Berlin Wall Memorial Germany

Legendary

A memorial to those impacted by the separation of East and West Berlin.

Photo by Sarah Stierch

Berliners went to sleep on a Saturday night in one city and woke up in two. Overnight on August 12 to 13, 1961, East German soldiers strung barbed wire and stacked concrete blocks straight through the middle of Berlin, splitting families, friends, and neighbors apart without any warning at all.

The Berlin Wall was built by East Germany's Communist government to stop East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin, where life under a democratic, capitalist system was very different. Thousands of people had already been escaping east to west, and the government wanted it to stop.

What started as barbed wire quickly grew into a massive system of concrete walls, guard towers, and armed soldiers. By the 1980s the barrier stretched about 96 miles, cutting through the heart of Berlin and circling all the way around West Berlin like a ring.

Guards had orders to shoot anyone trying to cross. Despite the danger, more than 5,000 people still managed to escape over, under, or around the wall between 1961 and 1989. At least 140 people died trying.

The wall stood for 28 years. It finally came down on November 9, 1989, after an East German official accidentally announced that citizens could cross the border freely, effective immediately. Crowds rushed the checkpoints that same night, and Berliners began tearing the wall apart with hammers and picks.

Most of the wall was destroyed within a few years. One stretch along Bernauer Strasse was deliberately preserved and turned into the Berlin Wall Memorial, so future generations could see exactly what once divided the city.

Walk along the preserved section of wall, complete with a watchtower and the empty "death strip" that guards once patrolled. Visit the Chapel of Reconciliation, built from the rubble of a church the East German government destroyed to clear the border zone. Read the Window of Remembrance, a wall of photos honoring the people who died trying to cross.