Divided We Stand, the Story of the Berlin Wall

December 11, 2009

Divided We Stand, the Story of the Berlin Wall

Ellen Asiedu

Berlin. The story of a city—that housed a wall–that divided a country.
The story begins after the end of the Second World War, Germany was split into two regions: West Germany, which was ruled and supported by the Americans, the British and the French, and East Germany, governed by the Soviets. The West thrived with the help of the Americans while the East struggled with Communism. For twenty-eight years Berlin was a city with boundaries as clear as the 11 foot concrete-built, barbed wire-enforced wall that separated aunts from uncles, relative freedom from oppression, and homes from places of work. Guards patrolled the wall day and night, ready to shoot anyone who was trying to escape the to western side. Built in August 1961 to prevent East Germans from migrating to West Germany where there were better jobs and a higher standard of living, the Berlin Wall was an impassable roadblock in the minds and realities of East Germans. Between one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and ninety-two Germans were killed trying to escape in the years following the construction of the wall.
Fast forward to November 9, 1989, where at a news conference, top East German official Gunter Schabowski mistakenly reports that free, state-supervised travel to the West would be allowed immediately. Border guards at the wall may have been confused as to why the travel ban was lifted, but nonetheless threw open the border gates. It was a beautiful mistake in the eyes of East Germans who flooded the wall, tearing it down with absolute fervour. People chipped and smashed away at the wall, eager to take down the barrier that stood between them and a better life.
A historic moment? Damn straight.
United perhaps, but not everybody is content. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many East Germans are unhappy with the way things have turned out. They reminisce about a time when Communism made sure nobody had anything more than the next person and that there was food for all. This might be true, and like any situation, there are the positive aspects and the negative aspects. But in the end, the upsides–the fall of Communism, the unification of a city, the tearing down of an oppressive symbol–outweigh the downsides, which is always a good thing.
As Mr. Nemerofsky, head of Mackenzie’s History Department put it, “It was a huge event, (and) it helped to form the beginnings of the EU (European Union).”

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