The Berlin Wall

On the night of August 12/13, 1961, the border between Berlin′s eastern sector and the sectors occupied by the western allies was cordoned off with barriers and barbed wire: 12 of 81 street crossings were blocked, and all traffic between the two halves of the city and between West Berlin and the surrounding countryside came to a halt. August 13, 1961, went down in history as the building of the Berlin Wall. Up to this point, it had been possible to move freely back and forth between two worlds within the city. The Berliners were confronted on a daily basis with the existence of two forms of society, and they were able to make direct comparisons as they crossed the city and in conversation with family, friends and acquaintances on the street. Until August 13, 1961, many commuted between East and West. In no other place were communism and capitalism such close neighbours.

In Berlin, the ideological struggle between Socialism and Capitalism had heightened symbolic value for the world as a whole. Since economic success was viewed as an indication of the superiority of a given system, it was a heavy blow for the East German leadership when attempts to raise living standards to West German levels failed. In the West, wages were being increased considerably and working hours cut. The stream of people leaving the GDR via West Berlin also contributed to the economic crisis, which could have meant total collapse had it not been for Soviet assistance: In Berlin, the fate of East Germany was at stake. Assuming that the majority of those leaving were doing so for economic reasons, the SED leadership tried to obtain the eastern bloc′s approval for a sealing of the sector border.

The Vienna Summit between Khrushchev and Kennedy in June 1961 was devoted solely to Berlin. As in his previous ultimatum of 1958, Khrushchev demanded the withdrawal of Allied troops and the transformation of West Berlin into a "free city", i.e. an independent political entity. The atmosphere was so icy that both sides spoke of the possibility of war. On the night the Wall was built, the news of advancing military vehicles could also have been misinterpreted as preparations for an attack on West Berlin. The West Berlin police was sent to the border to monitor the activity of the soldiers, which ended precisely at the line between the sectors. This fear of war explains the low-key reaction on the part of the western powers: There was a sense of relief that the situation had not escalated into a full-blown military conflict.

On August 15, 1961, work began on a wall of bricks and concrete blocks, soon reinforced with large concrete sections at points where "breakthroughs" were thought likely. Houses directly adjacent to the wall were emptied, their doors and windows bricked up. All escape attempts, whether successful or not (including some spectacular cases such as a tunnel funded by NBC in return for exclusive coverage rights) were systematically analysed by the East German authorities, who used their findings to perfect the border defences. These soon consisted of more than just barbed wire and a wall, with the addition of watchtowers, anti-tank obstacles, signalling apparatus, dog patrol guide-wires and a vehicle ditch. Border guards were under orders to shoot anyone trying to escape, breaches of the border were to be prevented. Since it ran through the centre of the city, the Berlin Wall was a focus of international attention. But at the main border between the two Germanys, the border zone was far wider and included minefields.

With the building of the Wall, all contacts between East and West Berliners were cut off. On August 23, 1961, Berliners from the western sectors were banned from entering the eastern sector. Telephone lines between the two halves of the city remained cut until January 31, 1971. The West pursued a strategy of "small steps" with the aim of easing human relations and making the Wall more permeable. The first visits by West Berliners to East Berlin were made possible by a temporary pass agreement for the Christmas of 1963.

When people talk about "the Wall" today, they usually mean the "1975 Border Wall", known in the West as the "4th generation wall". Following simulated attacks on practice walls, this new version of the border defences was developed using prefabricated sections originally designed for use in agriculture; unlike the previous concrete wall of the third generation (erected in 1965), the new wall could not be broken through with vehicles. The individual concrete sections were 3.6 m high, 15 cm thick and 1.2 m wide, erected several meters behind the border with East Berlin. This change was motivated not only by the desire to improve border security, but also the wish to replace particularly brutal-looking elements with a smooth, white concrete surface, to help the GDR project a more positive image to the outside world. Behind the Wall on the East Berlin side, there was a broad control strip, then the vehicle ditch and lighting system. Next came a tarmac strip for patrol vehicles, then watchtowers and bunkers, and a contact fence made of concrete posts and barbed wire. This no-man′s-land was enclosed by a second concrete wall, the so-called “hinterland wall”.

The works in the exhibition "1989-2009 – Berlin Wall – Artists for Freedom" were executed using fragments of this second, eastern wall. This structure, which was accessible from neither east nor west, remained white and unmarked until 1989. An overview of the wall and the border installations was only possible from elevated positions in the West. The image most people have of the Berlin Wall today is based on this view of its western face, covered in graffiti and drawings, what the East German border guards referred to as the “enemy side” of the “anti-fascist protective wall”. The paradox of this system of surveillance was that it was actually directed at the “friendly” side of the wall, at East Berlin and East Germany as a whole. From the point of view of the East Berliners, the wall was the last in a series of insurmountable obstacles. Their experience of the wall has not been preserved in memory because the border area was cordoned off and concealed from sight.