The Berlin Wall was built on August 13, 1961. It fell on November 9, 1989. What remains of this iconic structure today? We set out to investigate.
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00:00This year marks 35 years to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
00:03It once divided Berlin and Germany for decades, bringing misery to many people.
00:09So, what's left of it today?
00:11When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, I wasn't born yet.
00:17But later I saw the videos.
00:21All the many emotional people.
00:26What seemed impossible had come true.
00:31A peaceful revolution.
00:34So, let's start exploring the wall in Berlin and Germany.
00:42Our first location is Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse,
00:45which was one of the most famous border crossings ever.
00:50It's hard to imagine today that World War III almost broke out here.
00:54At the end of World War II, the Allies had divided not only Germany,
00:57but also Berlin into four occupation zones.
01:00The western zones were administered by the US, British and French,
01:03and the eastern zone by the Soviets, known as the GDR.
01:07At first, people could still cross the border,
01:09but that ended when the GDR built the wall on August 13, 1961.
01:13The wall was built and all of West Berlin was sealed off.
01:18Here at Checkpoint Charlie, American and Soviet tanks drove up,
01:22armed with live ammunition, and stood facing each other for more than 16 hours.
01:28Berlin and the world held their breath.
01:31Fortunately, the tanks withdrew, the situation calmed down,
01:34and the wall became a sad part of everyday life.
01:38There's not much left of the wall at Checkpoint Charlie today.
01:41It's mainly a popular photo spot.
01:44But you can find out what the wall actually looked like in other places.
01:49Our second stop is the memorial on Bernauer Strasse.
01:53It consists of a large open-air exhibition and a documentation center.
02:01These poles show where the wall once stood,
02:04mainly through the middle of Bernauer Strasse.
02:10When the wall was built overnight on August 13, 1961,
02:15desperate people jumped out of the windows on Bernauer Strasse.
02:19Their houses were in the east, but the street was in the west.
02:24Over the years, the simple wall became a sophisticated border fortification system.
02:34140 people died either by being shot or from accidents
02:39that occurred while trying to escape at the Berlin Wall.
02:42The memorial at Bernauer Strasse is very moving,
02:45since it's a stark reminder of the once tragic history of the city.
02:55Our third spot is completely different.
02:58It's colorful, cheerful, and original.
03:00The East Side Gallery.
03:04It is 1.3 kilometers long and was painted by artists from all over the world
03:09after the fall of the wall.
03:11It is in fact one of the largest open-air galleries in the world.
03:15It's just fun to walk along here and look at over a hundred paintings.
03:24We are now leaving Berlin and driving to our fourth location,
03:27a place called Point Alpha.
03:29This US observation post was on the border of former West Germany,
03:34exactly between the present-day states of Thuringia and Hesse.
03:41Point Alpha was considered a major hotspot in the Cold War.
03:49And that's because the US troops were certain
03:51that if the Soviet troops were to invade the West,
03:54they would invade here.
03:56The terrain is relatively flat, so during a surprise attack,
03:59Soviet troops could have penetrated very quickly and deeply into West Germany.
04:04That's why the Americans built an observation post right here,
04:08as close as possible to the GDR border fortifications.
04:13The fifth and last stop on our journey lies on the border
04:16between Thuringia and Bavaria, the small village of Modlagojt.
04:21This small stream has always been the natural border
04:23between Thuringia and Bavaria,
04:25and it was never a problem until 1945,
04:29when the Allies divided Germany between themselves.
04:32Suddenly, West Modlagojt was in the American zone,
04:35while East Modlagojt was in the Soviet zone.
04:38The administrative border had suddenly become a national border,
04:42separating friends and families.
04:44People from the western part of the village
04:46could no longer go to the same school or bar
04:49because they were now in the East.
04:51It was also forbidden for people on opposite sides
04:54to wave or even greet each other.
04:56This eventually became impossible anyway,
04:59as the border fortifications were extended,
05:01pushing people farther apart.
05:03American soldiers nicknamed the place Little Berlin.
05:07The people of Modlagojt left part of the wall standing
05:10so that future generations could understand
05:12what it meant to live in a divided village,
05:15in a divided country.
05:17This concludes our search for traces of history
05:2035 years after the fall of the wall in Berlin and Germany.