listen)) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin.

The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West.

The wall came down partly because of a bureaucratic accident but it fell amid a wave of revolutions that left the Soviet-led communist bloc teetering on the brink of collapse and helped define a new world order.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

On June 12, 1987 — more than 25 years after the Berlin Wall first divided the city’s East and West — U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, challenging his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev by declaring, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

For purposes of occupation, the Americans, British, French, and Soviets divided Germany into four zones. The American, British, and French zones together made up the western two-thirds of Germany, while the Soviet zone comprised the eastern third.

Military disobedience is actually baked into the German Bundeswehr, or armed forces. In practice, that means that a soldier or armed forces administrator can ignore a superior officer’s order—even if it’s in the midst of combat or is given by a high-ranking official.

After Germany’s defeat in the Second World War, the four main allies in Europe – the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France – took part in a joint occupation of the German state.

A Divided Germany After the Potsdam conference, Germany was divided into four occupied zones: Great Britain in the northwest, France in the southwest, the United States in the south and the Soviet Union in the east. Berlin, the capital city situated in Soviet territory, was also divided into four occupied zones.

The Berlin Wall ran along the entire southern edge of Bernauer Straße during the years of Berlin’s division. Part of this former border strip together with the watchtower are now home to an open air exhibition offering historical audio and video material as well as a visitor centre with videos and a viewing tower.

It would have reestablished a Stalinist regime to keep everybody quiet. The selling of political prisoners to the West was also an enormously profitable trade for the East, so that would probably have continued.

After the USSR falls, Germany will probably be reunited. But if that doesn’t happen, another trigger of events will probably reunite the two Germany-ies, so even if they don’t reunite, and due to the poor conditions, the citizens will probably still break through the Berlin Wall and reunite the Germanies together.

If the Soviet Union had not collapsed, allowing for the end of Communist rule in Europe and the unification of the remnants of Germany, then the Soviet Union would still exist and the Communist governments of its “satellites” would still exist, and Europe would be divided as it was between 1945 and 1989.

In 1989, political changes in Eastern Europe and civil unrest in Germany put pressure on the East German government to loosen some of its regulations on travel to West Germany. The fall of the Berlin Wall was the first step towards German reunification.

East

At the Berlin Wall alone, at least 140 people were killed or died in other ways directly connected to the GDR border regime between 1961 and 1989, including 100 people who were shot, accidentally killed, or killed themselves when they were caught trying to make it over the Wall; 30 people from both East and West who …

Ida Siekmann

At night is when Berlin streets can get dangerous, especially in quiet areas. Berlin may be a relatively safe city in a relatively safe country, but that doesn’t mean you should be walking around without a care in the world. Don’t walk around with expensive stuff on the show – bound to make you a target of petty theft.

Checkpoint Charlie (or “Checkpoint C”) was the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991), as named by the Western Allies. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West.

1. Only foreigners were allowed to cross through it. Checkpoint Charlie was first set up in August 1961, when communist East Germany erected the Berlin Wall to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the democratic West.

16 hours

The actors at Checkpoint Charlie clearly didn’t care, there was no signs around indicating that these were unofficial stamps and they were happy to be taking money off an oblivious tourist. Do not get you passport stamped here, or at any tourist attraction. As for the attraction itself, its fine, nothing major.

The museum is open daily (except for holidays) from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and tickets range from 7.50 euros to 14.50 euros (about $8.50 to $16); taking photos will cost you an extra 5 euros, as will the audio guide.

Re: can I request a passport stamp on entry to USA? If you’re a non US citizen entering the US you will get a stamp in your passport (surely). If you have a US passport there’s no harm in asking.

Jeff Harper

The main function of Checkpoint Charlie was to register and inform members of the Western Military Forces before entering East Berlin. Foreign tourists were also informed but not checked in the West. The checkpoint could be passed by foot or by car.

It was time for the run. In the early-morning darkness, Meixner drove to the first barricade on the East Berlin side of the checkpoint. He displayed his passport to the guard, who motioned him on to the customs shed. Instead he gunned the motor, whizzed around the vertical bars and skidded past the startled guard.

Before the guards could fire their submachine guns, Meixner raced to the last steel bar, ducked his head, floored the accelerator and rocketed into West Berlin. He was traveling so fast that when he finally hit the brakes the tires left 96-foot-long skid marks.

In May 1963, Austrian Heinz Meixner drove up to Checkpoint Charlie in a fancy British sports car, a bright red Austin Healey Sprite convertible. The top was down, and Meixner had made one important modification to the car: he removed the windshield.