Building of the Wall

Picture comparison

You are now standing on Bergstrasse. This is the only street in Berlin that is still divided by the Wall. From August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989, all of Berlin was divided by the Wall. 

After World War II, the countries that had defeated Nazi Germany occupied the country and divided it into four occupation zones. This led to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany). Berlin was situated in the Soviet zone, but as the former capital, it was symbolic, and therefore also divided among the four victorious powers. 

A mass exodus to the West that had begun in the late 1940s had reached dramatic proportions by the 1950s. A large part of the East German population did not support the new political and economic system. Moreover, West Germany, with its offer of freedom, prosperity and modernity, was very appealing. 

But Berlin was a special situation. The residents there were able to move around relatively freely until 1961. Many people – referred to as border crossers – lived in East Berlin but crossed the border regularly to go to school or work in West Berlin.

On August 13, 1961, the East German government tried to stop people from leaving by closing the border to West Berlin. It hoped that this act would stabilize its control over the population and demonstrate its sovereignty to the world. But the barbed wire and walls failed to stop the exodus and it was compelled to continually expand and reinforce the border fortifications in Berlin until the end of the 1980s. 

On the East Berlin side of the Wall, Bergstrasse ran alongside the cemetery of Sophien parish, a Protestant church congregation. Before the Wall was built, the cemetery extended to Bernauer Strasse. But in 1962, the graves there were moved and the ground was leveled to prepare for new border fortifications. A second inner wall facing east was added, along with a signal fence, anti-tank obstacles, a patrol road and watchtowers.

Graffiti on the Wall  

If you look towards Bernauer Strasse at the parts of the Berlin Wall that are still standing, you’ll see a lot of graffiti on the Wall. When the Wall still divided the city, it was impossible to spray graffiti on this side of the Wall, on the east side. The Wall stood in the heavily guarded border strip and was inaccessible to the people in East Germany. Before the Wall fell, graffiti was only on the west side of the Wall.