Film List Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was erected on 13 August 1961. It was only three days before the Wall was built that the public was informed, and before that the credo was: "Nobody intends to build a wall. (Ulbricht). The required barbed wire was supplied from the west. Berliners like me grew up with the Wall. It was quite normal for us. My way to school ran along the wall, which took me a little longer. I couldn't drive straight through - it wasn't until after 1989. We made jokes about the border guards watching us from their watchtowers. Or we threw firecrackers over the wall and were happy when the shepherd dogs struck. In the north of the then French sector one could even come across border soldiers. In this part the wall had to be built a little bit displaced, because the surrounding countryside was too swampy. Signs indicated the "end of the French sector". Those who passed these entered the GDR. Short and sweet; all this seemed quite normal to me. Of course I wanted to go out by bike. Behind the wall. Sometimes I felt trapped on our island West Berlin. But I was never afraid of "Ivan". When the wall fell, the astonishing thing was that some were not at all enthusiastic about it. Especially in Kreuzberg. Because now one belonged again to "Germany" and no longer to an allied sector. We West Berliners were not "Germans" in this sense - and that was very, very important for us. After all, we didn't have a passport. Only a West Berlin identity card. We were also not allowed to vote in "Germany". Only the West Berlin CDU. And we got "Berlin Zulage". 30 % more wage on every job. Anyway, everything in West Berlin was subsidized by the state. You can still see that today; we West Berliners are used to receiving money from the state. Today, August 13, we may remember. With films about the fall of the Berlin Wall, which I have collected here.