August 13, 1961: Vopos (East German Border Guards) begin building the first Berlin wall with mortar and cinder blocks. The wall was later rebuilt much larger and thicker with reinforced concrete.


The wall seperated East and West Berlin. West Berliners could not cross the border at the few checkpoints unless on official business, approved ahead of time. East Berliners were forbidden to even come close to the wall. Barbed wire and other fortifications were installed by the DDR (East German government) to prevent Easterners from escaping to the West. Many died trying.


The wall ran all the way around the periphery of West Berlin, even in a few cases where nothing but farm fields lay on the East German side.


After decades, the East German state began to peel away and crumble. The dictator of the Communist regime, Erich Honeker, asked the Soviet leader, Gorbachev, for assistance. Gorby refused. In the autumn of 1989 people gathered at the wall (photo shows the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin.)


On the night of 9 November, 1989, West Berliners scaled the wall and stood shoulder-to-shoulder atop it. People began chipping at it with hammers.


Soon, the crowd had breached the concrete structure. A high official in the DDR announced that passage across the dividing line would be tolerated. East Germans poured through the gaps. The crowds continued to gather and hack away at the monstrosity that had divided the city = and a people - for so long. The Vopos did not resist or attempt to stop anyone. And soon heavy equipment was brought in to finish the job.

CONGRATULATIONS GERMANS - AND ESPECIALLY BERLINERS, "OSTIES" AND WEST BERLINERS! Twenty years of FREEDOM! May it last forever.

............

I was assigned on TDY (Temporary Duty) in August of 1961 from my unit in Bavaria to Berlin Brigade. I witnessed the building of the wall as a US Army soldier.

In 1992 I returned to Berlin for the first time since my Army tours. I went to the Brandenburg Gate and walked across the open and unobstructed Platz, into what had been the East Zone. It brought tears to my eyes but I wasn't sad. I was smiling.

FREIHEIT!