Forty-three years ago today, Berliners woke up to a divided city, as the border to East Germany was sealed an a barbed wire fence was erected. WIthin days, East German troops replaced the wire with concrete blocks and the wall became a permanent structure. A total of 1,065 people were killed trying to escape the GDR to the West, according to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13. August, including several East German border guards. More than 75,000 East German citizens were incarcerated for some period of time in connection with escape attempts.
Chronik der Mauer has some great documentation to the background of the Berlin Wall as well as multi-media resources.
For anyone who lived in or visted Berlin between 1961 and 1989, the Wall is seared in their memories (I crossed it several times: on foot, via the S-Bahn and by car).
Events over the past few months also remind us that a ‘mental wall’ still stands between east & west Germany. The protest demonstrations this past week were sparked by the ‘Agenda 2010’ reforms, but they express a deep alienation of the people in eastern Germany. An article about long-term unemployment in the town of Stralsund in today’s Spiegel Online reports on the everyday desperation and resignation of the populace. It is highly unlikely that Schröder’s ‘Information Campaign’ about the reforms will resonate with these people.
