History of the Berlin Wall (Part IV)

Legacy

Remaining stretch of the Wall near Ostbahnhof in Friedrichshain called East Side Gallery, August 2006

Remains of the Wall adjacent to the Topography of Terror, August 2007

A memorial of over a thousand crosses and a segment of the Wall for those who died trying to cross. The memorial stood for ten months in 2004 and 2005 before it was removed.

A "BERLINER MAUER 1961–1989" plaque near Checkpoint Charlie signifying where the Wall stood

Display of two sections of the Wall and a "You are leaving" sign at Fort Gordon, Georgia

The Berlin Wall from the East Berlin side, 1967

A sign reading "Until we see each other again in the capital of the GDR"

Czech hedgehog anti-tank obstacles and the Wall

An exhibition dedicated to the 25th anniversary to the Berlin Wall destruction was located at Potsdamer Platz Arkaden

Line indicating where the inner part of the wall once stood on Leipziger Platz, just off Potsdamer Platz, in 2015

A hole in the Berlin wall, 2019

Little is left of the Wall at its original site, which was destroyed almost in its entirety. Three long sections are still standing: an 80-metre-long (260 ft) piece of the first (westernmost) wall at the Topography of Terror, site of the former Gestapo headquarters, halfway between Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz; a longer section of the second (easternmost) wall along the Spree River near the Oberbaumbrücke, nicknamed East Side Gallery; and a third section that is partly reconstructed, in the north at Bernauer Straße, which was turned into a memorial in 1999. Other isolated fragments, lampposts, other elements, and a few watchtowers also remain in various parts of the city.

The former leadership in the Schlesischen Busch in the vicinity of the Puschkinallee—the listed, twelve-meter high watchtower stands in a piece of the wall strip, which has been turned into a park, near the Lohmühleninsel.

The former "Kieler Eck" (Kiel Corner) on Kieler Strasse in Mitte, close to the Berlin-Spandau Schifffahrtskanal—the tower is protected as a historic monument and now surrounded on three sides by new buildings. It houses a memorial site named after the Wallopfer Günter Litfin, who was shot at Humboldthafen in August 1961. The memorial site, which is run by the initiative of his brother Jürgen Liftin, can be viewed after registration.

The former management office at Nieder Neuendorf, in the district of Hennigsdorf of the same name—here is the permanent exhibition on the history of the border installations between the two German states.

The former management station at Bergfelde, today the district of Hohen Neuendorf—the tower is located in an already reforested area of the border strip and is used together with surrounding terrain as a nature protection tower by the Deutschen Waldjugend.

The only one of the much slimmer observation towers (BT-11) in the Erna-Berger-Strasse also in Mitte—however, was moved by a few meters for construction work and is no longer in the original location; There is an exhibition about the wall in the area of the Potsdamer Platz in planning.

Nothing still accurately represents the Wall's original appearance better than a very short stretch at Bernauer Straße associated with the Berlin Wall Documentation Center.  Other remnants are badly damaged by souvenir seekers. Fragments of the Wall were taken and some were sold around the world. Appearing both with and without certificates of authenticity, these fragments are now a staple on the online auction service eBay as well as German souvenir shops. Today, the eastern side is covered in graffiti that did not exist while the Wall was guarded by the armed soldiers of East Germany. Previously, graffiti appeared only on the western side. Along some tourist areas of the city centre, the city government has marked the location of the former Wall by a row of cobblestones in the street. In most places only the "first" wall is marked, except near Potsdamer Platz where the stretch of both walls is marked, giving visitors an impression of the dimension of the barrier system.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were initiatives that they want to preserve the death strip walkways and redevelop it into a hiking and cycling area, known as Berliner Mauerweg. It is part of the initiative by Berlin Senate since 2005.

Cultural differences

For many years after reunification, people in Germany talked about cultural differences between East and West Germans (colloquially Ossis and Wessis), sometimes described as Mauer im Kopf (The wall in the head). A September 2004 poll found that 25 percent of West Germans and 12 percent of East Germans wished that East and West should be separated again by a "Wall".  A poll taken in October 2009 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall indicated, however, that only about a tenth of the population was still unhappy with the unification (8 percent in the East; 12 percent in the West). Although differences are still perceived between East and West, Germans make similar distinctions between North and South.

A 2009 poll conducted by Russia's VTsIOM, found that more than half of all Russians do not know who built the Berlin Wall. Ten percent of people surveyed thought Berlin residents built it themselves. Six percent said Western powers built it and four percent thought it was a "bilateral initiative" of the Soviet Union and the West. Fifty-eight percent said they did not know who built it, with just 24 percent correctly naming the Soviet Union and its then-communist ally East Germany.

Wall segments around the world

Not all segments of the Wall were ground up as the Wall was being torn down. Many segments have been given to various institutions in the world. They can be found, for instance, in presidential and historical museums, lobbies of hotels and corporations, at universities and government buildings, and in public spaces in different countries of the world.

Remains of the Berlin wall, still in its original spot, 2016

50th anniversary commemoration

On 13 August 2011, Germany marked the 50th anniversary of East Germany beginning the erection of the Berlin Wall. Chancellor Angela Merkel joined with President Christian Wulff and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit at the Bernauer Straße memorial park to remember lives and liberty. Speeches extolled freedom and a minute of silence at noon honored those who died trying to flee to the West. "It is our shared responsibility to keep the memory alive and to pass it on to the coming generations as a reminder to stand up for freedom and democracy to ensure that such injustice may never happen again," entreated Mayor Wowereit. "It has been shown once again: Freedom is invincible at the end. No wall can permanently withstand the desire for freedom", proclaimed President Wulff.

Related media

Documentaries

Documentary films specifically about the Berlin Wall include:

The Tunnel (December 1962), an NBC News Special documentary film.

The Road to the Wall (1962), a documentary film.

Something to Do with the Wall (1991), a documentary about the fall of the Berlin Wall by Ross McElwee and Marilyn Levine, originally conceived as a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of its construction.

Rabbit à la Berlin (2009), a documentary film, directed by Bartek Konopka, told from the point of view of a group of wild rabbits that inhabited the zone between the two walls.

"30 years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall - the end of the Cold War". (2019) a documentary film by André Bossuroy, 26 min, ARTE, Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union.

Feature films

Fictional films featuring the Berlin Wall have included:

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), a Cold War classic set on both sides of The Wall, from the eponymous book by John le Carré, directed by Martin Ritt.

The Boy and the Ball and the Hole in the Wall (1965), Spanish-Mexican co-production.

Funeral in Berlin (1966), a spy movie starring Michael Caine, directed by Guy Hamilton.

Casino Royale (1967), a film featuring a segment centered on a house apparently bisected by the Wall.

The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968), a Cold War spy farce about an Olympic athlete who defects, directed by George Marshall.

Berlin Tunnel 21 (1981), a made-for-TV movie about a former American officer leading an attempt to build a tunnel underneath The Wall as a rescue route.

Night Crossing (1982), a British-American drama film starring John Hurt, Jane Alexander, and Beau Bridges, based on the true story of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families, who on 16 September 1979, attempted to escape from East Germany to West Germany in a homemade hot air balloon, during the days of the Inner German border-era.

The Soldier (1982), a renegade KGB team put nuclear weapons in Saudi Arabia to force America to make the Israelis pull out of the West Bank, or the bomb will make 50% of the world's oil radioactive for decades. The title character has a team break into a missile silo in Smith Center, Kansas to obtain independent launch capability, then he and an Israeli security agent drive an automobile from West Germany "over the Berlin Wall into East Germany", where he informs the KGB agents that if the nuke goes off in Saudi Arabia, his team in Kansas will nuke Moscow.

The Innocent (1993), a film about the joint CIA/MI6 operation to build a tunnel under East Berlin in the 1950s, directed by John Schlesinger.

The Tunnel (2001), a dramatization of a collaborative tunnel under the Wall, filmed by Roland Suso Richter.

Bridge of Spies (2015), featuring a dramatized subplot about Frederic Pryor, in which an American economics graduate student visits his German girlfriend in East Berlin just as the Berlin Wall is being built. He tries to bring her back into West Berlin, but is stopped by Stasi agents and arrested as a spy.

Literature

Some novels specifically about the Berlin Wall include:

John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), classic Cold War spy fiction.

Len Deighton, Berlin Game (1983), classic Cold War spy fiction

T.H.E. Hill, The Day Before the Berlin Wall: Could We Have Stopped It? – An Alternate History of Cold War Espionage, 2010 – based on a legend told in Berlin in the 1970s.

John Marks' The Wall (1999) [134] in which an American spy defects to the East just hours before the Wall falls.

Marcia Preston's West of the Wall (2007, published as Trudy's Promise in North America), in which the heroine, left behind in East Berlin, waits for news of her husband after he makes his escape over the Berlin Wall.

Peter Schneider's The Wall Jumper, (1984; German: Der Mauerspringer, 1982), the Wall plays a central role in this novel set in Berlin of the 1980s.

Music

Music related to the Berlin Wall includes:

Stationary Traveler (1984), a concept album by Camel that takes the theme of families and friends split up by the building of the Berlin Wall.

"West of the Wall", a 1962 top 40 hit by Toni Fisher, which tells the tale of two lovers separated by the newly-built Berlin Wall.

 "Holidays in the Sun", a song by the English punk rock band Sex Pistols which prominently mentions the Wall, specifically singer Johnny Rotten's fantasy of digging a tunnel under it.

David Bowie's "Heroes", inspired by the image of a couple kissing at the Berlin Wall (in reality, the couple was his producer Tony Visconti and backup singer Antonia Maaß). The song (which, along with the album of the same name, were recorded in Berlin), makes lyrical references to the kissing couple, and to the "Wall of Shame" ("the shame was on the other side"). Upon Bowie's death, the Federal Foreign Office paid homage to Bowie on Twitter.

"Over de muur" (1984), a song by the Dutch pop band Klein Orkest, about the differences between East and West Berlin during the period of the Berlin Wall.

"Chippin' Away" (1990),[138] a song by Tom Fedora, performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash on the Berlin Wall, which appeared on Graham Nash's solo album Innocent Eyes (1986).

The music video for Liza Fox's song "Free" (2013) contains video clips of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Visual art

Artworks related to the Berlin Wall include:

The Day the Wall Came Down (1996) by Veryl Goodnight, a statue depicting horses leaping over actual pieces of the Berlin Wall

In 1982, the West-German artist Elsner [de] created about 500 artworks along the former border strip around West Berlin as part of his work series Border Injuries. On one of his actions he tore down a large part of the Wall, installed a prepared foil of 3x2m in it, and finished the painting there before the border soldiers on patrol could detect him. This performance was recorded on video.  His actions are well-documented both in newspapers from that time and in recent scientific publications.

The Day the Wall Came Down, 1996 and 1998 sculptures by Veryl Goodnight, which depict five horses leaping over actual pieces of the Berlin Wall.

Games

Video games related to the Berlin Wall include:

The Berlin Wall (1991), a video game.

SimCity 3000 (1999), a video game featuring a scenario taking place at the end of the Cold War, wherein the player is given five years within the game to demolish the Wall and re-unite East and West Berlin; the longer it takes to complete the goal, the more riots take place in the city.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010) "First Strike" downloadable content pack includes a multiplayer map (called ("Berlin Wall") that takes place at the Berlin Wall.

The introductory video to the Civilization VI video game expansion "Rise and Fall" depicts a woman striking the wall with a sledgehammer.

In April 2018 game publisher Playway S.A. announced that Polish game studio K202 was working on The Berlin Wall video game, which was released in November 2019.