Posted on 08/13/2021 10:55:34 AM PDT by DFG
East Germany, formally known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), wanted to be a paradise for the common folk. It called itself a “workers’ and peasants’ state.” Its anthem, “Risen from Ruins,” brought to mind a phoenix rising gloriously from the ashes of World War II. From cradle to grave, the East German government cared for its citizens, providing childcare, housing, and job assignments.
Even now, shops peddling goods from the GDR years dot the former East. They appeal to those afflicted with Ostalgie, nostalgia for life under the bygone socialist regime.
But despite the modern, sanitized images of East Germany––from the tourist haven of Checkpoint Charlie to the toy Trabants present in every souvenir shop in Berlin––the GDR went to extreme lengths to keep its citizens in line, tracking millions of people with unprecedented surveillance and driving them to unimaginable paranoia. One of its most brutal tools, the Berlin Wall, took root 59 years ago today.
Barbed Wire Sunday On August 13, 1961, Berliners awoke to find the city transforming before their eyes. Overnight, East German troops had razed streets along the border, laying barbed wire in their stead. As construction continued, soldiers and citizen militia groups stood guard along the border, ready to quell any large uprising. Crowds gathered in West Berlin that evening and wept for the loved ones they were now removed from. It came to be known as “Barbed Wire Sunday.”
(Excerpt) Read more at aier.org ...
A united Germany has once again turned into a pain in the ass.
OK Boomer.
Went to the eastern side through CheckPoint Charlie as a 14 yr old in ‘62 as part of a tour group with my mom. I have it firmly planted in my brain that I would never want to live under those kind of conditions and now look. Closing in on 60 years later and guess where we are.
I heard story of boy from the Wester sector visiting grandma few blocks away in Eastern sector. He decided to stay overnight at grandma.
He have not seen his parents for decade, stuck in DDR, never allowed to leave, but having Western money sent by his parents, he was actually very rich in East.
To celebrate Xiden The Usurper is talking about closing our state borders to the unvax’d.
I was stationed in Berlin during the cold war. Nobody was trying to get from west Berlin into East Berlin. I urinated on that wall.
When the Russians took over Buchenwald in East Germany, it continued to function as a concentration camp. Only (most of) the inmates changed, as did the name, to "NKVD Special Camp No 2". It stayed up and running until 1950. More than 7,000 inmates died in Buchenwald after the Nazis had been defeated.
That tells you all you need to know about the two systems.
I hope it wasn’t on the piece I now have in my livingroom!!
There’s a piece of this wall on display in the Evergreen Air/Space museum in McMinnville Oregon. Went a couple of weeks ago, and wasn’t expecting to see such a thing.
I have a piece of the Berlin Wall from when it came down. A woman I worked with got out right before it went up. The rest of her family was still there. As soon as it came down she went to see family and brought me back a piece of the wall.
I recall seeing footage of an East Berliner trying to make a run for it thru the barbed wire. Almost made it except one piece of barbed wire caught her by the scalp. She didn’t go to jail, though.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.