Erecting the Berlin Wall: Breaking Connections

Figure 1.--Berlin was one of the largest cities in Europe. Not only did buildig Wall have to seoarate East and west Berlin, but also East Germny abd West Berlin. It meant that without warning, ties between family and friends were severed. Streets were closed. S-bahn services limited. Buildings were razed. A massive scar was created across the city. The idea was to create an impassible wide-open 'killing strips' along the Wall. This eventually made escape virtually impossible--although some flew over it. The Western side was ugly but beginn. here we see rthe early promitive construction. the east Side was a highly effective killing machine which the east Germans made more and more chillingly leathal over time.

The strip between the two halfs of Berlin began as a simple barbed wire strip and gradually grew into a concrete aad steel attrocity. The western side of the Wall was not particularly scary and was eventually civered with grafiti and art work. The business side of the wall was very different. Here there were tanks, soldiers with machine guns, snarling dogs, and the intimidating barrier ever erected. Here the Iron Curtain took on its most horific form. Streets were closed and ripped up. Railway and the S-Bahn links were broken. Stations of the U-Bahn were closed. Some lines were cut. Other lines were maintained, but the trainsit not stop at certain stations which became 'ghost stations'. Even cemeteries were cut in two. Telephone lines were cut. Buildings in the path of the Wall as the East Germans perfected it were razed. The idea was to create an impassible wide-open 'killing strips' along the Wall. This eventually made escape virtually impossible--although some managed to fly over it. Bright lights iluminated the Wall all night. Electrified fences increased the lethality. Soldiers manned 302 watchtowers along the wall. Military grade anti-personnel mines were added. Berliners who had family and friends in the other sector of Berlin were unable to visit or even communicate. Even people who lived across the street were cut off from each other. It would be 28 years before most famiiy and friends would see each other again. There was some one way travel. West Beliners could apply for occasional passes to visit family in East Berlin. East Berliners were stuck and could simply not leave. The Wall could not block everthing. The East Germans, must to their frustration, could not easily block radio and television broadcasts. One might think that thus propaganda got through. But the East Beliners like most East Germans could listen to uncensored news broadcasts. Some think that the most effective propaganda, however, was actually the lowly comnercials. Strange as it may seem, commercials may have been the most effective connections between East and West. East Berlin children grew up seeing all that was readily availble in the West. The visual appeal of TV adds werepromably the most impctful. Teens could see and hear rock-and-roll. A reader wrirtes, "Absolutely the radio and tv shows and especially the ads were instrumental in showing the East what life in the West was like. Pure propaganda at its best." Communists propagandists either had an answer for everything or they cut issues and persons out of books nd newspaers. The even explained Stalin's pact with Hitler and thgen siply forgot about it. What they could not explain was why all those Western goodies were not in the shops of the Communist worker pradises.

Created: 3:03 AM 1/27/2016
Last updated: 3:03 AM 1/27/2016