Fall of the Berlin Wall – Under The Harvest Moon

The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). The construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August 1961. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails, and other defenses. The primary intention for the Wall’s construction was to prevent East German citizens from fleeing to the West.

The Soviet Bloc propaganda portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from “fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people” from building a communist state in the GDR. The authorities officially referred to the Berlin Wall as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart. Conversely, West Berlin’s city government sometimes referred to it as the “Wall of Shame”, a term coined by Mayor Willy Brandt about the Wall’s restriction on freedom of movement. Along with the separate and much longer inner German border, which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize physically the Iron Curtain that separated the Western Bloc and Soviet satellite states of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.

Before the Wall’s erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from there they could then travel to West Germany and to other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the deadly force associated with the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period, over 100,000 people attempted to escape, and over 5,000 people succeeded in escaping over the Wall, with an estimated death toll of those murdered by East German authorities ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin.

In 1989, a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries (Poland and Hungary in particular) and the events of the “Pan-European Picnic” set in motion a peaceful development during which the Iron Curtain largely fell, and rulers in the East came under public pressure to cease their repressive policies. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit the FRG and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side, and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall over the next few weeks. The Brandenburg Gate, a few meters from the Berlin Wall, reopened on 22 December 1989, with the demolition of the Wall beginning on 13 June 1990 and concluding in 1994. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which formally took place on 3 October 1990.

“… Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” – President Ronald Reagan ~ 06/12/1987

:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

After World War II, Germany was divided into four military sectors, each controlled by France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was formed, and on October 7 of the same year, the German Democratic Republic (also known as the DDR — ‘Deutsche Demokratische Republik’) was formed.

The political tensions in post-war Europe did not allow much interaction between the people of the two countries. The DDR exercised strong resistance against the repression of its political opponents. Thousands of people were kept under surveillance by the German police.

On September 4, 1989, a peaceful protest was carried out by the people of Leipzig against the DDR government. More such demonstrations in other DDR cities took place, calling for political reforms and the opening of the borders. On November 9 of that year, the checkpoints between the two German countries were opened, and people could travel freely once more. This date marked the ‘fall’ of the Berlin Wall.

Democratic elections further paved the way for the people to come together in the DDR. Finally, in August 1990, the leaders of both countries signed the Treaty of Unification, and Germany’s unification was made official on October 3, 1990. The Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate are two significant symbols of Germany’s division and its subsequent unification in 1990. Images of both are put on display on German Unity Day throughout Germany. The day is celebrated as a three-day festival around the Brandenburg Gate and at the Reichstag around Platz der Republik.

: https://nationaltoday.com/national-unity-day/