Poor Berlin. After all the destruction the Nazi's brought upon their city, the Berliners had more to come. The Berlin wall was not originally stone, but merely barbed wire rolled out without warning in the middle of the night, with soldiers posted all along. People woke up to go to work or school or return home to family members and found that they were now permanently separated. Loved ones ripped from your arms while you were sleeping, and you had no idea until the next day.
Now on the east side of the wall you couldn't get near it. There were guards with orders to shoot on site, and plenty of other traps and smaller walls. But on the western side, the sad and angry people painted messages they had to hope that one day their loved ones on the other side might get to see.
Top left: "Happy Birthday Farrah 7-4-76"
Top right: "WHY"
Bottom left: "To: Astrid. Maybe someday we will be together."
Bottom right: "Katrin, Ich liebe dich." (I love you)
The story of how the wall actually came down is my favorite story so far, but since I'm not sure of every details authenticity let me sum up: basically the Communists were running out of money to keep occupying so many countries so they decided to turn over the government to their local puppets and withdraw their troops. One by one the countries started opening their borders, which elated the people of Berlin. However, the man in charge of Berlin was apparently more loyal to the Communists so he tightened his grip on Eastern Germany instead of loosening it, leading the people to slowly revolt and cause problems for him. So he held a meeting to figure out what to do and his government decided the best way to pacify a crowd is to let them think they are getting what they want, so they decided they would slowly open some of the borders if you had the right paperwork (which would of course take years and cost a lot of money).
They thought this was a grand idea and decided to hold a press conference. Only problem was their spokesman, Günter Scahowski, wasn't exactly properly briefed and wound up being taken off guard by someone who asked about opening the borders. He found a memo about it in his stack of papers and just read it aloud, stopping after saying that yes, the borders were opening. Of course the journalists press for more answers and he decides on his own accord that since the Berlin Wall was a border, that yes it would open as well, and furthermore that all this was effective immediately.
The East Berliners are listening to this on their radios, live, and begin to swarm the wall, demanding to be let out. The guards know absolutely nothing about what is going on and only know that they are no longer to kill anyone who tries to leave. They manage to keep the people back for about three hours, but when they don't get solid answers from their superiors they basically say "screw it" and open the gates.
All because someone wasn't paying attention.
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