An intersection also of the post-war, cold-war world, since the erection of the Wall, first with barbed wire and then with a 2-meter-high torn concrete border, sealed the separation of Berlin in two, thus symbolizing the isolation of the Eastern Bloc under the Soviet influence from the West.
DW Dimitra Kyranoudis, Berlin
Memorial Day today in Berlin and throughout Germany.
On this day 62 years ago, on the night of August 12-13, 1961, the construction of the Berlin Wall began, following a decision by the Volkskammer, East Germany’s parliamentary body, marking a turning point in post-war German history.
An intersection also of the post-war, cold-war world, since the erection of the Wall, first with barbed wire and then with a 2-meter-high torn concrete border, sealed the separation of Berlin in two, thus symbolizing the isolation of the Eastern Bloc under the Soviet influence from the West.
With a death lane accompanying the inaccessible Wall and immediate repression by the border guards who were on constant vigil under powerful searchlights, it became virtually impossible for citizens to pass freely to the other side.
Flowers in memory of the victims of the Wall on the historic Bernauer Strasse in the heart of Berlin, a memorial service at the Reconciliation Church, a memorial service in Zimmerstrasse for 18-year-old Peter Fechter who was murdered in cold blood while trying to escape from East German border guards in August 1962, one year right after the Wall was built.
These are just some of Sunday’s commemorations in the German capital and other German cities along the former East and West German internal borders.
Already yesterday, Chancellor Olaf Solz met with marathon runners participating in the symbolic peace marathon along a long route, approximately 161 kilometers long, parallel to the tracks of the Berlin Wall. And the neighboring state of Brandenburg honors the Wall dead in the Telto Canal as well as the Glinker Bridge.
For his part, the leftist Prime Minister of Thuringia, a former East German state, Bodo Ramelof said on Sunday morning that the Wall had “torn apart families and friendships, uprooted people from their places and caused unimaginable suffering”.
As he said: “Our thoughts today are with all those who sought freedom but ended up being spied on, persecuted and imprisoned.”
According to official figures, from the day the Berlin Wall was erected until the Fall of the Wall on November 9, 1989, at least 140 people lost their lives trying to cross from East to West Berlin. The total number of victims who tried to escape from communist East Germany to the West in the 28 years of the Wall’s “life” is estimated at over 600.
German reunification was many decades late, on October 3, 1990.
Source :Skai
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