Berlin Trip : Berlin War Memorial (Gartenstrasse)
The Berlin War Memorial is located by Gartenstrasse, a street which offers something of a wider perspective on the evolution of the wall because of its location. At first the residential street was lived in mostly by master masons and carpenters, but in 1772 ten gardener families moved into the area and the street became known as ‘Garden Street’. Then, following the end of the Second World War, this once quiet residential area found itself in the middle of the divide between East and West Berlin when the Antifaschistischer Schutzwall (the ridiculously named anti-fascist wall) was constructed in 1961 and plonked down at this site.
A map of the site as the construction of the wall involved substantial changes to this area, including the removal of a road and the destruction of part of a graveyard.
A remaining section of the wall. Tragically, over the years several people lost their lives trying to cross the Wall near Gartenstrasse, including Heinz Cyrus, who died after being pursued by border guards and jumping or falling from the fourth floor of a border house at Gartenstrasse 85 in 1965. Fortunately, from a historical perspective, efforts have been made to retain some historic parts of the wall’s infrastructure and I found them to be of particular interest. Given this, there might be (well, there will be although how fast depends on whether or not Northern Rail’s wi-fi holds out which it isn’t at the moment) a few more posts about this site, to excite and delight my two loyal blog readers.
