BERLIN WALL MEMORIAL
Bernauer Street “Death Strip” Wall Evidence
The Berlin Wall divided East Berlin and West Berlin for forty years and seemed to defone the cold war years, the most tangible and visible symbol of the division of idealogies, but dividing the real lives of people. A boundary of wire and guarded crossing had existed to separate the former Soviet sector of Berlin from the Allied section after the war years, but with an ever increasing number of East Berlin and East Germany citizens crossing to the west, a solid wall was built beginning in on August 13, 1961. Over the years the wall was added to, strengthened and made more deadly as a multi-layered system of barriers were erected. The Berlin Wall finally came crumbling down on November 9, 1989 (see Fall of the Berlin Wall).
Over the years since the reunification, most of the Berlin Wall vanished, with pieces of its concrete spread in collections around the world. A few sections remained, or open areas where it once stood. But the wall and the history of the East German period carries a continuing fascinations for visitors to Berlin and for present day Berliners a quarter century later. For many years Check Point Charlie on the southern side of the city was the focal point of wall history (see Checkpoint Charlie Mauer Museum), but now as much tourist attraction, the physical presence and the everyday life with the wall can now be explored at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Street in the north part of the city center.
By the late 1970s the 12 foot tall reinforced concrete border wall was only the last obstacle to escape. The border strip referred to by Berliners as the “Death Strip” consisted of an inner wall, with a line of lamps lighting the area between, with stripes painted which to show any fugitives in sharp relief from the machine gun manned watch tower, and in many places a dog run for vicious watchdogs. Steel spike strips called Asparagus beds by the guards lay at the base of the wall and barbed wire ditches between Inorder to improve the PR image of the East German government, and with improved security methods by the State Security (see Stasi Museum Berlin) by 1983, many of these more prison-like obstacles were removed, so when the wall finally fell, only wall itself was left.
Bernauer Strasset was where much of the drama of the wall took place and where many of the first deaths of wall occured. The boundary between east and west ran down the street. The wall was built along the sidewalk right against the apartment buildings which lined the thoroughfare. East Berliners could jump out the windows of the buildings in the east and land on the sidewalk in the west, until the windows were walled up. The new Berlin Wall Memorial exhibit and education center is located here on the former western side with the main part of the exhibit an open air park across the street where a remaining section of wall stands and the “Death Strip” boundary behind clearly visible with excavated portions and illustrative displays, and memorial plaques to those who died trying to escape the east.
On the night of November 10, 1989, it was here between Bernauer Street and Eberswalder Street that the first concrete segments of the Wall were knocked down to open new crossing between the two side of the city. And the official demolition of the wall also began here in June of 1990 at the corner of Bernauer Strasse and Ackerstrasse where the memorial site now stands. A bronz marker line lies in the pavement to show where the wall stood just.
Visiting the Berlin Wall Memorial
The memorial park and visitor center is located just across from the Berlin Nordbahnhof underground station, once called the “Ghost Station” because of its closure during the East Berlin years. It is served by the S1, S2 and S25 lines, or Tram M10. Or you can take U* to Bernauer Strasse. A small exhibit is on display in the Nordbahnhof underground station and a series of brief documentary films alternating between German and English can be viewed in the memorial visitor center, telling the story of the building and the fall of the wall. The center is open 9:30 am to 7 pm Tuesday through Sunday April to October and 9:30 am to 6 pm November to March. The memorial park is open year round anytime. Admission is free. © Bargain
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Berlin Wall Memorial
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See Also:
OSTEL - BERLIN’S DDR DESIGN HOSTEL
