30: Wall/Border Facts

30 years ago tomorrow (November 9, 1989) the Berlin Wall fell. The Berlin Wall was built by the Communist East Germans and the Soviets on August 13, 1961 and not only physically divided the city for 28 years, but also divided family and friends and separating people from their jobs and schools.

The Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer) divided the 96 miles between West Berlin and East Berlin and West Berlin and East Germany. The Berlin Wall was part of the Inner-German Border which divided the 866 miles between West Germany and East Germany from 1952 until 1989.

Fleeing from Communism:

Republikflucht (literally "flight from the Republic") was a crime in East Germany punishable by heavy fines and up to three years' imprisonment. Any act associated with an escape attempt – including helping an escapee – was subject to this legislation. Those caught in the act were often tried for espionage as well and given proportionately harsher sentences. More than 75,000 people – an average of more than seven people a day – were imprisoned for attempting to escape across the border (both the Inner-German Border and through/over/under the Berlin Wall), serving an average of one to two years' imprisonment.

Escaping Border Guards:  

(East German Border Guard Konrad Schumann escaping into West Berlin from East Berlin in August 1961.)  

East German Border Guards who attempted to escape were treated much more harshly and were on average imprisoned for five years (2,500 East German Border Guards successfully escaped to the West and 5,500 Border Guards were arrested trying to escape from 1949-1989.) In 1968, the Einsatzkompanie was founded as a special unit of the Stasi dedicated to preventing the defection of Guards from the Border Troops. The most famous East German Border Guard to escape was Konrad Schumann who was a 19 year old conscript when he jumped over a wire fence on the third day of the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. He eventually moved to West Germany.

Fleeing through the Inner-German Border:

(Inner-German Border fortifications.)

675,000 men, women and children successfully fled the Communists through the Inner-German Border (Innerdeutsche Grenze) from 1949-1952 (with 3,000 people fleeing right before the physical border was completely closed in 1952 alone.) The East German Communists destroyed whole villages along the border (such as Bardowiek which had been populated since 1292) with 8,300 East Germans forcibly resettled away from the border zone and minefields in the “death strip” and other preventative escape measures used. Officially 371 people were murdered by the Communists trying to escape through the Inner-German Border (100 from 1949-1961 and 271 from 1961-1989.) Unofficial accounts by organizations documenting Communist-era crimes in East Germany put the death number at the Inner-German Border at 1,100 people.

Fleeing through/under/over the Berlin Wall:

3.5 million men, women and children successfully fled the Communists from East Berlin into West Berlin from 1949-1961. From 1961-1989 (after the Berlin Wall was built) there were 100,000 escape attempts in East Berlin with only 5,000 being successful. The East German Communists destroyed whole apartment building blocks and forcibly resettled East Berliners away from the border zone and minefields in the “death strip” and other preventative escape measures used. Officially 16 people were murdered by the Communists trying to escape from East Berlin from 1949-1961 and 239 people were murdered from August 1961-November 1989.

West Berlin Exclaves:

(A resident leaving Steinstuecken, West Berlin - in the American Sector - to enter East Berlin - in the Soviet Sector - to go to the rest of West Berlin - in the American, French and British Sectors - in 1967.)

There were 12 West Berlin exclaves (such as Steinstücken with 200 people) which were completely cut-off from the rest of West Berlin from 1949-1971 forcing the West Berliners living there to travel through East Germany to get to their jobs, schools and shopping in West Berlin. In 1951 the East Germans tried to occupy and annex these exclaves, but the US Military forced them out. When the main Berlin Wall was built in 1961 a smaller “Exclave Wall” was built over these areas too. The US Military then opened a small post in Steinstücken and regularly sent in supplies and soldiers by helicopter. In 1972 the Americans, British, French and Soviets agreed on a permanent agreement over the exclaves. The Americans, French and British ceded 6 uninhabited West Berlin exclaves to the Soviets (who gave them to East Germany) along with paying 4 Million West German Marks. In return the Soviets ceded enough land from East Germany to build a road (surrounded on all sides with a Wall) so that the residents of Steinstücken could now travel from their homes to West Berlin proper without going through East German checkpoints.

Flying Into West Berlin: 

From 1949 until 1990 the only airlines allowed to land in West Berlin had to be registered in France the UK or the US and every crew member on-board the plane (from pilot to flight attendant) had to hold a French, British or American Passport.

Road/Rail Travel To West Berlin: 

There were no extra restrictions on who could travel to/from West Germany to/from West Berlin by train or by car since it was by land and went through East German territory. Everyone needed an East German Visa and the required currency conversion.

Order To Fire:

(18 year old Peter Fechter lying next to the Berlin Wall after being shot by East German Border Guards while trying to escape to West Berlin in August 1962. His body and screams could be seen and heard in both West Berlin and in East Berlin until he bled to death an hour later. The East Germans left him there to die while the West Germans couldn't get to him.)

Schießbefehl ("order to fire") was the East German term for standing orders authorizing the use of lethal force by the Border Troops to prevent Republikflucht at the Inner-German Border and the Berlin Wall from 1960 to 1989. Only a handful of Border Guards, guilty of shooting people in the back as they attempted to escape, were brought to trial in reunited Germany.  Erich Honecker, who was the leader of East Germany from 1971 until 1989, was not charged with any human rights abuses in reunited Germany because of poor health. He moved to Chile and died 2 years later.

West German Visits To The East: 

West Germans from West Germany proper and other Western nationalities could travel to East Germany from 1949-1990 by applying for an East German Visa and exchanging at least 25 West German Marks into East German Marks (leaving any unused East German Marks behind in East Germany since it was illegal to export the currency)

West Berliner Visits To The East:

Except for the residents of the West Berlin exclaves (who were forced to travel through East German territory several times a day to get to West Berlin proper) West Berliners were not allowed to travel to East Germany from August 26, 1961 until December 17, 1963. For a few weeks around every Christmas from 1963 and lasting until 1970 West Berliners could apply for an East German Visa to visit East Germany. From 1971-1989 West Berliners were able to travel to the East the same way as other West Germans (ie. with a Visa and required currency conversion.)

East Berliner And East German Visits To The West:

East Berliners and East Germans were forbidden from travelling to West Germany from 1949-1989. The only exception were Communist Party members, artistic professionals in good standing and from 1965 any pensioner wishing to visit family in West Berlin or West Germany (the belief being that if they stayed in the West than the Communists would have to pay their government pensions anymore and it wouldn’t cause a brain drain.) In 1975 East Germany signed up to the Helsinki Accords.  An increasing number of East German citizens sought to use the Accords' provision on freedom of movement to secure exit visas. By the late 1980s, over 100,000 applications for visas were being submitted annually with around 15,000–25,000 being granted.  The GDR's government nonetheless remained opposed to emigration and sought to dissuade would-be émigrés. The process of applying for an exit permit was deliberately made slow, demeaning, frustrating and often fruitless. Applicants were marginalized, demoted or sacked from their jobs, excluded from universities and subjected to ostracism. They faced the threat of having their children taken into state custody on the grounds that they were unfit to bring up children.

Western Welcome Money:

The East German Communists restricted the amount of currency that could be converted into West German Marks in East Germany and taken into West Germany (it was illegal to take East German Marks out of East Germany) and so from 1970 until December 29, 1989 the West German Government authorized Begrüßungsgeld ("Welcome money") to any East German visiting the West. Originally it was set at 30 West German Marks given twice a year and eventually raised to 100 West German Marks every year. It wasn’t until November 1989 that tens of thousands of East Germans were allowed to get their “Welcome Money” and that lasted until East Germany officially switched to the West German Mark on July 1, 1990 (several months before reuniting with West Germany on October 3, 1990.)

Buying East Germans:

East German citizens could also emigrate through the semi-secret route of being ransomed by the West German Government in a process termed Freikauf (literally “the buying of freedom”). Between 1964 and 1989, 33,755 political prisoners were ransomed. A further 2,087 prisoners were released to the West under an amnesty in 1972. Another 215,000 people, including 2,000 children cut off from their parents, were allowed to leave East Germany to rejoin their families. In exchange, West Germany paid over 3.4 billion West German Marks – nearly $2.3 billion at 1990 prices – in goods and hard currency. For a while, payments were made in kind using goods that were in short supply in East Germany, such as oranges, bananas, coffee and medical drugs. The scheme was highly controversial in the West. Freikauf was denounced by many as human trafficking, but was defended by others as an "act of pure humanitarianism"; the West German Government budgeted money for Freikauf under the euphemistic heading of "support of special aid measures of an all-German character."

Allied Military Visits To The East

Allied (British, French and American) Military personnel and civilian officials of the Allied forces could enter and exit East Berlin without submitting to East German Passport controls, purchasing a Visa or being required to exchange money. A particular area of concern for the Western Allies involved official dealings with East German authorities when crossing the border, since Allied policy did not recognize the authority of the GDR to regulate Allied military traffic to and from West Berlin, as well as the Allied presence within Greater Berlin, including entry into, exit from, and presence within East Berlin. The Allies held that only the Soviet Union, and not the GDR, had authority to regulate Allied personnel in such cases. For this reason, elaborate procedures were established to prevent inadvertent recognition of East German authority when engaged in travel through the GDR and when in East Berlin. Special rules applied to travel by Western Allied military personnel assigned to the military liaison missions accredited to the commander of Soviet forces in East Germany, located in Potsdam.

Soviet Military Visits To The West:

Soviet military patrols could enter and exit West Berlin as it was a requirement of the post-war Four Powers Agreements. However, the Soviet Government had tight controls over who could visit the West and any Soviet soldier trying to get near a checkpoint, the Inner-German Border or the Berlin Wall was treated as a deserter and could be killed (by a Soviet not an East German Border Guard.)

Dismantling The Wall:

While the Berlin Wall and the Inner-German Border officially opened on November 9, 1989 it wasn’t until June 13, 1990 that the East Germans started physically taking down the border and removing the mines. The Berlin Wall was officially declared dismantled and demined in 1992 and the Inner-German Border was officially declared dismantled and demined in 1995.

Remnants Of The Wall:

Several sections of the Berlin Wall were left in their original places as a memorial. There are also stone markers in the road signifying the exact location of where the Berlin Wall stood. The Inner-German Border was made part of the European Green Belt linking national parks and nature reserves along the course of the old Iron Curtain from the Arctic Circle to the Black Sea. Several museums and memorials along the old border commemorate the division and reunification of Germany and, in some places, preserve elements of the fortifications.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_German_border