The Wall
or what is left of it
After thirty years there isn’t much of the original Berlin Wall left yet. I visited the longest 1.5 km segment left and it was underwhelming. Just about ten to twelve feet tall, the original barbed wire over it no longer there, it wasn’t too imposing. Also, when it was in action, it had security guards and lighting added to it all around.
The Wall only separated East and West Berlin mostly across the river which was an additional barrier. On the west, north and south sides of West Berlin, East Germany had barbed fencing to enclose the city on all sides.
In the history of the world, there are lots of man-made barriers - some like the Great Wall of China last couple of thousand years as a symbol of what it represents to the “walls” that separate Mexico and the US to keep people out. This one lasted about six decades eventually bringing the post-war Germans together. Much of this wall has been taken away as souvenirs, a memory of the past - some real and a lot of fakes ending up on eBay.
Yes, an important symbol of history - I can still hear Reagan saying “Tear down this Wall” to Gorbachev. It just seems like yesterday, yet nearly fifty years ago.
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