"Remembering The Construction Of The Berlin Wall" [podcast 3 min 27 sec]
In the early hours of Aug. 13, 1961, I was called in my Berlin hotel room to come and see what was happening at the border between East and West Berlin. We had been expecting some move to stem the exodus of people from East Germany that was threatening the viability of the communist state.
What I saw was East German police sealing the sector border with rolls of barbed wire that would soon be replaced by a masonry wall. West Berliners gathered nearby in anger and anguish. For East Berliners, it was the closing of their escape hatch.
But as the Cold War wound down and President Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," it became an increasing liability to the dying Soviet bloc. In 1989, the checkpoints were opened up and Berliners danced on the wall, which was soon leveled to the ground.
Read entire article at NPR All Things Considered
What I saw was East German police sealing the sector border with rolls of barbed wire that would soon be replaced by a masonry wall. West Berliners gathered nearby in anger and anguish. For East Berliners, it was the closing of their escape hatch.
But as the Cold War wound down and President Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," it became an increasing liability to the dying Soviet bloc. In 1989, the checkpoints were opened up and Berliners danced on the wall, which was soon leveled to the ground.