Secrets and mysteries about the construction of the Berlin Wall and its fall

The construction of the Berlin Wall, which had previously separated the eastern and western parts of Berlin and the surrounding areas of East Germany, and later its collapse, remained an important historical event in contemporary history surrounded by many secrets and crucial moments.

Jeffrey Lopez, in a report published in the French newspaper "La Croix" on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, provided a historical overview of the construction and fall of the wall that separated Europe during the Cold War in two.

Lopez began reviewing important secrets about the construction of the wall from May 8, 1945, when Russian tanks entered Berlin to meet with the US-led Allied Army and implement what was decided at the Yalta conference in the former Soviet Union, which states that Germany would be occupied by the Union, the United States and the United Kingdom. France was to eliminate the Nazi regime and prevent a resurgence of German militarism, at a time when the German army was surrendering.

Siege of Berlin
The disagreement between the occupying powers in Germany was not delayed, and then Soviet President Joseph Stalin's desire to expand his influence, hoping to take all of Berlin, especially since the city has been confined to the Soviet region since June 1948.

Stalin cut off the roads and rail tracks linking Berlin to the western region for almost a year, but the Allies organized an air bridge to supply the population and troops stationed in Berlin.

Stalin opened the road without compensation in May 1949, noting that there was no use in the siege of the city. Meanwhile, the Federal Republic of Germany in the west and the German Democratic Republic in the east appeared in the occupied territories.

On November 27, 1958, the Soviet president called on the Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party, who was leading the country at the time, Nikita Khrushchev to demilitarize West Berlin, leading to a long crisis that eventually led the leaders of the East German regime to build the wall.

The first time the leaders of the communist regime invoked the idea of ​​building the wall was on June 15, 1961, when the head of the GDR, Walter Albrecht, said that "no one plans to build a wall."

The fall of the wall
On the night of August 13, 1961, East Germany began pouring concrete, placing barbed wire on the line dividing Berlin in half, blocking freedom of movement between East and West.

On 24 August, the first victim of a long series of deaths was killed when soldiers of the GDR shot a man swimming while trying to escape to the west.

At that time, US President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin and delivered a keynote speech saying that "the greatest pride 2,000 years ago was to say that you are a Roman citizen, and I hope today in the free world that you are proud to say that you are from Berlin, so he said in German: Berlin. "

The gradual normalization of the Germans began in 1964 when the two republics signed the Treaty of Mutual Recognition, East Germany obtained the legal recognition it sought, while the West retained the principle of the unity of the German nation.

Although GDR President Erik Honecker announced on 19 January 1989 that the wall would remain in existence for another 100 years, the year did not end until his country announced the opening of the border on 9 November.

After the announcement, Berlin residents rushed to the wall and began to destroy it from both sides to meet without violence, especially since some families spent more than 28 years without meeting.

Numbers around the wall
The French newspaper explained that 136 people died trying to cross the iron curtain, and that more than a thousand people lost their lives crossing the German border outside Berlin.

She added that the length of the wall was 155 km - 43 between the two sections of Berlin - while 112 km of it was to separate West Berlin from the territory of the GDR.

Nearly 5,000 people managed to escape through the wall, and 70 tunnels were dug between 1961 and 1989 to escape the communist regime, although it was guarded by 302 watchtowers, 14,000 guards and 600 dogs.