Reply With QuoteVery interesting pics...thnx for posting them
Berlin Wall *some graphic*
Information courtesy of wikipedia
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was initially constructed starting on August 13, 1961 and dismantled in the weeks following November 9, 1989. Part of the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall was the most prominent part of the GDR border system.
East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961.
Position and course of the Berlin Wall and its border control checkpoints (1989)
Satellite image of Berlin, with the wall's location marked in yellow.
he Wall was over 155 km (96 miles) long. In June 1962, work started on a second parallel fence up to 91 meters (100 yards) further in, with houses in between the fences torn down and their inhabitants relocated. A no man's land was created between the two barriers, which became widely known as the "death strip". It was paved with raked gravel, making it easy to spot footprints left by escapees; it offered no cover; it was mined and ****y-trapped with tripwires; and, most importantly, it offered a clear field of fire to the watching guards.
Over the years, the Wall went through four distinct phases:
1. Basic wire fence (1961)
2. Improved wire fence (1962-1965)
3. Concrete wall (1965-1975)
4. Grenzmauer 75 (Border Wall 75) (1975-1989)
The "fourth generation wall", known officially as "Stützwandelement UL 12.11"(Retaining wall element UL 12.11), was the final and most sophisticated version of the Wall. Begun in 1975 and completed about 1980, it was constructed from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, each 3.6 m (12 ft) high and 1.2 m (4 ft) wide, and cost 16,155,000 East German marks. The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe, intended to make it more difficult for escapers to scale it. It was reinforced by mesh fencing, signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire, over 116 watchtowers, and twenty bunkers. This version of the Wall is the one most commonly seen in photographs, and surviving fragments of Wall in Berlin and elsewhere around the world are generally pieces of the fourth-generation Wall.
Various pictures
At the Potsdamer Platz in November 1961, workers, supervised by police and soldiers, set up netting and wire entanglements.
Early construction
1961 construction
Observing construction from the western side - 1961
Potsdamer Platz - 1962?
Early wall 1962, East Germany on left
Peter Fechter lies dying after being shot by East German border guards. - 1962
Peter Fechter being carried away
A defecting East German soldier, Conrad Schuman, leaps over a barbed wire barricade at the Bernauer Street sector into West Berlin on Aug. 15, 1961. Schuman made his break for freedom to join his family, which had fled earlier to West Berlin.
Attempted crossing in fake US uniform (captured by DDR)
Cemetary divided by wall
New construction - 1977
East German Guard - 1979
Duck's back - 1980
Building boarded up and used as wall section - Bernauerstraße.
Wall section, note rounded top, to discourage climbing
1977 - Garten Straße - free fire zone easily seen
Children playing along wall
somewhere in "mitte"...
Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburg Gate
Checkpoint Charlie
Checkpoint Charlie
A standoff between US and Soviet tanks at the Friedrichstraße border. 10/25/1961 - 10/26/1961
CHeckpoint Charlie today
Allied checkpoint
US Army patrol along wall - 1967
1967
US Army patrol - 1986
East German side of Checkpoint Charlie
Entrance into East Berlin (East German Side)
DDR Checkpoint
Tower
Glienicker Brücke in winter "Unity Bridge" scene of agent exchanges
President Kennedy at the wall
President Regan
Last edited by aclark79; 07-22-2006 at 08:30 PM.
Very interesting pics...thnx for posting them
****! That is interesting pic
nice post, thanks
Unbelievable what happened there and the short period of time between the end of this and now. This istn ww2 time, its only 2 decades, and today everything is different there
i wonder what the construction workers and the border guards were thinking...
Schumann's family was in Saxony, he fled to the west and left them behind.
When the wall fell he didn't dare to visit them, he suffered from depression and hanged himself.
Background of this incident?
These are absolutely great pictures...thanks for posting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkpoint_CharlieOriginally Posted by Whitcomb
thank you for the pics... very intense... but the picture shown above (little correction) is definetly not taken at the "mariannenplatz" in "kreuzberg"... i do life near the mariannenplatz and it's not there
i guess it's taken somewhere in "mitte"...
The Separation Wall "I think the wall is a problem...it is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel with a wall snaking through the West Bank." President Bush, July 25, 2003
THe Berlin wall was 20 years ago the wall in Israel is now. The reasons are different. Stopping suicide bombers. But a wall is a wall. Is this going to be another mistake of history?
well... i guess there are some differences between the german/german wall and the israel/palestina wall...
just my 2 cents...
edit: "the reasons are different"... havent seen it... you're right but it's not comparably...
Great photos, very dramatic time in history indeed.
Thanks for that, we were very close to a major incident there
awesome pics
Good Pictures, thank you.
Obviously you can't compare those two "walls".
The israeli "wall" is not a wall for the most part, but a fence. (The real wall is only there were is a danger of direct fire afaik.) The palestinians can pass that wall/fence, and so far I think that wall/fence did a pretty good job on keeping out suicide bombers/terrorist/illegals.
The Berlin Wall was nothing more but a wall to keep the oppressed East-German citizens inside of the GDR.
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