Berlin Wall

The top question of any visitor to Berlin is: Where’s the Wall? In short, it’s gone. After Die Wende (the term used to describe the reunification Germany), the 155-kilometer ring around West Berlin went the way of most useless masonry – it was torn down to make space for new construction. (Berlin has been a construction site for years, its skyline pierced by building cranes).

The longest existing piece of the Wall (one kilometer) is on Mühlenstraße, but perhaps not for long. In the 90s, artists painted murals on the concrete and created what became the open air East Side Gallery. Some of these murals were recently torn down, and the fate of the rest is uncertain. The city of Berlin is reluctant to protect them. After all, the Berlin Wall was nothing to be proud of. At least 125 people died trying to cross it, some of them dying in the eastern zone before the eyes of Allied personnel powerless to help. The observation towers, the bunkers, the dog runs, the metal fencing -- all of it is gone, but not the rift between East and West Germany.

Few Germans today would say the Die Wende has been a complete success. Many parts of East Germany still lag behind the west in employment and wages and thus prosperity. Even without the wall, the united Germany is still under construction. 

By: Globus