Two young girls in a West Germans street chat with their grandparents in the window of their home in the Eastern sector, separated only by a barbed wire barricade. It was a common occurrence for families, who had once only lived on the opposite side of the street from one another, to become separated by the ever growing Berlin Wall.
(via gedenkenbrauchtwissen)
“A girl looks at the Berlin Wall through a frosty window which reflects the Wall’s silhouetted barbed wire in December 1962.”
East German soldier Conrad Schumann jumping over the Berlin Wall on its third day of construction, at the time a barbed wire fence, as he defects to West Germany.
August 15, 1961.
A German man juggling atop the Berlin Wall a week after its fall and the opening of checkpoints between East and West Berlin.
The wall was known by East German officials as the “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart”, while some West German officials referred to it as the “Wall of shame”.
November 16, 1989 - 22 years ago today.
A citizen of West Berlin talking with an East Berlin guard through a crack in the Berlin wall, both with smiles on their faces, nearly two weeks after its fall.
November 26, 1989.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, part II:
As word spread out across both East and West Berlin concerning a new travel policy by the Eastern Communist government, thousands of Berliners on both sides of the wall inundated border guards at multiple checkpoints. People started climbing atop the wall and demanded that the guards open the gates.
28 years after its construction (back when JFK was President), the Berlin Wall was now obsolete.
November 9, 1989 - 22 years ago today.
The fall of the Berlin Wall, part I:
Prior to a scheduled press conference, Communist official Günter Schabowski is handed a note which states vaguely that East Berliners will be allowed to pass into West Berlin if they have proper permission to do so.
Schabowski proceeds read the note to the reporters at the end of the press conference.
He is then asked when the policy will take place; flustered by such a question and unaware of exactly when, given the vagueness of the note, he states it will be effective immediately.
Soon after, word reaches media outlets across Western Germany and gets picked up in East Germany as well. Thousands of people from both sides of the Berlin Wall gather around guards manning checkpoints, demanding that the checkpoints be opened.
November 9, 1989 - 22 years ago today.
The Brandenburg Gate behind the Berlin Wall in its early stages.
A German man juggling atop the Berlin Wall a week after its falling and the opening of checkpoints between East and West Berlin.
The wall was known by East German officials as the “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart”, while some West German officials referred to it as the “Wall of shame”.
November 16, 1989.
