This article is published with the permission of the public account "Memory Islands Isles"
Author of this article
Wangyue reads in his spare time, steals when he is busy, is a history lover and freelance writer.
Going home is what all festivals mean to everyone.
More than sixty years ago, families belonging to two countries were probably only a few hundred meters apart from each other. They live in the same city, but they are doomed to not be able to return home.
They prayed that when Christmas came, they could hear their loved ones knocking on the door.
A new hope for Germany
The Soviets took Berlin in May 9, 1945, which was both good news and bad news for their Western allies. The American jeeps were preparing to cross the Elbe and prepare to jointly occupy Berlin. Looking at the Red Army soldiers holding "Bobosa" on the other side, the Americans waved in greeting, but the Soviets did not have any joy on their faces, and Shunshi aimed their guns at them. The U.S. military was told that "the demining work is not over" and that "Soviet troops still need time to deploy" and that now is not a good time to enter Berlin.
The Red Army cheered victory at the Battle of Berlin
With Berlin occupied for six weeks, the Soviets did not seem to want to invite their allies to see the fruits of their "demolition brigade." The Soldiers of the Red Army were busy fighting another "battle," loading all the factories, laboratories, and gold held by the Nazis into the most developed cities of the Third Reich on the train to Moscow.
Looking at the train full of loads, the bright-eyed Representative of the Soviet Army in Berlin, General Ivan Sulov, found at a glance what ordinary people could not find, pointed his hand to the ground, and shouted, "The tracks of the train are still there!" Tear them down! ”。 Until March 1947, 11,800 kilometers of rails in the Soviet-occupied area were dismantled and transported, which was equivalent to half the total length of the railway in Germany in 1938. Although all the valuable things were removed, the lives of the people of Berlin were still guaranteed, and during the Soviet occupation, the Red Army would even give out military food to help the people. Not many people starved to death in the city of Berlin, and the tragic stories of Leningrad did not take place.
The Red Army's lenient policies gave the Germans hope, and the first mayor of the Berlin government, which was rebuilt on May 19, was Dr. Arthur Werner, a university dean without communist overtones. Such a move made the Berlin crowd think that the Soviets would really bring them freedom. In the face of the comrades' concerns, the leader of the German Communist Party, Ubrish, said: "It does not matter, his deputy will be his own." Every district of Berlin will have a trustworthy comrade who can help us set up local police organizations. ”
All Nazi officials in the Soviet-occupied territories were pulled off their horses and replaced by left-wing Socialist or Communists. In contrast, the Western Allies simply eliminated the Nazis in the judiciary, while the economic and political spheres still used many of the Third Reich elites. Because they believed that if all Nazis were to be completely eliminated, it would mean that most of the German men would be purged and the country would no longer be able to cheer up.
This move greatly disappointed the German people, hated the right,around, and supported the image of the Soviet Union in a workers' government, but in fact the Soviet side also appointed many old Nazi parties. The German people still believe that they will leave the quagmire of the war forever and get back on track in life.
Walter Ubrich on the cover of Time Magazine
The Allied forces were finally able to enter Berlin, forming a situation of co-rule. Berlin demanded a new government, and the Soviets unexpectedly agreed. Ubrich believed that the "deputy system" had sown the seeds of communism in Berlin and that the outcome of the elections would be the victory of the German United Socialist Party. "It all has to look democratic, but we have to control everything," he said. The result of the election gave the German Social Democrats 49 percent of the seats in the Berlin City Council, while Ubrich's Socialist United German Party won only 19 percent of the vote.
In the face of such disobedient Germans, the "people's police" of the German Ministry of the Interior were mobilized, and they set up the German "Gulag Labor Camp" and set off a wave of arrests of Nazis and subversives.
In 1951, Berlin students marched aloft with photographs of Stalin
Divided Berlin
Because the whole territory of Berlin was located in the Soviet-occupied zone, the Soviets, who felt deceived in the parliamentary elections, soon blocked all railways, roads and canals from West Germany to West Berlin, and West Berlin had become a capitalist island. Handing over Berlin and succumbing to the Soviet Union seemed to be the only option for the West. But Britain, France and the United States thought of a better way and decided to dispatch a large number of aircraft to transport supplies to Berlin. The move made it difficult for the Western people who had just finished World War II to understand why they had not been able to feed themselves and why they should use national resources to feed the evil city of Berlin.
It was also a psychological paradox for many pilots, who landed in the city they had been bombed to the ground, only to find that the citizens there were welcoming them expectantly. The rhetoric and national will of Western politicians have made the Western people participate in the rescue of Berlin as much as they can. By April 1949, Britain and the United States had delivered 7,845 tons of supplies per day, fully meeting the needs of the 3 million citizens of West Berlin. The Siege of the Soviet Union was resolved, and the moment of the showdown followed.
The citizens of Berlin cheered on the airlift planes of the Western Allies
On 23 May, the Federal Republic of Germany was proclaimed. The move saddened Ubrichs, who was trying to force the capitalist Allies to hand over all of Berlin, longing for a unified socialist Germany. In a bipolar confrontational situation, Germany is nothing more than a pawn in the "Cold War" and is destined to be divided like North Korea. The Soviet-Occupied People's Committee reacted quickly, and just a week after the establishment of West Germany, the Constitution of the German Democratic Republic was efficiently adopted, and Ubrich was appointed First Secretary.
West Germany issued a new mark at this time, and the wealthy Americans allowed the West Germans to exchange the old mark in their hands with a new mark of equivalent value, which soon stabilized the Economic Order in Germany and West Berlin was being reborn. More and more East Germans tried to flee to West Germany, and West Berlin was the most convenient place, with 17,791 people escaping through West Berlin in a month in July 1961 alone.
Horst Sindmann, propaganda minister of the German Democratic Republic, informed all media outlets that the term "flee the republic" was not allowed to be used to describe those who had left East Berlin, as if they had left on their own initiative. He allowed journalists to use expressions such as "human trafficking" and "headhunting" to show that these people had been deceived, tempted, and even kidnapped before leaving East Germany.
Despite repeated media propaganda about how terrible life in West Berlin was, a large number of Germans still used the "enclave" of West Berlin to break away from the siege, and these "forced departures" included Hungarians, Czechoslovakians and other people from Eastern European countries. Seeing the loss of a large number of skilled workers, Berlin even became the largest distribution center for illegal immigrants, the East German government was simply disgraced.
Map of East and West Berlin
First Secretary Ubrishch's decision to use a wall to protect the people from the evils of West Berlin was approved by Khrushchev, although the Soviets did not consider the cost of building the wall. Naturally, it is always more expensive to build than to spend on demolition.
The wall, code-named "Rose", was protected by a spiky wall, and when completed, Berlin would become the largest "rose" in Europe. On the night of August 13, 1961, with the rumble of Soviet tanks, the East German People's Army drew the border between East and West Berlin, ignoring the interconnected streets and splitting the building in half, rigorously examining the nationality of the windows.
Heavy barbed wire was thrown to the ground, pulling up a heavy "iron curtain". Berliners wake up one night to find that they really live in two countries, and young people who spend the night at a friend's house on weekends say goodbye to their parents, and those who visit relatives on the other side of the city never return home. In the context of the "Cold War", the feelings of the individual and the meaning of the family were subordinated to political arrangements. Berlin, at the forefront of the U.S.-Soviet struggle for hegemony, was torn apart by two superpowers.
East-West German police confronted each other on the left and right sides of the demarcation line
Brave the Berlin Wall
Rome wasn't built in a day, and the Berlin Wall wasn't built in a day. The original Berlin Wall was just a barbed wire fence that could be crossed if you jumped high enough and ran fast enough. Later barbed wire was turned into a high wall, and there would be broken glass on the wall, and there would be cylinders, so that people trying to climb the wall could not catch it. Later, the power grid, the watchtower, and the five-meter-high searchlight were installed, which was not much different from the configuration of the prison.
Moreover, the East German Ministry of the Interior built the wall a few meters more into East Germany, which meant that even if you had crossed the wall, you were still in East Germany, and the East German border guards had the right to shoot at you.
East German border police dragged away fugitives injured by machine guns
Despite the tight protections, it was still impossible to stop the East Berliners' desire for West Berlin. On August 17, an East German youth, Peter Fichter, and his companions attempted to climb over the Berlin Wall. His companion was lucky enough to turn over, but Peter was shot in front of the concrete wall, and after being shot a dozen times, he collapsed on the side of the wall, bleeding profusely and helplessly shouting for help.
Whether it was because of fear or the orders of their superiors, none of the East German police dared to come forward and take Peter away. Peter's cries for help alarmed the police on the West German side, and they threw a first aid kit at Peter, but by this time he was about to fall into a coma and had no strength to save himself. After lying by the Berlin Wall for more than 50 minutes, his cries gradually changed to groans, to whimpers, until they fell silent.
The West Germans on the other side were furious, shouting angrily at the firing border guards, "You are murderers!" "You are fascists!" In the eyes of the East Germans, the West Berliners who shouted opposite were real thieves, because the full name of the wall was "Anti-Fascist Defense Wall". Later, there were several incidents of trucks rushing into the checkpoint, and the anger of the crowd and the disregard for the border made Ubricht feel the need to strengthen the border defense.
He assigned the task of guarding the Berlin Wall from the Ministry of The Interior to the Ministry of Defense, appointed the "Commander of the City of Berlin", conferred the rank of Major General of the East German People's Army, and commanded a force of 38,000 men. The September 20 secret order "Fire on traitors and border invaders" allowed the troops guarding the Berlin Wall to kill indiscriminately.
The dying Peter Fichter was taken away by the East German border police
He died after being taken to hospital
Poor Peter was the first to die under the Berlin Wall, but he wasn't the last. Bus driver Brusick glanced at a checkpoint, slammed on the accelerator and rushed over, hoping to rush to the land of West Berlin in one fell swoop. At this point any attempt to cross the Berlin Wall was considered treasonous, and the border guards were shooting at the bus. After the fire caught fire in the bus, passengers jumped off the carriage to survive.
Desperately, Brusik broke through the barrier of the checkpoint and broke through the fence, and the entire bus finally landed intact on West German land. The West Germans who rushed to greet them were shocked by the horrors in front of them, Brusick had died, there were 19 bullet holes in the windshield in front of him, and the passengers who did not jump out of the car were either gunshot wounded or burned to the ground screaming. The border police who arrived later dragged the disfigured bus away, leaving no one to remain in West Germany, and the suicidal escape ended in complete failure.
These people may just want to meet their relatives on the other side, but they will never have a chance in this life. The East Berliners tried to escape to West Berlin, and the West Berliners tried to help the East Berliners escape. This adventurous act of crossing the high wall brought pain and death.
noel
In June 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin and gave a speech under the Berlin Wall, praising West Berlin as a beacon of light for the free world. When he shouted "I am a German" in German at the end of his speech, the audience was filled with emotion, as if they could be sheltered and saved.
Speeches can be a moment of excitement, but the separation of reality is real despair. For nearly two and a half years, the people of East and West Berlin lost contact with each other. After a long and difficult period of negotiations, the two sides signed the Border Crossing Permit Agreement, which allowed West Berliners to be granted permission to visit their immediate family members in East Berlin during the Christmas and New Year periods.
The people of West Berlin are passing through the checkpoint
The political balance seemed to tip over the individual needs of the populace this time, and the whole city of Berlin rejoiced. Housewives went to the store to buy food, holding lists in their hands and planning the Christmas menu. The men informed their friends and family early and went to the liquor store to order German black beer. In the festive atmosphere, people seem to have forgotten the big era background of the "Cold War", and the happiness of small families is eternal. The painful memories of separation are still fresh, but they all choose to forget when people congratulate each other on happy holidays.
Saddled with the pain of the past, it is impossible to enjoy today's reunion, and the Christmas holidays have left the whole of Berlin with collective amnesia. Watching loved ones walk by the side of the iron fence, East Berliners welcomed them with flowers in their hands and holding up name tags. It seems that everything is no different from the travelers who returned from the airport, and the relatives finally returned home for the first time in the long journey of two and a half years.
Brothers meet
When everyone is enjoying the joy of the holidays, tragic news can always pull people back to reality at once. On the night of December 25, 18-year-old Paul Shure tried to climb over a barbed wire fence. The year-round East German border police easily spotted him and opened fire. At first Paul was not hit and struggled to climb to the side of West Berlin. Just as he was about to cheer, an icy bullet passed through the lobe of his lungs, and he stumbled to the ground. He was taken to the hospital by West German police and stopped breathing while on the road.
Paul Shure's ID
The news was soon broadcast, and the whole city of Berlin was in an uproar. At one point, the Agreement led to the idea that disputes would be put aside and that East and West Germany would move towards reconciliation. Paul's death confirms that the world is still only divided into camps and confrontations between them. Faced with the fugitives, the East German soldiers simply opened fire. When Germany was still at the forefront of the "Cold War," the happiness of any individual was illusory, as fragile as a bubble. Germany was defeated and reduced from ruler to ruler, and all who lived in this land had to accept this reality. That's the way it is, berliners have to learn to accept it in order not to live so painfully.
They have brought indelible suffering to the entire world and have enslaved many European people. They imposed their values on the conquered countries and let them live in the way German ideals were. But after 1945, they paid the price for the evil deeds of that year. The Berlin Wall proves that they are now a country at the mercy of great powers, a fate of the times that is difficult to resist. The people need to pay for the history of the country, and the will of the individual is subject to the arrangements of the United States and the Soviet Union. The opening of the border at Christmas is only a placebo, but the product of a bipolar compromise. Berliners understood that in order to be free and live a life of self-control, their identity needed to change and the Berlin Wall had to be torn down. Every German must always remember history and change himself profoundly.
On November 9, 1989, the German GDR allowed citizens to visit the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin, and the borders of the Berlin Wall were opened, ushering in a new integration of Berliners who had been isolated for 28 years. Berliners have endured this test in a generation of years, and the 157 people who sacrificed under the Berlin Wall can see their compatriots in heaven embracing each other, smiling with tears in their eyes.
This wall has been around for so long that children born after 1961 think that they should have been born with a wall in their lives, and that they should not have any contact with the people across the wall. They may not feel pain, but when the wall is pushed, they suddenly realize that it was all a mistake. The past of the fathers has influenced the next generation, and the sins and pains of history have made the germans recombined to reflect.
The day the Berlin Wall opened
The past life has passed, and a new era is coming. For the new Germans, they can cheer for their football and be proud of their acceptance of refugees, but the memories of the Berlin Wall will last a lifetime.