Germany Tour Day 4 - 19th Sept

Berlin

After World War II, Germany was split into 4 parts that were each occupied and ruled by each foreign government that defeated Germany – the Soviet Union, USA, England and France.

East Germany belonged to the communist Soviet Union whilst the Western part of Germany belonged to the Allied forces and was democratic. Berlin is situated in the East part of Germany but as it was the capital, it was split as well. 

Following the Cold War and until 1989 there stood a wall between East and West Germany. West Berlin was controlled by Allied forces but was isolated from the rest of the Allied West Germany and so there was a time when the Soviet Union tried to blockade supplies entering West Berlin with an aim of seizing the West as well as the East. The blockade did not work as the Allied forces flew supplies into Berlin for about a year. Whilst the Soviets could control land access to West Berlin, they could not control air access. To do so would risk a war in the already tense Cold War.

Bricks in the road show where the wall used to be.

The wall eventually fell on the 9^th November, 1989 and Berlin and Germany were reunified. Today we went to a memorial site of the wall. The line where the wall was still runs through the streets of Berlin with a brick line marking where it was. In some places the wall is still intact and serves as a reminder of a dark time in the history of Germany.

At the memorial site, there is a centre where we watched a short video on what things were like before the wall went up and then had an account of the wall’s construction and then eventual destruction.

View from the East with guard tower

For the people on the East side, the wall represented entrapment and the tyranny of communism. There were actually two walls. From the East side there is one wall that can be seen by those in the east... but escaping East Germany was more than meets the eye. Beyond the first wall there was a patch of area that was booby trapped. Guard stations were erected at frequent intervals. There was trip wire that signaled the tower of a possible escapee. Close to the second wall that is on the Western side, there were some land mines. There was definitely no escaping East Germany as you would either be caught or shot. There is a memorial for the fallen in a park on what was the east side of the 

wall.

A memorial to those who died trying to cross from East to West

The wall from the West side. It is around 3 meters tall.

A short drive away, there is also another 1.3km intact wall. This is the Eastern Gallery and artists have used the wall as a canvas to depict certain parts of the history of the wall.

This is apparently quite famous. Will let the link explain.

Berlin is the capital city of Germany following reunification. There are many museums in Berlin that look worthwhile. Unfortunately, I had come down with a cold the day before. After going to the Berlin Wall memorial, I felt like I couldn’t put one foot infront of another because the cold was knocking me around a bit. Went back to the hotel to sleep for the afternoon… So exploring the rest of Berlin will have to wait for another time…

The Old Berlin museum - Art Museum

Berlin Cathedral