The Berlin Wall, Berlin - Germany Travel Guide
The Berlin Wall, Berlin - Germany Travel Guide
A glimpse into the history and impact of Berlin's Wall.
Just a couple of years ago, this here was the no-man's land between East and West. Nowadays, it is hard to tell where the Wall was standing originally. But, when you take a close look on the ground, you can sometimes find those lines, those brick-walled lines,that indicate where the Wall was.
We are now at the memorial site in the Bernauer Strasse with an original piece of the Wall around the corner, and this reminds us of the construction of the Wall in 1961, and the division of the city until 1989. So, I am looking to the other side now. this here is an art piece, It gives you an impression of how it was like to be divided. Because the Wall did not only separate a city, and a country, it also separated families from other families, neighbors, friends. And some people say although the Wall is not here anymore today, still there is the Wall in some people's minds.
So, all along the Wall you could find viewing points where western tourists could take a look at the east. And, just like this place where we are standing right now, so, I imagine those tourists taking pictures for their photo albums, eye-in-eye with those soldiers in the East that would make sure that no one from the East would join them.
I am taking a look at Kreutspach [sp?] right now, which is the West while we are in the East in Friedelsheim and this is the East Side Gallery, a long strip of Wall which is still here, and right after the revolution of the November 9, 1989. They had it painted, by artists, on both sides of the Wall.
Of course, even in the free world, it was not allowed to spray paint graffiti on the walls. But the two meters in front of the Wall did not really belong to the Bundesrepublik anymore, to the Federal Republic, they were a kind of no-man's land, a free-for-all zone. Which meant, that the people could just sneak here, spray paint their stuff on the Wall, and then jump back to the Federal Republic.
You have to be reminded that the Wall used to be a symbol of separation, of hatred, of misunderstandings between two sides. And now, it is back bang in the center. It is still here, but it is a gallery, it is a place where people meet, where they go out, where they cannot tell the difference between east and west anymore. Because, it does not matter. I am Dorthe Eickelberg, showing you Berlin.