A country infected by years of repression of communism and a crumbled democracy after losing two “world wars” in the span of 25 years. A wall as long as 100 miles, its only purpose to prevent the exodus of the skilled people from the east side to the west side at the sake of their freedom. How long could the wall stand robust?
This 11/9 (not 9/11) represents the 20th anniversary of that shiny day in history that culminated the long-awaited hope of Germans to bring down the wall. No longer was there an East and West Germany, and Berliners from both sides were reunited. On Nov. 9, 1989, hours before midnight, the mob on the east side stormed the border crossing called “Checkpoint Charlie” in Berlin, yelling out to the border guards: “Open up.” The crowd on the West answered “Come over, come over!” The gates eventually swung open, and many German clambered atop the Berlin Wall and yelled “Die Mauer ist Weg!” (the Wall is gone).
For 28 years, the wall built by the Eastern Communistic Germany prevented people from crossing the border between East and West Berlin. Tanks and uniformed soldiers guarded the border. Soldiers were given orders to shoot those spotted crossing the border. While the Western Allied Powers (the U.S., Great Britain and France) occupied West Germany in the cloak of democracy, the trampled East was ruled by fanatic advocates of communism. People’s voices were unheard, and East Germans were banned to travel beyond the Iron Curtain, a physical and ideological boundary that kept Europe divided from the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War. Those longing to escape to the West tried going from neighboring Hungary or Czechoslovakia and from there over the mountains to West Germany. One-hundred-ninety two people lost their lives while trying to escape to the West between 1961 and 1989.
Germany had been locked behind the Iron Curtain since the early 1960s. One of the hardest-hit areas in Europe, Germany had both the threat of a second Great Depression and, on the other, the rise of communism. The Western Allies’ Marshall Plan was committed to rebuild Europe as soon as possible, but Communist Soviet Union had other intentions in mind. The barbed wires that merely shone as the demarcation of the East and the West were changed into huge concrete walls overnight while the Berliners were sleeping in 1961. East Berliners found themselves as prisoners in their own country. The border was sealed and the makeshift barbed-wire barrier was transformed into the Berlin Wall. Walter Ulbricht, the communist party leader, thought it was the solution to losing skilled people from the East to the West. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, who had wooed new Third World states to embrace communism and spoke to recognizing the two German states, stood up and ordered Bauen Sie die Mauer, “Build the wall!” Death Strip, a no-man’s land was soon created.
The demarcation not just divided the Berliners and the Germans, but also aggravated Cold War tensions. At one point, world leaders feared a nuclear war. The 1963 Berlin speech of U.S. President John F. Kennedy fell on deaf ears. But in 1987, President Reagen’s call to “Bring down this wall!” prompted Soviet Union Prime Minister Mikael Gorbachev to show signs of willingness to tear down the wall. Then on Nov. 9, 1989, the Checkpoint Charlie border guards shrugged and threw open the gates on that freezing night.
Today, no line remains to show the border. Where the barbed wires, watchtowers and the wall showed their grim faces, the skyscrapers smile at the sky to tell about the glorious years Germany has come to. At present, just two kilometers of the wall remain of the 43 kilometers that once ran through the center of Berlin. However, the people who saw the wall fall often will sing “Wind of Change” — just as they sang for the world 20 years ago. Freiheit!
Rajendra believes a wind of change comes every now and often.
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