The Nature Of The Berlin Wall

[Richard]

This weekend marks the 50th Anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall on 13 Aug 1961.

And so it goes...

Richard :munchin

One bright Sunday morning in 1961, a young officer of the German Democratic Republic put on a pair of walking boots. He packed his map, a bucket of white paint, and a paintbrush and headed toward the center of Berlin. Hagen Koch’s path began at the junction of Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse, and a crowd soon gathered there to watch him. He took out his can of white paint and the paintbrush, dipped the brush into the can of paint, and began a line on the cobbles.

Hagen Koch was drawing a new meridian, a new equator, a new edge of the world, at which one ideological, political, economic, social, historical system came to an end and another began. The line he had painted was the line of the Berlin Wall.

(cont'd)

http://www.commandposts.com/2011/08/the-nature-of-the-berlin-wall/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+commandposts+%28Command+Posts %29&utm_content=Twitter

[mojaveman]

I have a small piece of the Berlin Wall sitting on my bookcase. Parts of the Wall are actually being reconstructed in certian areas of the city to try and bring in tourist dollars. Was able to visit Checkpoint Charlie and also the museum a few years ago. If you're ever in Berlin it's worth a visit.

[Badger52]

So many memories, on both sides of that wall... thanks for putting that up, Richard.

Geography lesson for grandkids (and some others):
The 'island' of Berlin was 110 miles inside East Germany, itself walled off from the west from the Baltic to Czechoslovakia.

Remembrance should stand always as a reminder of what evil is capable of, especially when coupled with institutional paranoia.

[f50lrrp]

Thanks for the post Richard!

In 1961, I was a dependent attending Bad Kreuznach AHS and on the football team. We were to play Berlin AHS in Berlin on a Friday night so we all took the Duty Train from the Frankfort HBF on Wednesday night because the Russians wouldn’t allow it to travel through the DDR during daylight hours. We were stopped at Helmstadt for three hours while the Russians and the VOPOs circled the train in two man teams. We were told by the train commander (a lLT) not to open the windows and not to communicate with the “enemy”.
Of course, we ignored his “orders” and I traded a Playboy magazine with a Russian Private for his hat badge. The two Russians would stop and chat with us until the two East Germans came into view and they would then walk off. Naturally the two East German s would talk to us until the two Russians came into view.
We were quartered at the barracks that had the swimming pool from the ’36 Olympics and we spent every available moment in the pool. On Sunday, after getting beat by Berlin AHS, We toured East Berlin. We were shown the WWII Russian Memorial were thousands of Russian soldiers are buried and stopped at the newly built wall. Several of the team walked over to the wall and kicked pieces of it out for keepsakes.

Mike

[Geenie]

Mike,

what a great anecdote. Thanks for sharing!

[ObliqueApproach]

I was fortunate to be assigned in Berlin when The Wall fell. We were out training when my OPS Sgt came in, woke me up, and told me the wall had come down. I told him to stop BSing me and let me go back to sleep. Needless to say, he was right!

An interesting aside, my mother-in-law was a DODs teacher at Panzer and was in the "Corridor" on the way to see us when it all happened. What is normally a 2 hour transit, took her 10 hours as all the East Germans were flooding onto the autobahn to come into West Berlin through CP Bavo. SHe had no idea what was going on as she had no comms back then. She just followed the flow until she came through CP Bravo and the MPs let her know what to do.

It all became real when my wife and I were walking along The Wall and peeked through a large hole in it looking into the "no-man's land" on the other side. There were kids skate-boarding on the patrol road and playing in the guard towers. That was when we knew the "Cold War" was over.

BG Sidney Shacknow had just taken over as the CG. It was a very interesting time.

[CloseDanger]

From World Tribune (http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/eu_germany1015_08_12.asp)...

"From the side streets their workers’ militia had their guns trained on the protesters. Local hospitals cancelled the leaves of their medical staffs. Ample amounts of coffins and body bags had been brought into town. A concentration camp had been set up in Markkleeberg, south of Leipzig. "


I also was there when it fell. Have a good solid piece with graffiti on it. Biggest problem were the little cars they were driving in across into West Germany. They were tiny and very slow and our convoys would run up on them on sharp turns on the tiny roads in the mountains. A HEMMIT would flatten one of those. Fun times.

[Richard]

In 1976 our ODA was 'actively monitoring' the newly created porous sections of open border between the FRG and the DDR to the East of Bad Hersfeld during the border's reconstruction with no idea the IGB would ever fall during our lifetimes.

In 1989 I was finishing grad school enroute to a FAO assignment at the AmEmbassy-Bonn when the Wall came down. I arrived in Bonn in January 1990 and that summer, between monetary unification in July and full unification in October, I met with the Green Party leader in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament in Stuttgart. He had been actively engaged in the growing protest movement in the DDR in 1989 to ease the IGB restrictions and was in Leipzig for a planning session that November when the DDR Parliament was in session to discuss the lessening of the travel restrictions. They made plans to continue the newly begun protests (similar to those which had been on-going in Poland and Hungary) with the intent to allow the freedom of movement for visitation between the DDR and the FRG, and he was returning to Stuttgart when the wholly unexpected or anticipated actions of the people seeking to remove the Wall came about. He said their best estimate was that such actions would not come about for many years.

He said the DDR Parliament had met to discuss the matter and had agreed to allow such a lessening pending further discussion of 'future' economic or social union. They then left Berlin for a relaxing weekend at their various personal coastal retreats and were effectively 'out of touch' with their government agencies when the crowds which had gathered awaiting the decision were briefed by a spokesman that freer IGB travel was going to be permitted. The question asked was "When?"...and the spokesman couldn't say as there had been no decision on that issue. Being unable to contact anyone with the appropriate level of decision-making ability to answer the question and facing a growing crowd of increasingly restless people, the spokesman made a statement to the effect of the change being immediate and the crowds turned towards the Wall.

The VoPo was formed and awaiting instructions on what to do - but there were no functionaries available to give them orders, so they remained in the shadows and did nothing.

By the time the Krenz government sought to respond to the situation, it was too late to turn it back and the rest is in the History books.

Those were some very interesting times for us - as was the support of Desert Shield by Vll Corps (+) and NATO which had begun that August and was nearing its height during the unification period that Fall while we were still facing a major occupation force by the Soviet GFG in the former DDR which had become the newly recognized Eastern states of the FRG.

And so it goes...

Richard :munchin

[f50lrrp]

By coincidense, my Dad was stationed in Mannheim at Coleman Barracks with the 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry when they were alerted to test US access to Berlin by Autobahn.

The entire Battle Group was issued ammo and departed for Berlin under their CO, Colonel Grover S. Johns, Jr. They had a West Point Cadet named McCloud along as an acting PL.

They were ordered to only speak to Russian Soldiers and to ignore any commands from the DDR soldiers or officers. When they had completed their mission and returned to Coleman Barracks, they were all awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, including McCloud!

Mike

[Monsoon65]

In 2008, my wife had to take a business trip to Europe and I was lucky enough to be able to tag along, especially since one of the audits she did was in Berlin.

We stayed at a hotel in Adlershof in the eastern section of Berlin. It was really strange; that area still looked sort of like it did before the Wall came down. It had that "Communist Berlin" feel to it all.

I did a great walking tour thru West and East Berlin, and my wife said that the lab managers took her to the roof and pointed out where the Wall was, and told her about the night it came down. Sounds like it was pretty wild.

A pilot in my squadron was 16, and was watching it all on TV with his dad. They thought it was cool and on the spur of the moment, took a hop into Berlin and partied.

[Ret10Echo]

Spent time in the city with 42nd Engineers, later 6/40th Armor...post wall-fall but pre-unification. Amazing city and actually biked the "Death strip" during our time there. I have some lace curtains and coffee cups from a DDR checkpoint somewhere around here...the guards just wandered off one day :D

Bags of wall pieces still in the garage...

[Surf n Turf]

Thanks for posting Richard
I was working in Berlin when the wall went up.
Very interesting times. I stuck around until 63-64.

680 feet west of the Brandenberg Gate at the intersection of Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse. – Checkpoint Charlie

Remember the RACY club – but that’s another story. ;)

SnT

[mojaveman]

Remember the RACY club – but that’s another story. ;) SnT

How about the Oranienburgerstrasse? :p :D

[ddoering]

I worked at USMLM 89-91. I transitted back from the DDR into West Berlin the night the wall came down. I had been travelling in the DDR for the three days prior and was amazed at the easties lined up at the Glenicke Bridge that night. I got back to the mission house, eported in and a bunch of us changed into civves and went down to watch the show by the Brandenburg gate.

[greenberetTFS]

In Dec of 1961,I was getting discharged from the 10th SF Grp. in Bad Tolz,heading home on a ship (USS Rose)to NY.........:D I believe the Wall was just getting started........... :eek: It's hard to believe it's been so long ago(50 years)...........:rolleyes:

Big Teddy :munchin

[Dusty]

That's an important statement, Richard.

I spent a lot of time thinking about that wall.

[Surf n Turf]

How about the Oranienburgerstrasse? :p :D

Oh to be 20 again :D
SnT