Berlin Wall: One Year After it was built

The Berlin Wall was a scar that can still be seen today in the german capital. It split the city into east and west, capitalism and communism, from 1961 to 1989. When it fell, it united the country again and made Germany what it is today.

The Berlin Wall started being built, in a really fast way, in the early morning hours of August 13, 1961. First there was barbed wire, then bricks and a proper wall came to be. It kept being improved through the years until it became what can still be seen around Berlin, like in the East Side Gallery and the Mauer Memorial.

But this article is not about the Berlin Wall and how it changed the city where we live. This article is about a news report from August 1962, when the Wall had it first birthday.

On this movie, you can see how the Berlin Wall used to look like next to the Brandenburger Tor and how it was nicknamed The Wall of Shame by the people in West Berlin. You can hear the Freedom Bells of the capitalist side of the city shaming the other side for being cut from the world with a brick wall. There is even a shallow explanation for why the Berlin Wall was built. East Germany said it was to protect itself against the fascist that were on the other side. It was even called Anti-Fascist Protective Wall by the GDR Authorities.

The short movie continue showing how the Berlin Wall united West Germany with a reason to stand together against the Eastern Block that was trying to choke West Berlin out of where it stood. You can see how Checkpoint Charlie used to look like with all the American soldiers patrolling it. Also, there are even shots of Willy Brandt on a brief memorial for those who died trying to cross the Berlin Wall in a place that looks like the Oberbaumbrucke between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain.

It is an interesting video that, today, looks more like propaganda from West Berlin than anything else. But it, still, has a lot of historical value and we love to stumble upon this kind of videos. It is the only way we have to see how Berlin used to look like before it became what it is today.