The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic. Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August 1961. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses. The primary intention for the Wall's construction was to prevent East German citizens from fleeing to the West.
Checkpoint Charlie was the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991), as named by the Western Allies.
Günter Schabowski was an East German politician who served as an official of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the ruling party during most of the existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Schabowski gained worldwide fame in November 1989 when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question about the future of the Berlin Wall. That raised popular expectations much more rapidly than the government planned and so massive crowds gathered the same night at the Wall, which forced its opening after 28 years. Soon afterward, the entire inner German border was opened.
The inner German border was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990. De jure not including the similar but physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was 1,381 kilometres (858 mi) long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia.
Hans Conrad Schumann, also known as Konrad Schumann was an East German border guard who escaped to West Germany during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
Naila is a town in the Hof district of Bavaria, Germany. It lies in the Franconian Forest. Naila is 18 km (11 mi) from the larger city of Hof, on both banks of the Selbitz river.
Sonnenallee is a 1999 German comedy film about life in East Berlin in the late 1970s. The movie was directed by Leander Haußmann. The film was released shortly before the corresponding novel, Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee. Both the book and the screenplay were written by Thomas Brussig and while they are based on the same characters and setting, differ in storyline significantly. Both the movie and the book emphasize the importance of pop-art and in particular, pop music, for the youth of East Berlin. The Sonnenallee is an actual street in Berlin that was intersected by the border between East and West during the time of the Berlin Wall, although it bears little resemblance to the film set. Sonnenallee was broadcast in the Czech Republic under the title Eastie Boys.
Pößneck is a town in the Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of Rudolstadt, and 26 km south of Jena.
The Looking Glass War is a 1970 British neo-noir action-thriller film directed by Frank Pierson based on the 1965 novel by John le Carré The Looking Glass War.
Gert Bastian was a German military officer and politician with the German Green Party.
Günter Litfin was a German tailor who became the second known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Litfin was the first victim to be killed by East German border troops, the first to succumb to gunshot wounds, and was the first male victim.
Winfried Freudenberg was the last person to die in an attempt to escape from East Germany to West Berlin across the Berlin Wall as he fell from an improvised gas balloon at high altitude over West Berlin.
Marienetta "Micki" Jirkowsky was a German woman who became the one-hundred and twenty-fifth known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Jirkowsky was shot and killed by East German border guards during an escape attempt, and at 18 years was one of the youngest victims and the youngest of the 8 women killed at the Berlin wall.
There were numerous escape attempts and victims of the inner German border during its 45 years of existence from 1945 to 1990.
Hildegard Johanna Maria Trabant was an East German woman who became the fiftieth known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Trabant was shot and killed by East German border guards during a crossing attempt, one of only eight women victims of the Berlin Wall, and was the only escapee victim known to have a record of loyalty toward the East German regime.
Egon Schultz was a German sergeant of the East German Border Troops who became the fifty-second known person to die at the Berlin Wall. While responding to the discovery of "Tunnel 57," Schultz was killed during a shootout with the tunnelers. Schultz subsequently became a national hero in East Germany, with hundreds of memorials and schools named in his honor. His death caused a public sensation in both East Germany and West Germany. Following the reunification of Germany and the report that Schultz was actually killed as a result of friendly fire, many of the memorials to Schultz were removed, although a new memorial plaque was erected at his death site at Strelitzer Strasse 55, Berlin, in 2004.
Harald Jäger is a former East German Stasi officer and border guard who was in charge of a passport control unit. On 9 November 1989, he opened the Bornholmer Straße border crossing of the Berlin Wall, under pressure from a large crowd of protesters and without orders to do so.
On 16 September 1979, eight people from two families escaped from East Germany by crossing the border into West Germany at night in a homemade hot air balloon. The unique feat was the result of over a year and a half of preparations involving three different balloons, various modifications, and a first, unsuccessful attempt. The failed attempt alerted the East German authorities to the plot, but the police were unable to identify the authors before their second, successful flight two months later.
Balloon is a German thriller drama film directed by Michael Herbig that was released in German cinemas on 27 September 2018. The film depicts the crossing of the Inner German border by the Strelzyk and Wetzel families from the GDR to West Germany with a self-made hot-air balloon in 1979. The two families, including four children, successfully floated across the sky from Pößneck, Thuringia to Naila, Bavaria, then situated 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of the Iron Curtain. They reached a height of 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) in the homemade balloon.
