Berlin Wall 1989The Berlin Wall picture below from 1989 shows some of the art murals on its western side soon after the reunification of East Germany and West Germany. |
|
CLICK ON THE PICTURE above for more world travel photos with a travel guide to cheap vacation spots and travel agency links for airline tickets, hotel reservations and car rentals. What's on the next page? Hiddensee Travel Tips If you're looking for discount air tickets, travel accessories, books, maps, cheap hotels, car rentals, etc, visit our Travel Shop. Thumbnail Picture Index Last Minute Travel Tips Useful Germany Links Maps of Germany |
|
Berlin Wall facts
The picture above was taken just after the divided people of Germany first breached the Berlin Wall, sparking the collapse of East Germany's communist regime. The fall of the Berlin Wall saw citizens from both east and west use hammers to tear down huge sections. About two kilometres of the Berlin Wall have been saved and tourists enjoying Germany travel still gather at the notorious Checkpoint Charlie to remember when it was an American sector and a crossing point between east and west.
The FRG built itself into an economic powerhouse with its security embedded in the European Community and NATO. The communist GDR was the front-line of the Warsaw Pact led by the Soviets. The Berlin Wall, which was more than three metres (12 feet) high, split Berlin in two for nearly 30 years, the larger western half being a democratic island of capitalism surrounded on all sides by the hard-line communist regime of East Germany. The total length of the border between West Berlin and East Berlin and the GDR was 166 kilometres. The main section of the wall itself was 107 kilometres long. The border cut through 192 streets of Berlin and more than a hundred people were killed trying to cross into West Germany, the last victim in 1989. East and West Germany were unified into a single nation on October 3, 1990. Since then, Berlin has spent billions trying to bring Germany's eastern wages, productivity and standards of living up to western levels. A massive reconstruction has been undertaken in Berlin since the wall came down and in 1999 this city was the world's biggest construction site. Tall glassy towers now surround the River Spree and more than $200 billion has been spent by Germany on the reconstruction. Berlin has three opera houses and 170 museums with a maze of new Metro, bus and overhead rail systems to get you where you want during your travel. If you'd like to read a personal account of events on the day the Berlin Wall came down and see more snaps of the fall of the Berlin Wall, click here. Alternatively, find everything you could possibly want to know at Chris De Witt's Berlin Wall Web Page. Neuschwanstein Castle travel tips To book travel tickets, cheap hotels, car rentals, etc. for most European cities, visit our Travel Shop. |
|
Search for tips about your preferred travel destination: Bookmark this page! Just press CTRL-D (PC) or Command-D (Mac) on your keyboard. 
Cheap World Travel Tips has dozens of exciting travel snaps and travel guides that are worth coming back to explore!
Copyright 2011. All travel tips text, information and graphics on or related to this page are under strict international copyright and |
