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The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall (1 Viewer)

Where can you say: Yes

  • I was born before 13 August 1961

    Votes: 7 58.3%

  • I have followed the building of that wall in the news then

    Votes: 4 33.3%

  • I have followed the fall of that wall in 1989 in the news

    Votes: 9 75.0%

  • I was born after the year 1989

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I have seen that wall in reality

    Votes: 3 25.0%

  • I have crossed that wall in one or in both directions

    Votes: 1 8.3%

  • I have been interrogated by the East German border police

    Votes: 1 8.3%

  • the Wall was a good thing

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • the Wall was a bad thing

    Votes: 6 50.0%

  • I know nothing about the Wall

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    12
R

Rumpel

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3 out of 3 say:

I have followed the fall of that wall in 1989 in the news​

 


The Fall of the Wall
 
I was just turning 18 when that occurred..and still remember it...and the words that were said...the effects were probably more felt in Germany than here and it was more significant for them than for us....but it was enough for me that I do not think that walls are the answer to any of societies ills.
 
2 out of 4 say:

the Wall was a bad thing​

 
ClaraD said:
I was just turning 18 when that occurred..and still remember it...and the words that were said...the effects were probably more felt in Germany than here and it was more significant for them than for us....but it was enough for me that I do not think that walls are the answer to any of societies ills.
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Walls can very much be the solution, just not when they are built to help execute people leaving the country to “protect them from capitalism” by the way did Honecker ever go to prison for that?

germans are constantly reminded how evil they are for Hitler but all of the Communists who worked for the Stasi were basically allowed to get high ranking civil service jobs. The reunification should’ve included reconvening Nuremberg for the DDR regime and executing the lot of them.
 
I was 11 or 12 when it fell. Knew a bit about it even at that age. I’ve been to Berlin since, pretty cool city. There’s little bits of it left and things like Checkpoint Charlie are recreated as exhibits.
 

I have been interrogated by the East German border police - it's a little story ...​

 
Rumpel said:
He did - but not for long.
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Which just shows how the left has thoroughly penetrated institutions. The left never ceased trying to get Pinochet and now in Spain the socialists have passed a law which basically bans support for Franco or even telling the truth about leftist crimes which made the civil war necessary. But the international communists were able to get Honecker out of the country. They’ll find 99 year olds who maybe once guarded a prison camp in the 40s and prosecute them. Honecker got a plush retirement
 
I was in Berlin in 1958, my paternal grand-parents had a house in the Lichterfelde district. My parents and I drove from Karlsruhe to Berlin in 1960/61, for a visit. There was a check-point leaving West Germany and another upon entering Berlin. The East German authorities timed the passage and as an eight-year old, I had to pee. My father admonished me to hurry up as he thought the police would be coming to look for us.
We had relatives that were able to make the east-west crossing just before the wall was started. I returned for a visit during Christmas 1970 and pops rented me a VW Beetle. I drove along a large portion of the wall in the Berlin area. The west had built platforms so that Berliner’s could see and speak to friends and family trapped in the east. The DDR built the wall higher and the west built the platforms higher yet. The area in front of the Brandenburg Gate was ghost-like. We returned to Berlin in the early 2000s and the change was amazing.

I remember climbing one of the observation platforms and noting that the DDR has added broken glass to the mortar that was slathered on the top of the wall to inflict maximum pain on anyone attempting to cross.
 
In 1966 I was with a group of students on a visit to West Berlin.
We were British and French and Iranians and also a few Germans.
One day we went from West Berlin to East Berlin for a day.
We exchanged some money - each exactly 5 "Mark of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik" - as that currency was called.
When we returned, we were asked what we had done with the money by the East German border police.
I told them - but the sum of my spendings did not add up to 5 Mark exactly.
So I was escorted out of the queue by the East German border police and led to a special room for interrogation.
There the police were no longer much interested in those 5 Mark - they wanted to know everything about me, about my studies and everything - and why I had come to Berlin at all.
When they learned that I belonged to a group of British and French and Iranian students, their tone changed a bit and I was released.
The other students had waited for my release at the other side of the border.
A good thing!
 
Great stories guys. Cold War was mostly before my time but it’s a fascinating era of recent history. I’m a sucker for a spy novel or film set in divided Berlin.
 
That was why the Eastern Border Police was there:
To make live as difficult as possible for those evil Westerners ...
 
The Berlin Airlift is a cool story.
 


The Spy that came in from the Cold ...
 
Decypher said:
The Berlin Airlift is a cool story.
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There was a coal bunker in my grandmother’s house in Berlin. As a young child, it was a spooky place. The third floor was cordoned off, as there was bomb damage on the upper floor. As a child, I was fascinated by the bidet!
 


Parade of the People's Army
 


Another parade
 


Small wonder Honecker later fled to Chili ....
 
Rumpel said:
The Berlin Wall



en.wikipedia.org

Berlin Wall - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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I never made it to Berlin, but I was with the 11th ACR guarding the East German border between 1980-83. Fulda, Bad Hersfelt and Bad Kessingen. area. Interesting times. If the USSR and the Warsaw Pact were to invade West Germany, most thought they would come through the Fulda Gap, we were right there.
 
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