The Berlin Wall, which divided both city and continent, fell 25 years ago
Imagine that your best friend lives a mile away. You have been pals since first grade. You do everything together: school, soccer games, sleepovers.
One day, men come and put up a barbed-wire fence between your house and your buddy's. Later, they replace it with a very long, very tall concrete wall. Each slab weighs 6,000 pounds, and many of them are topped with sharp wire.
When they finish, you stare at the giant wall that has split your home town in two. On your side, the wall is ugly but not too scary. On the other side, rattling tanks, soldiers with machine guns and growling dogs keep people from trying to cross the barrier.
Your friend lives on the other side. You won't see him for the next 28 years.
The Germans were used to their land being divided. When Germany lost World War II in 1945, the winning Allies divided the country into four zones. France, Britain and the United States controlled three zones, which later became West Germany.
Despite being wartime allies, neither side trusted the other.
With the Soviet Union forcing its system on East Germany and several neighboring countries, the Iron Curtain descended.
Barbed-wire fencing went up Aug. 13, 1961, followed by the concrete wall. Streets in East Berlin were ripped up and buildings razed to create wide-open "death strips" along the wall, making escape very hard. Bright lights lit the area at night, and electrified fences kept vehicles and people away. Soldiers manned 302 watchtowers along the wall.
Some East Germans got out just in time. Hans Conrad Schumann, 19, was a soldier sent to guard the wall on its third day of construction.
Families divided
Families and friendships were torn apart by the wall. Westerners could apply for a pass to visit East Berlin. East Berliners could not leave. Newlyweds in West Berlin sometimes climbed ladders so relatives on the other side of the wall could see them in their wedding clothes.
Most subway lines that once crossed the city now stopped at the border and turned back. A few trains continued briefly into East Berlin but did not stop at what were called "ghost stations."
Some foods became scarce in East Berlin. Children there were lucky to get one or two bananas a year. And Western businesses such as McDonald's and Coca- Cola were banned.
Radio and television shows couldn't be easily blocked, so teens in East Berlin — just like their peers on the other side of the wall — heard and went crazy for a new style of music called rock-and-roll.
Growing unrest among the young worried East German officials. In 1988, they invited American rock legend Bruce Springsteen to give a concert in East Berlin. People came from all over East Germany, and millions more watched on TV. "I've come to play rock-and-roll for you in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down," Springsteen told the cheering crowd.
Hated, but successful
The wall did its job. The day before it went up, 2,400 East Germans crossed into West Berlin. But in the 28 years that followed, only 5,000 or so made it.
They dug tunnels, flew small planes and drifted over in a homemade hot-air balloon. Some slid along wires strung like a zip line between East and West.
Many didn't make it. Peter Fechter, 18, was an early victim. He and a friend planned to escape over a 6 ½-foot section of the wall. His friend made it, but Fechter was shot while climbing the wall. His cries for help were ignored, and he died at the base of the wall an hour later. (A memorial was later built on the spot. In German, it reads: "He just wanted freedom.")
No one knows how many died trying to cross into West Berlin. One guess is about 200, including children as young as 10. Thousands of people were captured and sent to prison for trying to get out of East Berlin.
'Tear down this wall'
In June 1987, Berlin celebrated its 750th anniversary. U.S. President Ronald Reagan traveled to West Berlin and gave a speech calling on the Soviets to "tear down this wall."
By 1989, change was sweeping across Eastern Europe. People were tired of communist rule. Angry Berliners wanted the wall removed. In a surprise move, East German officials opened the border.
More than 2 million Berliners streamed from one side of the city to the other that weekend. In a two-day party, people danced atop the wall and chipped off souvenirs with hammers and picks.
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