The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall-Twenty Years in the Making

When the Wall Came Tumbling Down

The year was 1984. I was a young American living in Germany. This would be my first visit to the beautiful city of Berlin. With my passport in hand, I boarded the bus that would take us through checkpoints Alpha, Bravo and Charlie and finally into the East German sector. I would never forget the first time that I saw the Wall and the city divided.

The bus was filled with mainly Canadian and American spouses of military personnel. We were a jovial bunch until we got closer to the Wall and then the silence seemed to blanket us. The stark contrast of a city divided, of man's inhumanity towards man enveloped our thoughts as we approached the armed Soviet and East German guard post. The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that ALL of the guard towers were facing their own people. It was as though the East Germans and Soviets didn't care what the Allies were doing; they were watching their own community. I wondered why.

At the time, I didn't realize that East Germans were shot and killed on a weekly basis trying to escape over the Wall which spanned ninety-six miles long and stood twelve feet high. Hundreds were killed trying to scale the Wall and find refuge in West Berlin during the twenty-seven years that the Wall existed in the city of Berlin. The last young man to lose his life was Chris Gueffroy on February 6, 1989. But it is eighteen year old, Peter Fechter, who died on August 17, 1962 that was the most dramatic escape. He scaled the barbed wire at Checkpoint Charlie, was shot over ten times and left for dead as he bled to death. His family stood helplessly watching from the other side of the Wall. West Berliners and the whole world were outraged by this young man's senseless death. Still, the Wall defied the criticism of the free world and stood for another twenty-seven years.