The Wall

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and an important city in the in the twentieth century. Berlin has a lot of monuments and attractions that bring tourists to its majestic city, from the Reichstag to the Brandenburg Gate. Though Berlin is privileged to have many sites the most important and controversial is the Berlin Wall, one of the most controversial borders/walls in modern history. Not only dividing the people of the city, but the culture as well.

The Berlin Wall was the product of the struggle of power between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. After the Allies defeated the Axis Powers the capitol city was split into 4 territories. The four main members of the Allies had a share in the city. The United States, France, and Great Britain controlled the West side of Berlin and the Soviet Union controlled the East. In 1961 tensions between NATO and the USSR exploded. As a result a wall was built to divide the city in two territories, East and West. Consequently a whole country and a lot of families were split up for decades.

Traveling to see the Berlin wall on the metro, it was extremely easy to distinguish the two sides. The East looked as though the buildings were not well kept and aged. Towards the West I saw a very modern and well-kept city. There were several skyscrapers. Standing at this border of what seems to be two different cities it is very obvious to see the distinction of communist and capitalistic cities. Looking back on what I experienced I realized that East Berlin is experiencing urbanization as a result of the wall. Additionally, there was a lot of construction happening in East Berlin. An attempt to match the beauty of the city's better half.
Once I had the wall in my sites, it seemed as though it stretched for miles. The wall extremely artistic underlined with political messages. Many of the messages proposed for peace others called for political independence. One of my favorite murals on the Berlin Wall was this (click here). I feel as though it represents the search for peace in East Germany, but the dove cannot find it because it is chained to the prisoner.

After looking at the wall I felt as though I lived history because after taking many classes on European history I felt as though I completely understood what the Berlin Wall stood for. The Berlin wall taught me that reading about something in school is a lot different than seeing first hand. It reminded me of an epiphany or some sort of enlightenment.

Luckily, I was fortunate enough to meet some locals in Berlin and they gave me an insight on the repercussions on the wall. One man explained to me that there was a division among Germans until 2006 when the World Cup took place in Germany. He also mentioned that until 2006, many Germans did not consider themselves as Germans and only referred to themselves as one of the states of Germany. Additionally many Germans did not know the national anthem as well.

As a result of visiting the Berlin Wall I feel as thought it could be used as a symbol of unification instead of division, as it had been used in the past. Many Germans could see it as something in common no matter what side they grew up on, they both were confined to where they could travel in their country.