The Berlin Wall

Today during our discussion of dissent and propaganda, we discussed the Berlin Wall.  This past April I went to Berlin while I was touring around Europe with my best friend.  Everyone is familiar with the story of the Berlin Wall.  It is something that is taught in history classes and the image of the Berlin Wall coming down is one that most people are familiar with.  It is one of those seminal moments in history that many things are compared to, such as the removal of Saddam Hussein's statue being pulled down in Baghdad.  But even though everyone is familiar with the story of the Berlin Wall, I don't think many people really understand how this wall profoundly impacted every single citizen in Berlin.  I just really wanted to share my previous knowledge and experience after I visited the Berlin Wall Memorial in Berlin, Germany.

Prior to my visit to Berlin, my knowledge of the Berlin Wall was the standard information that is learned during a high school and college history class.  I knew that it was a wall that was built in Berlin during the Cold War, dividing East Berlin (controlled by the Soviet Union) and West Berlin (controlled by the Allies).  I knew that people were rarely allowed to travel between the two cities and that families were torn apart.  I knew that the Berlin Wall did not come down until 1989.  There were many things that I did not know.

My friend Liz and I were staying at a hostel in Rosenthaler Platz (The Circus Hostel in Berlin is amazing if anybody goes to Berlin!!).  We are both very interested in history and knew that we wanted to visit some of the sights of the Berlin Wall and were fortunate that our hostel was only a short walk from the Berlin Wall Memorial near Bernauer Strasse.  Visiting this memorial really put everything into perspective for me and brought the whole history of the wall into a new light.  The memorial was an incredibly powerful statement.  I looked out and saw where the wall ran and looked at images of how it grew from a simple brick wall to one that was large and concrete with barbed wire on the top with fully fortified walls and watch towers to observe the other side, reminding me of a war zone.We spent a couple of hours reading the information at the exhibit, looking at images, hearing and watching first hand accounts, and looking at actual pieces of the wall, including the death strip where people were shot trying to escape from East Berlin into West Berlin.  It may sound naive, but I was so completely unaware of how these citizens lives were so completely halted and ruined, how they were separated from their jobs and loved ones, from their lives and everything that they knew.  Like most people my age, I knew the history of the wall and I knew that it separated families, but I do not think you really understand the actual extent of it until you are actually in Berlin.  It goes from being a history lesson that you hear in class, to something tangible and very scary.  The stories that I read and the images that I saw of people jumping out of windows and crawling under barbed wire to try and escape East Berlin will forever be ingrained into my mind.  The wall was essentially built in the course of a couple of days and nobody really understood what was going on until it was too late.  I cannot even begin to imagine the terror that the citizens of Berlin must have felt when this wall went up and the misery and sorrow they must of felt for multiple decades while this wall remained up.

There are so many stories of separation by the Berlin Wall that we are unaware of; stories that really helped my friend and I understand the impact it made on peoples' lives.  The memorial is located by a church that was essentially split in half by the Berlin Wall.  Families could no longer visit the graves of their loved ones because the graveyard was on the other side of the wall.  I think about stories like that and how heartbreaking it would be to not be able to visit my mom's grave.  It just breaks my heart when I think about it.  Liz and I stood at a memorial with images of each 136 people who were killed at the wall and listened to their names and stories being read aloud and it brought us to tears.  It is something that I will never forget.

I think it is important for us to remember the Berlin Wall and for us to be reminded of the image of it coming down.  It was a huge moment in history and in the lives of countless people.  It was a moment that the world will never forget and it is moments like that, when evil is torn down and lives are put back together, that need to happen more often.  Human beings are capable of some sick and horrific things and we need to remember what mankind has been through and remember the history in order to prevent such things from happening again.  It is these images, like the ones associated with the Berlin Wall, that hit us emotionally and will hopefully remind us of where the world has been and where we don't want to end up again.  We are a society that is driven by images and we need to continue to use them as a reminder for our past, present, and future.

Below are pictures that I took at the Berlin Wall Memorial.