Berlin and Germany commemorate the victims of the wall was built 57 years ago. 13. In August 1961, had begun the SED leadership under Walter Ulbricht, with the construction of the wall.
In the Central wall memorial in Berlin on Monday, the 13. August wreaths and flowers laid down. Before a prayer service will be held in the chapel of reconciliation on the former death strip at Bernauer Strasse. In addition, guided tours through the otherwise closed, former East German police prison are offered Keibel road. There, in 1961, the construction of the wall was organized.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallThe Wall Trail
For 28 years the wall to the East separated Berlin from West Berlin. Almost as long as Berlin is United again now. Of the past as a divided city is always less. Where exactly is the Bricked-up was? How did people live in your shadow? The Berlin wall trail gives answers. To 160 kilometers, it leads through and around the city.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallBerlin Wall Memorial
The Tour can start, in principle, in any place, on foot or with the wheel. A good start to the Berlin wall memorial. 1.4 kilometers follows the course of the wall along Bernauer Straße. It shows the murderous architecture of the border installations, and is reminiscent of all those people who lost their life here.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallPaving stones in the Asphalt
A nearly 6-km-long double band of cobblestones in the course of the wall. Where was the East, where West was? In irregular intervals you will find a bronze ribbon with the inscription: “Berliner Mauer 1961-1989”. This font can only be read if you stand on the former West side of the wall.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallThe Brandenburg Gate
If one follows the course of the wall towards the center, and you end up in today’s government district on the river Spree, and at the Pariser Platz with the Brandenburg gate. The construction of the wall had isolated the Brandenburg gate, neither from the West nor from the East, it was accessible. And so it was in the world a Symbol of the division. Today it is Germany’s Symbol of unity.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallCheckpoint Charlie
Of all the border of the city of transitions, he is the most famous one, Checkpoint Charlie. The Original is here nothing more, the control point is a Remake from the year 2000, surrounded by cheap Souvenir shops. The disney-fication progresses. Daily tourists besiege this place. As soldiers disguised as men readily pose for the obligatory souvenir photos for a fee of course.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallGDR watchtowers
On the East side there was along the wall, more than 300 watchtowers. Round-the-clock soldiers guard shoved in the tower, the pulpit, the border strip in the view, the weapons at the ready. Today, only three towers are preserved, all of which are protected as a historic monument. This is quite hidden in a side street of the Potsdamer Platz. He can be visited.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallEast Side Gallery
Here, too, the Berlin wall, the longest preserved piece of the Berlin wall. The West side of the Berlin wall was for their colourful Graffitis famous. The East side was gray. International artists brought 1990 color to the game. They painted in the district of Berlin-Friedrichshain is a part of the 1.3 km of East of the wall, and created the longest Open Air gallery in the world.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallGlienicke Bridge
The largest part of the Berlin wall trail runs for 110 km along the city boundary of Berlin to the surrounding areas. A Highlight is the Glienicke bridge between Berlin and Potsdam, the scene of a spectacular agent exchange actions during the Cold war, A Deal, made in 1962, a sensation, provided the template for big Hollywood cinema – Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies” with Tom Hanks.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallThe Museum in the Watchtower
Long stretches of the Berlin wall trail run through the woods, along rivers, through meadows and fields. The nature of Berlin was often the scene of risky attempts to escape. Narrow Places of the river Havel, for example. The border divided towns and separated families – as in Hennigsdorf is 20 kilometers North of Berlin. The Museum in the watchtower and tells the story of the life of the wall.
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Ten reasons for the Berlin wallTime of the cherries
Thousands of Japanese cherry trees line sections of the wall trail. Donated by the Japanese at the time of the German reunification. She turned to the wall each year in the spring in a pink sea of Flowers. Also beneath the böse bridge in the district of Pankow, to that bridge, which opened as the first border crossing, the night the wall fell, on 9. November 1989.
Only a few weeks before the 13. August had boasted of the SED chief, Walter Ulbricht: “Nobody has the intention of building a wall.” The blatant lie went down in history. The 155-kilometre-long Bastion of Berlin, cut more than 28 years. The division ended only with the fall of the Berlin wall on 9. November 1989.
The Berlin wall memorial is the Central memorial site of German division
The Bernauer Straße is considered as the Symbol of German division. The world-famous photo of the East German soldiers, shortly after the 13. August 1961, jumped over the barbed wire in the West, was included here. Similarly, the images of people jumped to escape from the apartment Windows.
When the wall was raised, it was the houses front the road to the East, the pavement in the West. Today is remembered with a large Open-Air exhibition, including an original preserved piece of the Berlin wall, to the victims of the division.
at/ks (dpa)