A Brief History Lesson before you Walk the Berlin Wall!
A brief history lesson never hurts, especially when you are planning to walk the Berlin Wall. You don’t need much help to choose trendy hotels in Berlin. There are plenty of options and a quick search will get you enough resources to make an informed choice. But before you walk the Berlin Wall and have an experience of a lifetime, you should know a few things that you may or may not have known. The Berlin Wall came down on 9th November, 1989. The divide between East and West Germany ended forever. But what exactly happened on that night? Authorities in East Germany opened the border crossing for East Germans to head into West Germany, or from East Berlin to West Berlin. West Germany was a democracy while East Germany had a communist regime. As the border crossing opened, East Germans were jubilant. They climbed atop the walls and started dancing. Many started chipping at the wall with chisels and hammers. Eventually, it came down.
Was it planned? Of course not! Not many young people may know this but during an evening press conference on 9th November, 1989, a member of the politburo, G체nter Schabowski announced the easing of the travel norms and visas for East Germans. This policy was supposed to be announced the next day and would have still required the East Germans to go through a lengthy visa application process. But the confused messaging during the press conference lead the general public to believe that they can travel to West Berlin and thus West Germany without any restrictions and that they can do so immediately. This lead to many people gathering at the Wall, where all crossing were still closed. At Bornholmer Street checkpoint, the chief office Harald J채ger was trying to manage the crowd gathered and he was unsure of what his reaction should be. In a perplexed state, he opened the gate and subsequently the other gates opened as well. What has become etched as a moment of jubilation was actually due to an error, a mistake of the politburo member followed by a misjudgment of a chief officer guarding the gates at the wall.
There are many such snippets of history that are not discussed or talked about much. For instance, the Berlin Wall actually had two walls. As many as five thousand people have jumped over and gone under the Berlin Wall to escape and more than a hundred people have died in such attempts in as many years.
Source Link: http://worldtop7.com/uk/berlin/design-hotel/