WWII and Cold War in Berlin

Berlin is one of the key cities in World War II history, and much of that history is still on display.

As the Soviets attacked Berlin from the east, the Germans mounted a stubborn resistance.  A vicious block-by-block battle for the city raged, which the Soviets eventually won.  In some parts of what was formerly East Berlin, some of the remnants of these battles are still visible.

In the photo above, the facade of the building shows signs of bullet holes that date back to World War II.  (The exposed brink may be exposed as the result of artillery, although our guide could not say for sure.)

In the photo below, an elegant memorial has been placed where a residential building used to stand.  Although most of the buildings that were destroyed during WWII have been rebuilt, some have not.  In the space left vacant in this photo, an apartment building formerly stood.  Rather than rebuild the apartments, the people of Berlin have made this into a memorial.  Each of the white signs on the building contains the names of the people who lived in the apartment that formerly had been in that space.

Berlin has many monuments to the victims of WWII, but certain other sights are given short shrift.  For example, the place where Hitler spent the last days of the war, and eventually committed suicide, was a bunker (called the Fuhrerbunker).  This place is off limits to visitors and buried beneath a parking lot.  In fact, if you don't know what you're looking for, you could pass right by and never notice.

The bunker is below the mini-vans parked on the left of this photo.  The crowd in the distance is looking at a small marker noting what is buried here.

Following WWII, Berlin was divided up by the Soviets, Americans, British and (later) the French.  Shortly after this division, the people running the Soviet-controlled part of Berlin found that they had a problem with their people going to "visit" the west and never coming back.  To fix this problem and protect their citizens from being drawn into and trapped by the slavery of western capitalism, the Berlin Wall was erected.  To further protect their people from the evil and unfulfilling life that awaited them in the west, the East German police would attack or arrest anyone attempting to leave the workers' utopia of East Germany.

One of the few places that people could cross from east to west after the wall was built was called Checkpoint Charlie.  During the Cold War, this was a heavily fortified location probably crawling with spies and definitely crawling with security.  Now, it is a tourist attraction crawling with Starbucks and McDonald's.  (Score one for the capitalists!)

Anne checks in at Checkpoint Charlie

Most of the Berlin Wall itself has been torn down.  The people of Berlin really hated the wall, so when that they could take a sledge hammer to it without risk of being arrested or shot (in 1989), they did so with enthusiasm and the wall was quickly and rather unceremoniously demolished.  The photo below shows the bricks that run throughout the city showing the location of where the wall once stood.

In most places the wall was only this wide.  It was fortified near the Brandenburg Gate to a greater width.  All of the pictures you see of people standing on the wall in 1989 are from that location because most of the wall was not wide enough to stand atop for a demonstration.

Most of the wall was destroyed.  Some parts of it were crushed and taken as souvenirs.  Several small sections of the wall were removed and some are on display in various parts of the city.  There is also a small section of the wall that remains standing and is made into a memorial.

Mark stands next to a surviving portion of the wall at a memorial near Checkpoint Charlie.