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On This Day, The Berlin Wall Began to Rise
American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) ^ | 08/13/2020 | Fiona Harrigan

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 ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 1961; barbedwire; berlin; gdr; wall
60 years ago today, construction started on the Berlin Wall.


1 posted on 08/13/2021 10:55:34 AM PDT by DFG
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To: DFG

A united Germany has once again turned into a pain in the ass.


2 posted on 08/13/2021 10:58:28 AM PDT by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021)
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To: DFG

OK Boomer.


3 posted on 08/13/2021 10:59:15 AM PDT by Clemenza (Elon Musk: wealthiest welfare queen in history )
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To: DFG

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.


4 posted on 08/13/2021 11:00:42 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: DFG

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.


5 posted on 08/13/2021 11:03:25 AM PDT by AZJeep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0AHGreco RomNQkryIIs)
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To: DFG

https://youtu.be/drILK2CJwxs


6 posted on 08/13/2021 11:07:22 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. )
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To: DFG

To celebrate Xiden The Usurper is talking about closing our state borders to the unvax’d.


7 posted on 08/13/2021 11:10:57 AM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: DFG

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.


8 posted on 08/13/2021 12:03:57 PM PDT by up hermit
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To: DFG
When the Americans took over Dachau in Bavaria, it was liberated and became a museum to the memory of the people who suffered and died there.

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.

9 posted on 08/13/2021 12:15:59 PM PDT by Campion (What part of "shall not be infringed" don't they understand?)
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To: up hermit

I hope it wasn’t on the piece I now have in my livingroom!!


10 posted on 08/13/2021 1:59:39 PM PDT by lizma2
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To: DFG

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.


11 posted on 08/13/2021 2:21:15 PM PDT by FrankRizzo890
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To: AZJeep

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.


12 posted on 08/14/2021 7:05:56 AM PDT by sheana
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To: DFG

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.


13 posted on 08/14/2021 7:17:30 AM PDT by OKSooner (Always say, "After the fair trial".)
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