Wall stays another 100 years

In my previous post I showed a card where Walter Ulbricht said that there would be no wall. The wall was built less than two months after he said that at a press conference. Today we will see what his successor, Erich Honecker, says about the wall.

The card from is from the same place as my previous post about Sebastianstrasse. The new thing here is the news paper clip in the upper right part.

The clip is part of the post card, not something glued on top. The quote from Honecker says: "Wall stays another 100 years". Luckily Honecker was wrong. The newspaper was printed 20 January 1989. Honecker resigned as general of the state on 18 October 1989, succeeded by Egon Krenz. The border passages was opened on that tense night of 9 November 1989 and the wall was physically removed during 1990. 

The back side is unwritten.

[Sveriges Radio 1] [Sveriges Radio 2] [DN]

No one has the intention to erect a wall!

This time we'll take a look at a grand political betrayal. Let's start with the post card. The big quote at the bottom says: No one has the intention to erect a wall!

This post card pictures Walter Ulbricht, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the German Democratic Republic between 25 July 1950 – 3 May 1971. This means that he ruled GDR during the time when the wall was erected, starting at 13 August 1961.

The post card contains a quote from Walter Ulbricht, from the magazine Neues Deutschland (new Germany). Translated the quote says:

"I understand your question as, that there are people in West Germany, who wish, that we mobilize the construction workers of the capital of the GDR, to erect a wall. To me it is not known, that such an intention exists. The construction workers of our capital occupy themselves mainly with building of apartments, and our manpower is for this fully deployed."

This was said by Walter Ulbricht at an international press conference the 15 June 1961. The wall construction was started less than two months later.

It is a bit amusing how Ulbricht, in the first sentence, turns it as it was the west germans that wanted a wall. As we now all know the wall was built to keep the GDR citizens inside GDR. It was built to stop large amounts of GDR citizens from escaping to West Germany.

There is a very interesting video clip from the mentioned press conference at YouTube:

The back side is unwritten.

In my next post I will follow this post card up with a related one, again with a quote. That time it will be from the successor, Erich Honecker.

Wallspotting

Here is another colorful and cheerful card from the Berlin wall days. As you can see they really had to distort the sky to make something colorful out of the depressing sights.

This is one of many cards with multiple small sights from the divided Berlin. Therefore it is a bit hard to show you the location of everything.

• The house on the upper right picture is the from the state parliament building on Niederkirchnerstraße, which I wrote about in another post.
• The picture at the lower left of course shows the Brandenbuger Tor. I haven't posted any pictures from there yet, but as you can imagine there are many post cards from that spot.
• The lower middle picture shows a staircase from which people from the western part could look over the wall. The eastern people was of course not allowed to something similar. If you read Thomas Brussigs book Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee you can find out what things the western people could shout to the eastern from such stands.
• The lower right picture is from the Checkpoint Charlie area, which I wrote about in my first blog post.

This post card was posted 20th february 1989. That means that it was posted just about nine months before the wall came down.

The post card was sent to Sweden, to the town Olofström. The greeting is in swedish and translates to:

Hi!

Am now in Berlin!
The trip went well, just some bumpiness on the boat. Yesterday we were at the zoo + the aquarium. We have also had time for a disco called "Society".

Hugs

Pernilla

Neukölln

Welcome to Neukölln! As you can see on this post card it hosts nice restaurants with nice beer! The wall and the barb wire will make sure you end up home, in your own eastern bed.

The big sign says "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit", which translates to "Unity, justice and freedom". It is very ironic that there had to be a wall with barb wire to protect those big values.

The bar on the picture is Heidelberger Krug. This place was subject to a massive tunnel project. In the basement a big escape tunnel was built. You can read more about this interesting story here:

• http://www.grenztruppen-der-ddr.de/podium2/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=1947&start=25
• http://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article106140295/Die-meisten-Fluchttunnel-gab-es-in-Berlin-Neukoelln.html
• http://www.berlin.de/imperia/md/content/lzpb/aktuelles/berliner_fluchten.pdf

The house still exists, but now houses a restaurant called Schweigel, Budike & Destille.


Show larger map

If you would like to visit this historical place and maybe eat and the restaurant, then you have the location on this map.


Show larger map

The back side is unfortunately unwritten for this one as well. I will try to scan some of my written ones. They are often just greetings to friends at home and often answers to radio competitions, but sometimes they can give a glimpse about the life behind the wall, the frustration and the longing for freedom. Again it is ironic that the latter word is the same as on the sign on this postcard.

Niederkirchnerstraße (not Kochstraße)

Time to head over to Kochstraße! At least that is what the card says. Here we have another massive building brutally hidden behind the wall. Some graffiti tries to cheer the misery up a bit. The back side text claims the building to be the old Gestapo head quarters, and the street to be Kochstraße.

Let's take a look at the back side already, so that you can see what it says. Unfortunately it is unwritten.

When researching this deeper I found that the text is  double wrong. The card is from Niederkirchnerstraße (formerly called Prinz-Albrecht-Straße). The house is not the old Gestapo head quarters. The head quarters was located at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8. That house was destroyed by the allied bombings 1945 and the ruins were torn down after the war. After World War II, in 1951, the authorities of East Berlin renamed Prinz-Albrecht-Straße to Niederkirchnerstraße in honour of Käthe Niederkirchner (1909–1944), a member of the communist resistance to the Nazis.

The house on the post card is instead the state parliament of Berlin (Abgeordnetenhaus). The house was built between 1892 and 1898 by the architect Friedrich Schulze, as the parliament of Preußen. Below you can see the house today. As always you can click the picture to see it in a larger version.


Visa Berlin Wall on a larger map

On the map below you can see the location of the house and the stretch of the Berlin wall.


Visa Berlin Wall på en större karta

Graffiti at Sebastianstraße

Time for another strange postcard from the old divided Berlin! This time we will go to Sebastianstraße, for a postcard booming of gray and blue colors. This photo is shot a bit south of the East Berlin city core and as you can see on the postcard below the wall brutally cut through along the street. This place was very close to the border crossing at Heinrich-Heine-Straße which I wrote about in my last blog post.

Berlin wall at Sebastianstraße (click to enlarge)

This postcard is an excellent example of how brutal the wall could cut off the two city parts. The wall was built in the middle of the road, leaving only the walkway. The houses on the left side and the tall house at the end were all belonging to West Berlin. As you can see the wall was heavily painted by graffiti. This was very common and the graffiti was often political. I can not manage to read what the red banner on the house facade says, but it is very possible that it is put there to send some message over to the eastern side. Further ahead you can see how people and cars had to fit on the little strip left when the wall had eaten most of the street. When looking at the sky I almost get the impression that the photographer or the card publisher exaggerated it to give the picture some color, some life or... some freedom.

See the map below to see how the wall was stretched (the red line). The picture on this postcard is taken at the yellow mark. The purple mark close to the northwest of the yellow mark was the Heinrich-Heine-Straße border crossing. Sebastianstraße crosses the  Heinrich-Heine-Straße just before that former border crossing. The Berlin wall stretch (in red) on the map is not yet complete, as the wall used to stretch all around West Berlin. I will paint the rest when I have time.

Show Berlin Wall on a larger map

When I had scanned this postcard and began to look around on Google Maps I could not find the nice old houses on the left side of the card. I was afraid that they by some reason hadn't survived the test of time. But to my big joy I found them after some searching! I had looked too far west, at the strip on the other side of the Heinrich-Heine-Straße. When looking more east, on the other side, I found it. And I was pleased to see that the houses are looking better than ever! Below you can navigate around the area today. The wall is long gone and it looks easier to park now! The eastern side is still an open area, one of many in Berlin that will be built one day. By some reason one of the houses at the left side is blurred out by Google when looking in some angles. I guess the house owners demanded that. I wonder why. The sky on the Google Streetview could really use some of that crazy blue sky from the postcard, as the picture is kind of dull. 

Show Berlin Wall on a larger map

This backside is unwritten. The text only localizes the picture to "Sebastianstraße", a bit vague as the street is many hundred meters long.

Back side (click to enlarge)

Hope you liked this card as much as I did! I find it very fun to find those places again and look around!

Heinrich-Heine Straße

Time for another postcard from the divided Berlin. Today we'll take a trip back to Heinrich-Heine Straße. This street goes from U-Bahn-stations Moritzplatz and Heinrich-Heine Straße.

The Heinrich-Heine border crossing

Above you can see the photo of this brutal barrier between west and east Berlin. The photo was taken heading towards the eastern part. It must have been harsh and pretty strange to live in the houses on the picture, so close to the wall, the fences and all the barbed wire. 

The border crossing at Heinrich-Heine Straße was one of the largest ones. The reason was that this crossing was used for inspection of goods and postal transports between the two halves of Berlin. It was also possible for West German citizens to enter East Berlin through this crossing.

Below you can see the location of the border crossing. The red line is the stretch of the outer wall, the one towards West Berlin. The purple box shows the location of the Heinrich-Heine-Straße border crossing.

Visa Berlin Wall on a larger map

More about this crossing can be read at www.berlin.de. As you can read there three men tried to flee to West Berlin through this crossing on 18 April 1962. They tried to crash through the checkpoint barriers with a truck. The checkpoint guards opened fire and hit all three. The driver, Klaus Brüske, managed to steer the truck into western territory but died on site due to his injuries. The other two had serious injuries but survived.

Extra slalom barriers were added to the checkpoint to prevent this kind of escapes, but still two men from West Berlin and two women from East Berlin made a similar attempt on 26 December 1965. The women was found hidden in the car. The driver, the 27-year-old Heinz Schöneberger, tried to escape but was shot to death by the East German guards. The three others were arrested.

The back side of the card is unfortunately unwritten.

Below you can see the same place today. The tall trees effectively block the view of the houses that can be seen to the right on the postcard. If you navigate in the street-view-map, some distance further ahead on Heinrich-Heine Straße, you will see the same houses though, today with a little bit more discrete facade colors. The other side of the road, now used to sell cars, was part of the checkpoint. The construction site that can be seen on the right side of the postcard ended up as a large white complex.


Visa Berlin Wall on a larger map