spectacular escape of a border guard from the east of Berlin to the western side, assisted by a Western police vehicle, under calls from “hyde here”. He was 19-year-old Conrad Schumann, who moved into the French sector and then settled in Bavari. In addition to numerous attempts to escape to the western part, injuries and killings during them, thousands of millions of witnesses also testify to their sorrows and spiritual suffering caused by the Wall.

As I've mentioned in detail and in the book “Berlin without Moore” (Toenas, 2009), they are described in hundreds of books, poetry, dramas, exhibitions, theatre performances and impressive movies, many of which I have had the chance to enjoy in Berlin as diplomat in 2001-2006 and later. In them, as in numerous photo albums of those periods, you see for example. Young couples who got married and came to the wall to try to see and greet the crust, brothers or sisters across the wall; parents who fall and hold their children and hold them in their arms <x2hopa”, trying to show where their grandparents, aunts or uncles are; or children who play with the ball, obstructed by the narrow spaces of the Wall, asking soldiers to wonder what they store with their automatic hands; the family being teary, when separated to go to both sides of Berlin, dozens of railways, etc., and others.

Numerous are the debates and discussions, even criticisms of the response, according to them not enough of Western Chancellors, and especially the Kennedy administration over the establishment of the Berlin Wall, which became the world's implementation at the time. But it seems that in these hot-time discussions and debates, it doesn't seem enough to take into account, so to be sure, the great role of real-political business cost-alterative in politics, especially in such cases, is underestimated. It is forgotten that accepting Soviet challenge and provocations for a new military confrontation would have an incalculable cost to all sides. It would create a <x0lose-lose” situation, so where everyone would be losers. Moreover, when, as the later experience witnessed, the West had and used better options, with less risks and a more reasonable political and human price; especially Willy Brandt's famous ostpolic; or “change through the rapprochement” to eastern countries, not their more violent collapse. So, and President Kennedy that morning on August 13th, when he was announced that the Berlin Wall was being established, he replied calmly “rather than a wall than a” war.

However, one thing is certain and helps to clarify the American position of the day; despite the establishment of the Berlin Wall, its three core principles in Berlin were not affected: the presence of Allied troops, free access to Berlin and the existence of West Berlin. For this, Kennedy had given his assurances on July 25, 1961 - just three weeks before the wall was erected - in a television talk. However, just days after the Wall was established, Kennedy sent his deputy to Berlin, future President Lindon Johnson and famous General Clay (who had led the American sector to Berlin after the war). Above all, Kennedy made his memorable historic visit to West Berlin, where on June 26, he weighed more than half a million Germans gathered in the square that today bears his name when only with four simple but sound German statements made the emblems of antix0> Ich bin ein Berliner”. This was the first devastating blow that the wall took; the previous end gave Reagan to Brandenburg's famous Gates on June 12, 1987, when he made the historic appeal to Gorbaqev to go there and tear down that wall, what took place on November 9, 1989. Everything else is history.