Berlin Wall Facts & Fun!

-- Berlin Wall Facts --

Do you want to see the site of a major part in our world history?

As much as we tend to complain about our modern world, at least, in most cases, we have a choice in where we travel, especially in our own country! That’s not always been the case though, and the story of the Berlin wall is one of the best examples.

Standing at the Foot of the Wall

Although the wall that divided East and West Berlin, and in fact, the East and West of Europe, was largely torn down, the Brandenburg Gate, near what was once Checkpoint Charlie, still stands, and it’s possible to stand at the foot of the wall, and imagine what it must have been like to be separated from family and friends by this ugly concrete monstrosity.

It makes you very grateful, in spite of everything, to live in a time when something like this would be a matter of global outcry, rather than calmly accepted, as the building of the wall was way back in 1961. Then again, every “improvement” to the wall went ahead as planned too – taking the wall from a barbed wire fence, which it first was, to a solid concrete barrier.

-- Berlin Wall Facts --

Remembering the Fall

If you, like me, were born in the latter half of the twentieth century, you’ll probably have a vague memory of the fall of the wall in 1989. You might remember seeing ordinary East Berliners taking sledgehammers to this symbol of segregation. You might remember the bulldozers that followed them. This was one of the events that changed the world as we know it, and certainly changed the face of modern day Europe.

Just standing there, looking at the wall, and how huge and incredibly imposing it must have been intact, is scary. The power of governments over our lives is huge, and if we don’t actively oppose this kind of thing, it could all happen again.

-- Berlin Wall Facts --

Remembering the Fallen

There are conflicting reports of deaths relating to attempts to scale the wall. Some put the figure as low as eighty, while others say that more than two hundred people lost their lives. Whichever it was though, it was too many. One would have been one too many. Try to imagine trying to scale the wall so that you could be with your family. Then being shot for your efforts.

Despite the doom and gloom that surrounds the history of the wall, designed, as it was, to separate families, husbands and wives, parents and children, and an entire nation, it does make you very grateful to be able to see your own family whenever you like. To know that you can pick up the phone and call them, or get in your car to drive out to see them.

In fact, standing at the base of the Berlin Wall, at Brandenburg gate, is likely to make you, like me, eager to get home, so that you can see all the people who mean so much to you.

-- Berlin Wall Facts --

Return from Berlin Wall Facts to Romantic Ideas