When The Wall Came Down
When World War II came to an end in 1945, a pair of Allied peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam convened to determine the fate of Germany’s territories. After much discussion, they decided to split the former Axis power into four “allied occupation zones”: The eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union, while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and (eventually) France. However, even though the German capital of Berlin was located entirely within the Soviet part of the country, they agreed to split the city as well into similar sectors. The Soviets took the eastern half, while the other Allies took the western. This four-way occupation of Berlin began in June 1945.
Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the illusion of peace, desperately hoped for after the long, bloody years of war, to crumble. The stark differences between east and west, communism and capitalism, pushed under the rug in the pursuit of defeat of the Nazis, soon reared its ugly head again; taut tensions grew even thicker after the Soviets tested their first atomic weapon in August of 1949, confirming fears of espionage long held within the higher-ups of the United States.
The “War to End All Wars” had ended. But the “Cold War” was just beginning.
The very existence of West Berlin, a conspicuously capitalist city deep within communist East Germany, “stuck like a bone in the Soviet throat,” as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev put it. Relations at the border within the city were strained, often leading to violent altercations between soldiers and civilians. As conditions within the communist-held Eastern section deteriorated, refugees began to stream into the Western half. Estimates put the number of defectors at nearly 3 million between the years of 1948 and 1958.
It was an embarrassment to the Soviet Union; not only that, it was a security risk during times when nuclear war seemed not only possible but imminent. The communists had to act.
On August 12, 1961, Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good. In just two weeks, the East German army, police force and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barbed wire and concrete block wall, an edifice that would soon become further fortified and known as the Berlin Wall.
Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely: They crossed the East-West border to work, to shop, to go to the theater and the movies. Trains and subway lines carried passengers back and forth. After the wall was built, it became impossible to get from East to West Berlin except through one of three checkpoints. Even the, except under special circumstances, travelers from East and West Berlin were rarely allowed across the border. Families were divided. Friendships were severed. Berlin became a city divided, and not just in an ideological sense.
During its tenuous history, 171 people were killed trying to get over, under, or around the Berlin Wall. However, more than 5,000 East Germans (including some 600 border guards) managed to cross the border by jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying in hot air balloons, crawling through the sewers and driving through unfortified parts of the wall at high speeds.
By the late 1980’s, however, the Cold War began to thaw across Europe as Soviet power began to wane. Facing mounting pressure, on November 9, 1989, an East German Communist Party spokesman announced a series of new policies regarding border crossings. In a twist of irony, however, this same spokesman declared the border open….when it actually wasn’t.
East Berliners, however, would not let their leaders backtrack. They flocked to border checkpoints, some chanting “Tor auf!” (“Open the gate!”). After several tense hours rife with confusion, guards finally began letting the crowds through, some 2 million in all, where West Berliners greeted them with flowers and champagne. Fearing the Soviets still might renegade on their word, people used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section.
The Berlin Wall was no more.
Shortly thereafter, talks between East and West German officials, joined by officials from the United States, Great Britain, France and the USSR, began to explore the possibility of reunification, an act with was made official 35 years ago today, on October 3, 1990.
