Berlin und Berliner Geschichten

**Dont mind the spelling mistakes this video was used to accompany me in a speach, this is part of my notes THE BERLIN WALL Erected on August 13, 1961 by the communist regime in East Germany. It cut right through the heart of the city, amputating vital traffic links and separating families and friends. Minefields and border police had orders to shot to death anyone who attempted top cross the wall, mainly East Germans lookng for a better future in the West. While the communists tightened their grip on peoples lives in East Berlin, the western part of the city became a walled-in outpost of freedom and democracy. 28 years past and in1989, the world watched in amazement as jubilant crowds gathered on both sides of the Berlin Wall around midnight to celebrate the opening of the border crossings between the eastern and western parts of the city. A peaceful revolution in East Germany had finally cracked this grim symbol of Cold War and political oppression. It signaled the beginning of the end of Germanys postwar division and national unity came less than a year later on October 3, 1990. None of this would have ever seemed possible just a month before, it all started in october of the same year when a member of the politburo, accidently announced that east germans would now be allowed to travel. within the hour hundreds of people approached the gates to see for themselves, when they were not allowed to leave , the people for the first time in over 50 years freely protested …