Berlin Wall Memorial recognize, explore, remember
Bernauer Strasse in the early 1960s (1960 - 1964 )
Until 1945, Bernauer Straße was a lively residential street with small shops on the border between Berlin's inner city districts of Wedding and Mitte. The northern side as well as the street and sidewalks belonged to Wedding. The houses located on the southern side belonged to Mitte. When the victorious powers divided Berlin into sectors after the war in 1945, the district border became the sector border.
Initially, this did not have any significant consequences. In the following years, however, increasing conflicts between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union led to a steadily growing separation between East and West in Berlin as well. The movement of people and goods at the sector borders was monitored by the People's Police. Despite the division of Germany into the GDR and the Federal Republic in 1949, however, the residents of the houses on Bernauer Strasse, which were located in the Soviet sector, were able to leave their homes without any significant obstruction or control and thus enter the French sector.
This changed with the construction of the Wall on August 13, 1961. Doors and ground floor windows were locked, and access was only possible through the rear entrance. Many residents of the border houses spontaneously decided to flee immediately after the closure measures. They rappelled down from their apartments or jumped out of the windows into the jump sheets provided by the West Berlin fire brigade. Some were seriously injured in the process. The first deaths of the border regime also occurred here. A few weeks after the Wall was built, the houses were evacuated, the remaining residents were forcibly relocated, and windows and doors were bricked up. Bernauer Strasse thus developed into a focal point of post-war German history. The consequences of the construction of the Wall for the inhabitants of the divided city became particularly brutal here.
Die Bernauer Straße im Dezember 1962 - Die Fenster der Häuser auf Ost-Berliner Seite sind bereits zugemauert. © 1962 Unbekannter Fotograf Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Die Versöhnungskirche 1962 - Der zugemauerte Zugang zur Versöhnungskirche, die nun im Ostteil der Stadt liegt. Die westlichen Mitglieder der Gemeinde sind nun von den Gottesdiensten ausgeschlossen. © 1962 Ulrich Zimmer Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Die Bernauer Straße auf Höhe der Brunnenstraße - Hinter der Mauer auf Höhe der Poller befindet sich der nun versperrte Zugang zur U-Bahn, Anfang 1960er Jahre. © Michael-Reiner Ernst Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Das Mahnmal für Olga Segler in der Bernauer Straße - Die 80-Jährige stürzte bei einem Fluchtversuch aus dem Fenster ihrer Wohnung ab und starb am folgenden Tag an einem Herzleiden, das sich nach dem Sturz verschärft hatte, Anfang 1960er Jahre. © Michael-Reiner Ernst Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Die Bernauer Straße - Die Bernauer Straße an der Einmündung der Ruppiner Straße, 1961/62 © 1961 Gerhard Ringwelski Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Verstärkung der Mauer - Verstärkung der 1961 errichteten Mauer durch Betonplatten an der Einmündung der Ackerstraße in die Bernauer Straße, 1963. © 1963 Manfred Adamczak Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Bernauer Strasse between the end of the 1960s and 1989 (1965 - 1989 )
Due to the spectacular escape attempts and some deaths, Bernauer Strasse also achieved sad fame outside Berlin. Especially in the 1960s, the most famous and successful escape tunnels were dug here.
With the construction of a barrier made of prefabricated concrete elements, the "Grenzmauer 75," beginning in 1975, the Berlin Wall reached its final stage of expansion here as well. The demolition of the Church of Reconciliation in 1985, which had stood inaccessible in the border strip since the Wall was built and was temporarily used as a "watchtower" by the GDR border troops, once again documented the destructive consequences of the Wall for Berliners and the GDR leadership's determination to maintain the border regime by any means necessary.
Der Mauerverlauf - Der Mauerverlauf an der Kreuzung Bernauer Straße, Schwedter Straße und Oderberger Straße, November 1971. © 1971 William David Owen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Fassadenreste in der Bernauer Straße - Die Fassadenreste der abgerissenen Häuser an der Bernauer Straße/ Ecke Ruppiner Straße. Sie dienten bis zur Errichtung der Mauer aus Betonfertigteilen als Grenzmauer, August 1980. © 1980 Margret Nissen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Bernauer Straße und Versöhnungskirche 1978 © 1978 Eckart Wittmann Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Die „Grenzmauer 75“ - Die Bernauer Straße auf Höhe der Bergstraße. In den 1970er Jahren entfernte die DDR die letzten Reste der Hausfassaden und setzte an ihrer Stelle eine „moderne Mauer“ aus Betonfertigteilen, August 1980. © 1980 Margret Nissen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Der Grenzstreifen - Bernauer Straße, auf Höhe der Ackerstraße. Hinter der Grenzmauer schufen die DDR-Grenztruppen einen beleuchteten Grenzstreifen, der von einer sogenannten Hinterlandmauer in Richtung Ostberlin abgegrenzt wurde, August 1980. © 1980 Margret Nissen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Die Versöhnungskirche im Grenzstreifen - Die Versöhnungskirche stand seit 1961 im Grenzstreifen. 1985 sprengten die DDR-Grenztruppen die Kirche, um ein freies Schussfeld zur Verhinderung von Fluchtversuchen zu schaffen, August 1980. © 1980 Margret Nissen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Die Versöhnungskirche im Grenzstreifen - Die Sprengung des Kirchturms der Versöhnungskirche, Januar 1985 © 1985 Unbekannter Fotograf Versöhnungsgemeinde
Bernauer Strasse between 1990 and 2009 (1990 - 2009 )
With the fall of the Wall on November 9, 1989, the GDR border regime on Bernauer Strasse also came to an end. As early as the night of November 10-11, 1989, the first segments were broken out of the Wall between Bernauer Strasse and Eberswalder Strasse to create a new crossing between East and West Berlin. The official demolition of the border fortifications also began in June 1990 at the corner of Bernauer Strasse and Ackerstrasse. The street thus once again became a historical focal point.
On October 2, 1990, the day before reunification, the East Berlin magistrate placed the section of the border at Sophienfriedhof under monument protection. In 1994, a competition was held to design a memorial to the victims of the construction of the Wall and in memory of the division of the city. The monument at the junction of Ackerstrasse and Bernauer Strasse was inaugurated on August 13, 1998.
The Berlin Wall Association was founded in 1997 on the initiative of the Berlin Senate. It formed the sponsoring association of today's Documentation Center in the Parish Hall of the Reconciliation Parish, which was opened on the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Wall on November 9, 1999. The Documentation Center complements the memorial with factual information and political education work. In 2000, the Chapel of Reconciliation was ceremonially inaugurated on the former border strip, on the site of the former Church of Reconciliation. Here, the victims of the border regime are regularly commemorated.
The almost complete demolition of the border installations led to the paradoxical result that only a few meaningful points of contact for communicating the history of the Wall and the border regime have been preserved. The overall concept for commemorating the Berlin Wall adopted by the Berlin Senate in 2006 therefore envisages strengthening the various Wall sites in Berlin. Based on the concept, the Senate decided in 2009 to establish the Berlin Wall Foundation. In the same year, work began on the outdoor exhibition on the former Wall strip on Bernauer Strasse. This 1.3 km long and 4.4 hectare large open space was transformed into a new kind of memorial landscape. The remaining traces of the Berlin Wall were preserved.
Nach dem Mauerfall - Betonelemente der „Grenzmauer 75“ neben dem Postenweg im Grenzstreifen, Juni 1990. © 1990 Margret Nissen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Nach dem Mauerfall - Postenweg und Lichttrasse im Grenzstreifen. Links die Grenzmauer zur Bernauer Strasse, rechts die Hinterlandmauer nach Ost-Berlin, Juni 1990. © 1990 Margret Nissen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Nach dem Mauerfall - Blick in die Strelitzer Straße nach Abriss der Mauer. Im Vordergrund der frühere Grenzstreifen, Juni 1990. © 1990 Margret Nissen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Nach dem Mauerfall - Berliner besichtigen den ehemaligen „Todesstreifen“ an der Bernauer Straße. Im Vordergrund ein Wachturm der DDR-Grenztruppen (Typ BT 9), Juni 1990. © 1990 Margret Nissen Stiftung Berliner Mauer
- Bernauer Strasse in the early 1960s (1960 - 1964)
- Bernauer Strasse between the end of the 1960s and 1989 (1965 - 1989)
- Bernauer Strasse between 1990 and 2009 (1990 - 2009)
