
Which of these facts are true?
It divided the city of Berlin, separating families and friends for twenty-eight years
Thousands of East Berliners tried to cross into West Berlin, two people escaped by zip line
All around the world, people celebrated when the wall finally began to come down in 1989
All of the above!
The
Berlin Wall finally came down in 1989. Now readers can find out why it
was built in the first place; and what it meant for Berliners living on
either side of it. Here’s the fascinating story of a city divided.
In
1961, overnight a concrete border went up, dividing the city of Berlin
into two parts – East and West. . The story of the Berlin Wall holds up a
mirror to post-WWII politics and the Cold War Era when the United
States and the USSR were enemies, always on the verge of war. The wall
meant that no one from Communist East Berlin could travel to West
Berlin, a free, democratic area. Of course that didn’t stop thousands
from trying to breech the wall – more than one hundred of them dying in
the attempt. (One East Berliner actually ziplined to freedom!) Author
Nico Medina explains the spy-vs-spy politics of the time as well as what
has happened since the removal of one of the most divisive landmarks in
modern history.