Fall of the Berlin Wall

Exactly twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall was opened and Germany was reunited about a year later. I remember reading about it in the newspapers of 1989, perhaps a bit too young to fully grasp the impact of this monumental event. For me, the wall had always been there.

Construction of the Wall started in 1961 and a decade later it had grown to 43 kilometers, completely surrounding West Berlin. During the Wall years, roughly 5000 people managed to escape, a tenth of them being police officers. Over 200 people were killed during escape attempts.

Summer by the wall, a long time ago.

Many years ago, I visited Checkpoint Charlie where there is a museum demonstrating ingenious methods of escape, conceived by desperate citizens. There are many books on the subject and I can recommend “It happened at the wall” by Rainer Hildebrandt which has a lot of interesting photographs.

At the wall along Zimmer strasse.

The German band Alphaville released their famous song Summer in Berlin about five years before the Wall fell. I try to think back on those times and understand what life was like in the city back then.

“It’s a summer in Berlin
The heat of the sun which is stored in the pavement feels so fine
That’s when you’re longing
For a summer by the wall”
— Alphaville, Summer in Berlin (1984)