https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd Topic: The Berlin Wall en-us 2020-09-05 09:57:24 UTC 2026-01-30 07:39:58 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f1e9-1f1ea.png suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722535168 - The Berlin Wall split East and West Berlin by surrounding West Berlin.
- East Germany was controlled by the Soviets, and West Germany was controlled by the Allies. 
- It lasted from 1961 to 1989. 
- The Wall included barbed wires, watchtowers, beds of nails, and an open space of 100 metres known as the 'death strip'. 
- While around 100,000 people managed to escape, up to 200 were killed trying to escape. ]]> 2020-09-05 10:05:06 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722535168 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722537344 - West Germany, supported by the US, was much more prosperous than East Germany, which was not doing as well financially because the USSR was investing its money into it's military. 
- So lots of East Germans started entering West Germany. 
- To prevent this from happening, Khrushchev tried a Blockade around west Germany, but then US did the Berlin Airlift. The blockade was called off in 1949. 
- Tensions then escalated between the USSR and the US, and after many East Berliners left to the West, Khrushchev ordered for the wall to be built on August 13th, 1961. 
- While the GDR (German Democratic Republic of east Germany) claimed that this wall was to keep Western spies from entering, it was obviously to keep East Berliners in. 
- There were only 3 official places where people could officially cross over: Checkpoint Alpha, Checkpoint Bravo and Checkpoint Charlie. 
- People escaped in all sorts of ways, which will be mentioned later. 
- On November 9th, 1989, due to a lot of civil unrest and thawing of tensions in the Cold War, the gates were opened and people from both sides of the wall got together and had the largest street party imaginable, because the whole city joined in. ]]> 2020-09-05 10:12:21 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722537344 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722549883 - Hot air balloons.
- Sewers and tunnels.
- Prison guards going rogue.
- People jumping over from windows near the wall.
- Driving a cars at high speeds through unfortified parts of the wall.
- Climbing over the barbed wire and all.
- Dying and crossing the wall in spirit form. ]]> 2020-09-05 10:52:20 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722549883 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722552267 "The world's too small for walls."- Unknown, on the Berlin Wall ]]> 2020-09-05 11:01:57 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722552267 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722552714 "Desperation drove ingenuity among East Germans determined to reach West Berlin."- Erik Blakemore  ]]> 2020-09-05 11:03:41 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722552714 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722553874 Wolfgang Engels was an East German border guard who helped set up the fences of parts the wall.
He stole a tank and drove it through the wall and escaped in spite of getting shot twice and getting caught in barbed wire.

"I'm getting out of here to the West, anyone wanna come along?"- Wolfgang Engels ]]> 2020-09-05 11:08:21 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722553874 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722557206 Joachim Neumann, an East German, had escaped into West Berlin using a fake Swiss passport and leaving behind his family, friends and girlfriend, Christa Gruhle. 
He then conspired with other West Berlin students to create a tunnel. His first attempt failed because someone tipped off the East German secret police, or the Stasi, and the plan failed. His girlfriend got arrested. 
They started the tunnel in the West, near an abandoned bakery near the border. They dug for 6 months and lived in very bad conditions. 
In the end, on October 3rd, 1964, the tunnel was ready, and Neumann started finding all his family members and friends to get them to escape. His girlfriend wasn't due to release till December, but she go out early, and even she was able to escape this time. 
Even though the tunnel only lasted 2 days, it remains as the most successful escape through the Berlin Wall. ]]> 2020-09-05 11:16:30 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722557206 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722645078 Horst Klein, a trapeze artist, actually crossed the wall by walking on a disused power cable. 
He did, however fall off the cable and break both arms. But he fortunately reached West Berlin by then. 
He only left East Berlin because he was banned from performing due to his anti-communist beliefs. ]]> 2020-09-05 14:41:53 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722645078 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722654828 "Don't be another brick in the wall."- Unknown, on the Berlin Wall ]]> 2020-09-05 14:59:33 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722654828 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722658621 In the end of December 1961, an East German guard Micheal Mara escaped to the West. He later returned to the Wall and struck up conversation with some of the guards on the East side.

A few weeks ago, I was standing one evening somewhere near Checkpoint Charlie. On the other side of the Wall, three soldiers were sitting on a block of concrete. They gestured to me to ask if I had a few cigarettes for them. I went to the nearest cigarette machine and bought some packs of Lifes, the favorite brand of border soldiers. I wrote a few words of greetings on a small piece of paper and threw it over with the cigarettes. The soldiers carefully scanned their surroundings before they picked up the cigarettes. A little later a note weighted down by a stone came flying over. It said, “Thanks a lot for the cigarettes. ... We’re married, with children, and that’s why we can’t jump over—we’ve just got to put up with this humbug. There are many here who think as we do.”]]> 2020-09-05 15:07:34 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722658621 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722671119 A person recounts the series of events that took place when the Wall was first set up.

The scream of sirens and the clank of steel on cobblestones echoed down the mean, dark streets. Frightened East Berliners peeked from behind their curtains to see military convoys stretching for blocks. First came the motorcycle outriders, then jeeps, trucks and buses crammed with grim, steel-helmeted East German troops. Rattling in their wake were the tanks — squat Russian-built T-34s and T-54s. At each major intersection, a platoon peeled off and ground to a halt, guns at the ready. The rest headed on for the sector border, the 25-mile frontier that cuts through the heart of Berlin like a jagged piece of glass. As the troops arrived at scores of border points, cargo trucks were already unloading rolls of barbed wire, concrete posts, wooden horses, stone blocks, picks and shovels. When dawn came four hours later, a wall divided East Berlin from West for the first time in eight years.]]> 2020-09-05 15:30:44 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722671119 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722673166 Another person narrates the order of events that took place when the Wall was finally torn down, and collapsed as fast as it was set up.

What happened in Berlin last week was a combination of the fall of the Bastille and a New Year’s Eve blowout, of revolution and celebration. At the stroke of midnight on Nov. 9, a date that not only Germans would remember, thousands who had gathered on both sides of the Wall let out a roar and started going through it, as well as up and over. West Berliners pulled East Berliners to the top of the barrier along which in years past many an East German had been shot while trying to escape; at times the Wall almost disappeared beneath waves of humanity. They tooted trumpets and danced on the top. They brought out hammers and chisels and whacked away at the hated symbol of imprisonment, knocking loose chunks of concrete and waving them triumphantly before television cameras. They spilled out into the streets of West Berlin for a champagne-spraying, horn-honking bash that continued well past dawn, into the following day and then another dawn. As the daily BZ would headline: BERLIN IS BERLIN AGAIN.]]> 2020-09-05 15:33:54 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722673166 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722675854 I was only able to add 3 GIFs since Padlet is not allowing more than that :( ]]> 2020-09-05 15:39:03 UTC https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722675854 suryaturaga1 https://padlet.com/suryaturaga1/37ftqkmiykubvyxd/wish/722676380 - My brain and notebook.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/most-successful-tunnel-escape-history-berlin-wall-180953268/
- https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/berlin-wall-escape-stories_n_6090602?ri18n=true
- https://www.thelocal.de/20141031/wolfgang-engels-berlin-wall-25-years-daring-escape
- https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/fearless-escapes-berlin-wall.html
- https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/berlin-wall-anniversary-1963-atlantic/382358/ 
- https://time.com/3557321/berlin-wall-stories/

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