Yesterday I visited the (in)famous Berlin Wall with
Vivek Singh and Aparna. I had some constructed images of already widely
circulated wall of Berlin, but I was wondering to see the only left 2 KMs of
the infamous 155 KM long wall. The tempestuous German people did not desire to
see the wall at all, so when they got a chance to spifflicate it, they remorselessly
did it. Now I am giving you some historical background of the wall, and later
will write the art works and what they really meant. Again I will drop a line
about two books which I read to know the history of the Berlin wall. Still I
hope my writing will never feel you, readers, bored if I write so lengthily.
And if you really feel so, then think a moment about the people who were
separated each other from their beloved country for years.
Think, the wall was such a long long one! It had been concreted into 155 KM and
the East German Government was solidifying it day by day, yet the longing of
the people to re-unite its hereditary and friendship smashed the wall
completely within moments! That’s amazing and astounding me. We can’t pick up more
examples like this from the history to acknowledge the people’s wrath against
the government. Now the wall is seen very rare places. Still I can’t believe
the intensity of the people to crush the year long slavery of the Wall of
Shame. We asked everyone about the leftovers of the wall, and knew that east
side gallery was the lone remnants of the wall. There are some other places
also but there, only a very few parts of the wall preserved.
The first brisk was put to build the Wall of Shame
in a rainy morning of August 13, 1961. It was after all a ‘13th’ day this wall
started to be constructed. Why was the wall constructed? It was to check the
own people to migrate from GDR (German Democratic Republic) to the western part
of the Germany. (but both places were actually shared among four countries!,
USSR, America, Britain and France!). People suffered even if they were in east
or west Germany. So Berlin became a focal point to express the power of both
the communists and the capitalists! Both were waging war in expense of the German
people. Berlin's unique situation as a city half-controlled by Western forces,
in the middle of the Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany, made it a focal point
for tensions between the Allies and the Soviets and a place where conflicting
ideologies were enforced side-by-side. The Berlin Wall was the physical
division between West Berlin and East Germany. However, it was also the
symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War.
When Soviet Union realized that the people were in
great numbers migrating to capitalist West side, the idea of a wall evolved. It
was not a rumour, Soviet actually wanted to block the people, so the wall
became soon a reality. Soviet was so powerful they blocked the eastern part
from western part within 24 hours! First they put up a huge barricade to preclude
the movement. Before people realized what was actually going on, the wall was reared.
In the beginning, the Soviet justified the wall that the barricade had been
raised as an ‘anti-fascist protection wall’, and that they had moved to prevent
a third world war. The version of the ‘Wall’ that started
life in 1961 was in fact not a wall but a 96 miles barbed wire fence. However,
after this incarnation proved too easy to scale, work started in 1962 on a
second fence, parallel to the first but up to 100 yards further in. The area in
between the two fences was demolished to create an empty space, which became
widely known as "death strip" as it was here that many would-be
escapers met their doom. The strip was covered with raked gravel, making it
easy to spot footprints, it offered no cover, was mined and booby-trapped with
tripwires and, most importantly, it offered a
clear field of fire to the armed guards – who were instructed to shoot on
sight.
In every stages of the constructing the wall, the
people’s endless spirit to escape jumping over the wall compelled them to find
out different survival methods! Some dared to face the mines, bullets, trench
in between the wall and all other calamities. Even the 80+ old-citizens tried
to escape only to get a six feet space to be buried in a free land. Women experimented
themselves by jumping from high-roofed building near to the wall and the relatives
from the other side caught her! Some families escaped making huge hydrogen balloon
and some making small holes under the wall! But hundreds of people had their
last breath in between the east and west of the country! As Communism began to falter in Poland,
Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in 1988 and 1989, new exodus points were opened to
East Germans who wanted to flee to the West. Then suddenly, on the evening of
November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official
Günter Schabowski stated, "Permanent relocations can be done through all
border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany)
or West Berlin."
People were in shock. Were the borders really open?
East Germans tentatively approached the border and indeed found that the border
guards were letting people cross. Very quickly, the Berlin Wall was inundated
with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the Berlin Wall with
hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration along the Berlin
Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying.
The Berlin Wall was eventually chipped away, into
smaller pieces (some the size of a coin and others in big slabs). The pieces
have become collectibles and are stored in both homes and museums.
After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West
Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990.Anyhow after
the cold war ended, the gates of the wall was ready to open, but the people
instead crushed it down in 1989. So the wall which stood as a Chinese wall in
between August 13, 1961 -- November 9, 1989 found its own inevitable desitiny
at last.
Two books on Berlin wall
After visiting the wall, I had a strong intense to
read the history of Berlin wall, I searched and searched, but found only a very
less books written about the wall. There
are books, but those are about to publish, may be because of the event was so
recent. Anyhow I managed to get two books, one is in German language and the
other is in English.
Was Fur Ein Jahr! Deutschland 1990
This book is a pictorial representations what happened
in German in 1990 the year after the Berlin wall. The arrangements of pages are
very seminal. The first page shows the people destroying the wall, the symbolic
fence to separate the people. Again the following page is shown the German
football team who won the 1990 world cup championship. The two pictures
directly speak the intention of the people, from separation to the re-joining
and the win over the world. They defeated all most all the European and Latin
American powers to get the cup. Again the next page is about their economy, a
man very proudly raises the German currency, Mark. Only after these pictures,
the author of the book considers the political leaders to be shown in the
pages. Next picture is some political leaders (really, I could not distinguish
who they are!). The people are the king basically, so the book focuses on the
tears and joy of the mass. This book is not an important book, anyhow it tells
the past history of a country through pictures.
The Berlin Wall
This is an old book written by Deane and David
Heller. The book actually was written in 1962 just after the wall started to be
a reality in the country. On the book,
there is a seal of US Army of occupied West German, so it is clear it was a
prescribed book for the soldiers and officials. The book is written like a
diary and it anecdotes the day by day incidents in very details. I read the
book only to feel the people’s sufferings and their saga of struggle to get rid
of the fence. The author is anyway so biased in writing the history. But I felt
the screaming and paining of the thousands of masses in each pages. The book is
written in 1962, and the very first page there is a prophetic word of Kennady
about the demolition of the ‘wall of shame’
‘What is unnatural will not endure. Thats why one
day the wall in Berlin will come down’
The portrayal of Khruschchv and Kennady is very
different. Both were talking the same language of war, threatening, nuclear
bomb, world war 3, but David Heller compares Khrushchv with Hitler and the
Eastern German with the concentration camp, and Kennady’s talk as a polite,
gentle and needy. Ok, I write two lines of the portrayals of Kennady and
Khrushchv in the book.
“The president Kennady called upon the United States
to take steps to prepare for a possible war. ‘ We do not want to fight, he said
in a voice tense with emotion, but we have fought before, it would be a mistake
for others to look upon Berlin, because of its location, as a tempting
target. Modern warfare, the president
warned, ‘could rain more destruction in several hours than in all the wars in
human history. The last remarks made a profound impression. Not since the
Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbour had the Americans people been so angry and
so united as on the Berlin Crises. 82% of the people agreed with President
Kennady on Berlin.
In Mosco, in his arm waving tirade, Khrushchev
shouted that, ‘Hundreds of millions would die in a nuclear war. Two other items
in his long outburst deserve note. He concluded with a defiant threat and a
macabre prediction of war.
From third chapter it describes the suffering of the
people and their attempts to escape from their own land in searching of
prosperity. An eighty two year old man escapes the wall after a tremendous attempt
only to get a free air to be buried! A lady jumped from the 5th floor to escape
and her relatives on the ground spread their arms to hold her. All are attempts
to escape; people thought death is better than caged. The book gives a sober
description of the sufferings of the people. So its worth reading and I am
sure, after reading you can’t control your tears to fall down in thinking of
the ill-fated people.
Next Post: East Side Gallery
Next Post: East Side Gallery
