Understanding the Historic Barrier
The Berlin Wall — an emblem of the Cold War era, symbolising an ideological and physical divide between East and West Berlin — was a remnant of the Cold War, standing between 1961 and 1989. Construction began on August 13th 1961 and it became one of the most fortified structures, that separated families, friends and ideologies for nearly three decades. So how long was the Berlin Wall?
The Physical Dimensions of the Berlin Wall
Its length, approximately 155 kilometers (96 miles), stretched from the Berlin Reichstag parliament building on the Brandenburg Gate to the building that housed the communist lenin museum. The barrier was made up with different parts, the most iconic one being the concrete wall that separated the city. The concrete wall was about 3.6 meters (11.8 feet) high and the top pipe was intended to discourage anyone who would be rising up to try to climb over. The wall was about 1.2 metres (3.9 feet) wide at its base.
An inner so-called “Death Strip” wall, consisting of open area, anti vehicle trenches, raked sands, signal fence, surrounded the main concrete wall. This secondary structure made a potentially large barrier wider, adding a further buffer zone to prevent an escape attempt.
The Berlin Wall’s Symbolic Length
The Berlin Wall was about 155 kilometres (96 miles) long, but the wall wasn’t a continuous straight line. The barrier’s course was also bent, curved, and zagged due to urban structures, buildings and topography.
In fact, other designs were actually deliberately made to complicate the attempt to either escape, or to scale the wall. The convoluted onus led the wall to disrupt every street, neighborhood, and park, furthering division’s psychological effects on resident’s lives.
Historical Significance
The wall in Berlin was more than just a wall. During the Cold War it did represent the stark division between the Western and Eastern blocks. Its construction was a product of intensifying tensions and mass emigration from East to West Germany.
The wall was deliberately a physical marker of the Iron Curtain — the dividing line between the world democracies and the communist part of the world on one side, and the communist dominated Eastern bloc on the other. On November 9th, 1989, there was a momentous, world changing event taking place all around the world in which the Berlin Wall fell, ending the Cold War and bringing Germany together.
Life Along the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall not only separated people in east and west Berlin, it changed lives there – physically. Heartbreak torn families apart, friendship separated, and dreams scatters. Life for people living in East Berlin was regulated, and was one ruled with strict surveillance, lack of freedom of movement, and repression.
But in fleeing the wall there were also circumstances of creative resistance and escape attempts. Daring individuals risked their lives to cross over to the West over the years, many were dug underground tunnels. They are just stories about bravery and determination of the human spirit.
The Legacy of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall today has become a symbol of power, unity, courage. After its collapse, sections of the wall were dismantled, but some of it preserved and turned into open air galleries, sometimes referred to as the East Side Gallery, where artists from around the world projected their hopes and dreams for a better future.
Of course, visiting Berlin to see parts of the wall left behind is a strong tourist attraction, and a chance to delve into the city’s troubled recent past. It’s a reminder of why freedom is important, of what happens with division and just how powerful unity can be.
In Conclusion
It was over 155 kilometers (96 miles) long, a physical and a largely symbolic wall. Its construction and eventual demolition were important to Cold War history, bringing an end to an age as in the triumph of freedom.
The wall may not stand physically any more, but its memory stays fixed in the outward facing parts of those who built it, those who benediction it, and those who hollowed it out. Remembered from the Berlin Wall are the lessons with which to live, unity, understanding, and the quest to a more inclusive future.
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