Kaiserslautern American
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STATE OF THE ART: by Gina Hutchins-Inman 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs State of the Art is a series introducing Germany as a whole, but also highlighting an individual state or “Bundesland” every month. This month we’ll end our tour in the capital of Berlin with its Federal Parliament in the Reichstag and adjacent government facilities. Berliners have always been accustomed to constant turns of the tide in environment and atmosphere and developed remarkable resilience, making it a unique metropolis worldwide. Resilience par excellence After having experienced an upswing in the early 1900s, roaring 1920s with innovations and a flair of “free and easy” living, the 1930s became a dramatic challenge. Living through war and finding themselves in a destructed and divided city, surviving a blockade and an airlift in the 1940s, the heroic “Trümmerfrauen“ (rubble women) of Berlin rolled up their sleeves and literally got their hands dirty clearing the debris. After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, both in 1949, East Berliners were challenged with living in a new Socialist governed country, while West Berliners found themselves geographically separated from the rest of the nation. The 1950s
November 10, 2023
Berlin
brought about both an economic boom in the West as well as protest and bloody retaliation from the East German and Soviet regime. By August 1961, West Berliners were forced to accept the fact that they were being enclosed by a 3-meter (9 foot) concrete wall, despite denial of the East German government of intending to build one. A dramatic Sunday in August The news Aug. 13, 1961, that a wall was being erected and West Berlin was being blocked off spread like a wildfire and led to indescribable chaos and frantic scenes. East Berliners that lived in buildings along the sector line jumped out of windows before they were bricked up, others grabbed a few belongings and scrambled to the nearest subway tunnels leading to the West. Some were courageous and tried to dodge armed border guards while jumping over barricades, while a small number managed to cut the barbed wire in Ebert Strasse and were able to flee. Eight-hundred refugees, who had managed to find a “mouse hole” to flee, were recorded at the center in West Berlin that very afternoon. Later a few wealthier were able to “buy their way out,” and a large group of people swam through Teltow Canal to reach the West Aug. 14 and 15, while a number of East German guards also deserted. According to official records, at least 50 individuals lost their lives in the first few days. But by now, the situation was literally set in stone, or in concrete better to say.
Part of the Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer) in the Tiergarten district of Berlin, Oct. 1988.
The news also hit like a bomb in the Federal Republic and around the world where most countries condemned the hermetic seal around West Berlin but remained in a dormant state of action. The East German government claimed that the wall was meant to keep out the fascists of the West and secure the safety of East Germans. On Dec. 1, the joint British, French and U.S. troops in Berlin were restructured and the Berlin Command was renamed U.S. Army Brigade Berlin with several installations and housing areas throughout the Western sector. The Armed Forces Network radio station had started broadcasting in 1945 and the U.S. Embassy remained in the Soviet sector with access via Checkpoint Charlie in Friedrich Strasse. Ich bin ein Berliner As time went on and additional concrete blocks were erected around West Berlin and along the inner German border, hundreds of East Germans attempted to flee in dramatic incidents and a party of four managed to bike over the frozen Baltic Sea and partially swim to freedom to a Danish Island in Dec. 1962. In the summer of 1963 President John F. Kennedy visited the divided city and expressed his solidarity with Berliners. In his famous speech in front of the City Hall in Schöneberg he boldly declared, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” Over the next few years the wall grew to reach a total length of 155 kilometers (96 miles), the gateways between the columns
Photo by 360b/Shutterstock.com
at Brandenburger Tor were also bricked up and the wall ran left and right of the gate. The East German government had reconstructed the Quadriga and reassembled it, this time with the rear of the horses facing the West. The subway route was both in the East and West, but after construction of the wall three lines started and ended in the West. The stations Stadtmitte, Nordbahnhof, Potsdamer Platz, Bernauer Strasse and Heinrich-Heine-Strasse lying in the East were closed and gradually turned into ghost stations, to prevent East Berliners from using these points as escape routes, while trains would slowly traverse West to West without stopping. Originally a single row of concrete blocks, over time the structure was fortified with a parallel wall in some areas with a 100-meter space in between called the “death strip.” According to official records 101 persons were killed in attempts to overcome the border wall, while the number of individuals who attempted to flee, but were stopped and sent to prison is undetermined. Peace movement in the Sixties Both East and West Berliners gradually became accustomed to the new situation and made the best of their lives. Beatlemania and rock music swept over the western world, while the East German film industry experienced a renaissance. The overall Peace movement and the Hippie era also shed its colorful and crazy light on West Berlin. Due to its special status,
Berliners were exempt from the West German conscription and that brought many a draft dodger from elsewhere to the city. Overall, West Berlin again flourished with a lively music scene, drugs and rock ‘n roll and the city became well known for its “free and easy” spirit. Starting radio broadcast in 1945, AFN television aired its first show April 17, 1967. On the other side of the wall, space was getting tight and new gray panel housing, consisting of large apartment blocks, sprung up with the government promising housing for all. The new radio tower at Alexanderplatz was opened 1969 and the area developed into East Berlin’s city center offering a state-run department store with a limited selection of goods and dim restaurants along the subway station. Swinging Seventies Berlin’s liberal lifestyle without any bar closing times at night, a colorful music and art scene and recreational areas such as Tierpark (a large park near Brandenburger Tor) and Wannsee beaches became popular places to spend leisure time. West Berlin was much larger in size than the Eastern section and thus, West Berliners didn’t necessarily feel cramped up. A type of sub-culture developed in the city, which also brought drug problems and related crime, in particular the area around Bahnhof Zoo, West Berlin’s central train station. In March 1970, Federal
