Tourists Find a Section of the Berlin Wall Under Vegetation

From the August 15, 2018, Chicago Tribune by Erik Kirschbaum LA Times.

Nearly 30 years after it was toppled, a 20-yard-long section of the Berlin Wall has been discovered, hidden behind bushes, weeds and overgrown trees that over the years obscured it.

The Berlin Wall is one of the Cold War's most divisive symbols.  (I personally never thought it would come down.)

It is 11-feet high cement slabs and was found in the heart of Berlin.  It had once been part of an interior security barrier to keep East Germans from getting close to the outer wall separating East Berlin from West Berlin.  It is covered with graffiti and is now under monument protection status.

The tourists discovered it in June but it was just determined to be authentic this week.

Another, longer piece of the wall, about a 260-foot section, was discovered in similar fashion in January in a northern district of East Berlin in a forest area.

This occurred just one day after Berliners marked the anniversary of the wall's construction in 1961.

I  have a very small piece of the wall.

--Cooter

Five Myths About the Berlin Wall-- Part 3: President Reagan Brought Down the Wall

Many Americans believe that President Reagan's June 1987 speech in berlin ("Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall!") led to its coming down in 1989.  However, Gorbachev's reforms had far more to do with it.

The wall started to fall on November 9th as a result of a mistake.  In face of mass protests against its government, East Germany waived the old visa rules stating that citizens needed a pressing reason for travel to the west.  East Germans still had to apply, but they would be granted much faster.

The Communist official who announced this decision didn't know much about it and when in response to a reporter's question as to when it would take effect replied immediately and it kind of sounded like he meant the border could be crossed immediately.

Over the next several hours, thousands of East Berliners gathered at the check points along the wall.  They were held back, but the crowds continued to grow and get more angry.

At 11:30 p.m. the Bornholmer Street checkpoint allowed people to cross en masse.  Guards at other checkpoints  soon followed suit and the East German government never fully regained control.

--Cooter

Five Myths About the Berlin Wall-- Part 1: 25 Years Ago This Month

From the November 2, 2014, Chicago Tribune by Hope M. Harrison.

November 9, 1989, was an amazing day in history for me.  Something that I thought would always be there essentially came down with its opening.  I'm talking about the Berlin Wall.  This also was the death knell of the Soviet Union and to a large degree, Communism.  Two other things I thought would always be with us.  I was able to get a very small piece of it from friends who went to Germany shortly afterwards.  I would pass it around in my classes after that so the kids could touch some real history.

This was always a point in the very real Cold War.

These are some interesting things about the wall that most people don't know:

1.  THE BERLIN WALL WAS ONE WALL.  In fact, it was two walls separated by up to 160 yards of a death strip with guards (with shoot-to-kill orders), towers, dogs, floodlights, tripwires.  There were also over a million mines along the border between East and West Germany.

More than 5,000 East Germans managed to escape despite these obstacles.  Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died.

--Cooter

Hitler's Airport Update-- Part 2

Today, Berliners wander through the prairielike 950 acres.

During the war, Allied forces knew that one day they would need the airport after the war, so it was spared the bombing that destroyed so much of Berlin.

Tempelhof became the eastern end of President Harry Truman's famous air bridge during the 1948-49 Soviet blockade of West Berlin which was surrounded by Soviet East Germany. Today, there is an abstract monument bearing the names of 70 British and American "Candy Bombers" who died ferrying food and supplies to West Berlin. It's three fingers represent the three air routes into the city.

Tempelhoff became a major US base and the main civilian air link. As commercial airlines began using the other two airports, private planes carrying high-end travelers continued to use it.

The Story of an Airport. --DaCoot

Hitler's Airport Update-- Part 1

July 22nd Chicago Tribune "From Nazi icon to tranquil oasis" by Borzou Daraghal.


Tempelhof Airport shut down two years ago as more and more air traffic went to the more modern Tegel and Schoenfield airports. There were lots of plans for it, but today it is just essentially open park land.

This airport represents German history since the 1930s after being designed on a monumental scale to glorify Hitler's Third Reich by his top architect, Albert Speer. It was massive to say the least, at 950 acres, larger than New York City's Central Park and twice the size of Berlin's biggest park, the 19th century Tiergarten.

Nothing has essentially been done, other than city workers painting huge Xs on the runways so no planes will land there.

Hitler had Speer create "an ominous and imposing edifice, decorated with eagles that grasped swastikas which have long been scraped off."

The 4,000 foot long airport building is being left as is for now. Parts are sometimes rented out for events and the grounds are essentially left as they were.

Cold War Edifice Next, --Cooter

Quite an Anniversary-- The Berlin Wall

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall. I remember just looking at the TV in wonder of those East Berliners standing on top of the wall, a place wherethey would have been shot had they done it just 24-hours earlier.

I never thought I'd see this as the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union and fall of Communism.

Some friends of ours who ran the Black Bear Restaurant in Ingleside, Illinois, which featured German food, were returning home for a visit to Berlin and I asked if they would get me a piece of it, figuring this would be a way for my students to actually touch history. They came back with a small bag with a piece of it for $15.

It was a really small piece, but had paint on one flat piece which I figure must have faced the West Berlin side unless it had been painted on after the wall opened.

I understand there are some sections of the wall left in place.

I have also seen sections of the wall at a fort out in Kansas and at Westminister College in Fulton, Missouri, where Winston Churchill gave his Iron Curtain speech.

An Important Wall. --Cooter

Last Flight from the Tempelhof

Associated press reported that the last plane left from Berlin, Germany's historic Tempelhof Airport October 29th. Its history spanned World War II, the Cold War, and Germany's rebirth. Just before midnight, a DC-3 and a Junkers JU-52, both from the 1930s took off and the runway lights went off forever.

The future of the 900 acre site is still to be known.

It officially opened as an airfield October 1923, but had been used for flights before that. The current configuration and structure took place when Adolf Hitler decided to create an "air stadium" with massive stone blocks and pillars, along with 49 buildings, 7 hangars, and 9000 offices.

During World War II, German fighters scrambled from it to intercept Allied bombing strikes.

In 1948, it played a central role in the Berlin Airlift when the Allies supplied West Berlin with the food and necessities to keep it going after land transportation was cut off by the Soviets.

Here's Hoping They Keep Some of the Structures. --Old Coot

Getting Nostalgic for the Cold War in Berlin

In these post-Cold War days in Germany, some people are getting nostalgic for those days according to an article in the September 29th Time Magazine by Stephanie Kirchner.

Hans-Holger, an East German border guard recalles thedays he was supposed to shoot fellow citizens for trying to escape to West Berlin. He had to serve a 17-month prison sentence for trying to escape himself.

Now, Zur Furma is open in East Berlin, close to the former Stasi headquarters. It's theme comes from East Germany's feared secret police. The place has a surveillance camera over the door, old wiretap devices and furnishings from a 1970s interrogation room. The name itself translates to "The Firm."

Some people do not like this taking light of a dark era. But, folks can buy G.D.R. souvenirs, stay at the Ostel, a G.D.R.-themed hostel, or take a "Trabi-safari" which involves taking a Trabi car sightseeing. Trabis were the notoriously poor-quality cars build in East Germany.

Tourists can also pose with actors dressed as US and Russian soldiers at Check Point Charlie, for years the only way to get from East to West Berlin.

Wail Long Enough, and Anything is Possible. --Cooter