The tour didn't start until 2 so we slept in, ate breakfast, and made our way downtown. We picked up baguettes for lunch and got back to the Brandenburg Gate a bit early.
The tour was a very large group and was a bit disorganized. We were supposed to buy train tickets in advance (which we did of course), but many people didn't so we had to wait for them. We started late and ended late but otherwise the tour was great. We got to see a lot of cool stuff and learn a lot about the wall and the Cold War in Berlin.
This is about to be a serious history lesson- sorry in advance for the length. This topic is so fascinating to me.
We started at the Russian Federation Embassy, where the whole thing started.
In case you didn't know, after WW2 Germany was split up between the 4 allies- England, France, the US, and the Soviet Union. The capital, Berlin, was also divided even though it was inside the Soviet Union's part. To show who had power there, they erected this building against every building code and full of the hammer and sickle symbol.
They wanted to make it clear that it was their territory.
(For those of us who weren't alive when all of this happened.) The wall went up over night. The east Germany government rolled out barbed wire fence around all of West Berlin, creating an island in East Germany. No East Germans were allowed into this island, where the US, England, and France would give them awful things like passports and Levi jeans. Anyone, though, was allowed to move into the wonderful socialist east....
So the wall is up overnight. If you live across town from your mom, you can't go see her. If you left your kid at a friends house to go out, it will take you months to get them back if you ever even can.
So people start trying to escape right away. Train stations are cemented closed to prevent them being used a tunnels. Soldiers are set up near rivers. Things are added to the wall on the eastern side to keep people from escaping. A second wall is erected, and in between these two walls is the death strip.
Sure, now it's a nice lawn. But it used to be sand, nails, barbed wire, and towers with armed guards ordered to shoot to kill. Here's one of those towers that they preserved for the memorial.
I think it was around 160 who died trying to escape. There were some stories that were people just running and getting shot, or jumping out of windows next to the wall, or being discovered digging tunnels. Things you would expect. But there were some horribly sad stories of things you wouldn't think of. Like the mom who was hiding with her baby in a hidden compartment of a car and covered her babies crying mouth only to make it through the border check and find out she had accidentally suffocated him. Or the guy who ran for it but was shot right at the wall in the leg. So the westerners couldn't help him over the wall but the easterners wouldn't help him either for fear of having things thrown at them so close to the other side. So people in office buildings all around watched him bleed to death for 2 hours. Or the children struggling to swim in a border river and drowning because neither side would enter to save them. Just awful.
Another interesting thing is that a total of 6,500 did escape and 1,500 of them were socialist guards. When your police and soldiers are running, I think that's when you know the system doesn't work.
After 2 years of a complete blockade, East Germany started allowing Westerners to come over for 1 day to see their loved ones for the equivalent of €50. They came in and out through this building...
...Which came to be known as the palace of tears after so many emotional goodbyes.
They were checked thoroughly in these little stations to ensure that no Easterner was escaping and that Eastern goods and money stayed in the east.
Life for Easterners was a very paranoid existence. The Stasi (secret police) had an informant for every 6.5 people, so you really couldn't trust anyone. Their headquarters was in Berlin, on the right in this picture.
(The building on the left is very obvious- air conditioners=the US embassy. Haha!)
Many people gave up information because it made life easier. This is socialism, so everything is rationed- apartments, food, cars- so if you were reliable and gave up information you might get something faster (ie an apartment in 4 years instead of 6). And then if you were interviewed, meaning someone told the Stasi that you were saying you didn't like the government, they would let you off if you told on someone else. What a mess! Coworkers, best friends, brothers, husbands and wives all telling on each other in an attempt to better their situation.
So after the wall came down, there was a file in this building and others around East Germany on everyone. In 1991 they became public after much debate. The government thought it might come to bloodshed if people started finding out who got them in jail, tortured, etc. But you could see them if you wanted to, and many did. Names of informants were blacked out, but it was always easy to figure out who talked.
We heard one story that was described as "spectacular but actually not that uncommon" where a female activist, who had been against socialism and put in jail for it a couple times, got her file. Tons of personal stuff was listed from the previous 12 years. Stuff that only her husband knew. And there it was- an assignment. Her husband had been assigned to meet her, get her to fall in love with him, marry her, and spy on her. Yea... They got divorced.
So it was a paranoid life and a completely closed in life, but it wasn't all bad. No unemployment. No homeless. No uninsured, no starving, no uneducated. No wealthy, but also no poor. Katja grew up here, so of course I asked her, and she confirmed it. She didn't feel like she missed out on much. She had an ok childhood.
So as I told you, the wall did come down in 1989. This was the biggest party Berlin has ever seen. I liked this statue about it on display at the death strip memorial.
There are still pieces of the wall up in parts of the city. That one we saw on our free tour was a tiny piece. The memorial is the largest piece left and is really interesting to see. And then there's the Eastside Gallery, where we ended the tour. This is a long strip of wall next to a river. Famous artists were brought in to paint sections of it on one side. It is very cool.
But on the other side is the most important thing we saw all day. They have posted pictures of existing walls all over the world. Walls that still stand today in 2013.
The middle picture is Iraq. The picture on the left is Israel. And the picture on the right is the good old US of A.
Yep, you wouldn't think of it but we have our very own wall up. Right there at the Mexican border. Sure, we think of it as a good thing. People can still enter our country, we think. They just need a passport. And a work visa. And a good excuse. And some money. We justify it. I did it when I first saw the caption. "Yea but that's different."
But we put up that wall through villages, between families, and guarded with guns. We may not be socialists, but we have a wall.
Kinda makes you think.
So after the tour we were exhausted. We went back to the apartment, took showers, and headed to Katja's for dinner, which was awesome!!! Another great home cooked meal, plus drinks and easy conversation. We were there until about 11, so we didn't watch a movie. Just went to sleep to get up and prepare to go to Prague.
This morning we got up, took showers, cleaned the apartment, packed, and grabbed a croissant before heading to the train station.
So that was Berlin. I loved it. It was the first city that I really wantedo know more about the history. It was truly amazing and really very beautiful. It was very English friendly and green with lots of trees and parks. And I came away from it with a new perspective.
So now we're on the train to Prague. We brought baguettes for the 5 hour direct ride, which shouldn't be bad. We will be back in a hostel for the first time since Paris, over a week ago. I don't want to go back to hostels :( I'm spoiled now. But! We might make some friends, which would be nice. Can't really do that in hotels and people's homes. So it won't be too bad.
AND I should have wifi an be able to post this and catch up with all of you!
So I'll talk to you in Prague.
22 days down, 38 to go.
<3
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