The Berlin wall discover – 30 years after your case

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The Berlin wall is shown today as a photo stop at Checkpoint Charlie, as Graffiti artwork at the East Side Gallery. DW-reporter Hallie Rawlinson wanted to learn more about the history of the wall.

The Berlin wall, the most tangible Symbol of the Cold war, fell 30 years ago, on 9. November 1989. Four years later, I’m born 1000’s of miles away in the Midwest of America. In a world that was no longer divided by the Iron curtain. I had no idea that I would eventually live in Berlin. Not quite new in the German capital, I think now is the time to learn more about the complicated history of my current home.

History right in front of my front door

Memorial at Bernauer Strasse: Rusty rods to visualize the former course of the wall

I live near the Bernauer Strasse, where one of the few original pieces of wall, the time has survived. Every Morning, I pass the former border, if I go to my favorite coffee shop. Only a row of paving stones in the ground marks the former course of the road and sidewalk. It is almost impossible to feel its historical significance. In the view range images into a giant photo frame to remember those who died while trying to escape over the border installations of the GDR regime from East to West Berlin. Overall, the wall killing at least 140 people. My path continues over metal plates in the floor. They mark Places where escape attempts failed or people were forced to leave, forced to their homes because of the construction of the wall; but where the escape about the escape tunnel was achieved. Then I pass a series of rusted steel bars that make up the course of the wall in the road image is visible. All of this belongs to the Berlin wall memorial.

The GDR saw the-border plants: reproduction in the Bernauer street

This memorial on Bernauer Strasse dedicated to those who have lost their lives at the wall. At the same time, you want to inform visitors about the topic. For me, the five-storey observation tower of the auxiliary is the richest part, in order to understand all of this. After the climb, visitors can see from above on a small piece downstream of the border strip built on the original site. Earlier, I imagined the Berlin wall as a normal wall layer. This replica but it helps me to understand that the wall was a wall, but of two parallel concrete, between which the so-called “death strip” was walls. He was between 15 and more than 150 meters wide, with lock systems, bristling and armed border soldiers guarded. They were all the time ready to those that was in the “death strip” between the two walls.

The path to freedom dug

Floor plates in the Bernauer Strasse marking the places in which the escape tunnels were

The commemorative plaques to the escape tunnel, alone, at the Bernauer Strasse tunnelten the border barrier installations a total of seven times, have aroused my curiosity. To learn more about it, I visit the Berliner unterwelten. The guide is called “the Berlin wall”. First of all, I am concerned whether “sub-worlds” not more of something for friends of the Macabre and the creepy are. The Tour distasteful or even disrespectful? As the tour begins, I realize quickly that I have done All the wrong. With the group I climb into the cool, damp Museum of the earth. I can feel the despair almost, the Refugees had to have and listen to the stories told by our enthusiastic, well-informed Guide. Photo exhibitions and life illustrate large models, such as the tunnels were built. I am amazed that the most successful and most famous Tunnel was dug just a Block away from my apartment. And think about how I would react if all of a sudden refugees from Eastern Germany had been on their way to the West in my basement. After all, more than 300 citizens of the GDR arrived between 1961 and 1984, on this way from East Berlin to West Berlin.

An impenetrable gate, and white crosses

The Brandenburg gate is a must have for every Berlin Tourist

With the S-Bahn I go on to another “Mauerort”: The Brandenburg gate is probably the most famous landmark of Berlin. But I’m here now, to go beyond the gate as a Symbol of German re-unification thinking. I was actually quite shocked that this great Monument from the 18th century. Century, this is truly a landmark for Germany, at that time in East Berlin “death strip” was. I sit on a bench, watching the people happily walking past and conjure the images up of smiling people on the wall in the night of the 9. November 1989, the night the Berlin wall fell.

From here it is only a stone’s throw of the Reichstag building, which was until 1989 in the shadow of the wall on the West Berlin side and in the today, the German Bundestag is in session. From the Reichstag to the middle of the Spree, the banks of white crosses with the names, dates of birth and death are. Because of the river Spree, on which the border ran, had people trying to reach West Berlin. It makes me sad to read the names of those who paid in the 1980s for it with his life. Desperate people – from whatever reason – your life for the escape from the GDR risk. They could not know that her nightmare would soon end.

The Brother Kiss

Work of art – “The brother kiss” at the East Side Gallery

Only a few kilometers of the river Spree up to the remains of the Berlin wall at the East Side Gallery ready, perhaps, a more hopeful story for me. When I first heard of the East Side Gallery, I assumed that it was a sophisticated art gallery with expensive paintings. In fact, it is the longest remaining stretch of the wall that separated Friedrichshain in the East of Kreuzberg in the West. After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, 118 artists from 21 countries painting on parts of the 1.3-Kilometer-long concrete strip. Many of the Works contained political comments. The best known of the “brother’s kiss”: It is the former Soviet head of state Leonid Brezhnev and the East German state leader Erich Honecker kissing in a brotherly hug – a special greeting between the socialist state men. The paintings by Dmitry Vrubel replicated a photo taken in 1979 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the GDR. I can’t help but wonder whether the people who pose today for Selfies in front of him, to know who these men are and why they kiss.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie: American and Soviet soldiers guarded the allied border control point in the middle of Berlin

One last place on my list-the-wall places: Checkpoint Charlie. Today the towers on the kitschy photo point for tourists sand bags in front of a wooden, white control of the barracks with the inscription U.S. Army Checkpoint. During the division of the city Checkpoint was transitions Charlie one of eight inner-city border. However, foreigners, military personnel and diplomats crossed the border, not the regular travel and visitor traffic. The first thing that strikes me, as I reach this symbolic place of the Cold war, is the huge picture of an American soldier, staring with an empty face is in the camera. On the other hand, a similar portrait of a Soviet soldier is seen. Around a McDonald’s, souvenir shops, several Cafés. When I was on the small downstream of the control cabin would walk, I stumbled a couple of Times about men, the unsuspecting tourists at the “shell game” trick. The Whole thing overwhelms me, I feel a little uncomfortable, because it feels cheap in comparison to the other places where I was previously. Nevertheless, I’m going to buy a Ticket for the “wall Museum” and go in. Although the Museum holds some interesting information and exhibits ready, they appear from top to bottom randomly arranged. I can’t tell you what it is in the exhibition and go more confused than I went in.

Dealers sell “historical Souvenirs” around Checkpoint Charlie

Despite the disappointment at this last place I’m going with the good feeling of home to live in a historically significant place. I find that all those who want to know more – about the Berlin wall, the division, the GDR and the Cold war in Berlin to a lot of authentic places. And I hope that my Generation wasn’t born at the time of the wall if you haven’t, you will take the time to learn more about the complex history of the city.