13 August: The Berlin Wall

On this date in 1961, construction on the Berlin Wall began. It separated the zone of Berlin that was controlled by the Soviet Union from the zones controlled by Britain, France and the USA. 10 things you might not know about the Berlin Wall:

1. Unlike most historical walls, it wasn't built to keep people out, but to keep people in. For a couple of months before it was built, more than 67,000 people had defected to the West. This included a lot of doctors, teachers, students, and engineers and also a lot of younger people. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev closed the border to stop the "brain drain" from East to West. The East German government, however, lied about that. They told the people the wall was there to keep Western fascists out, calling it the “Antifascist Bulwark.”
2. The wall went up overnight. At first, it was a barbed wire fence, but almost immediately the East Germans started reinforcing it. It grew until it was a 27 mile long barrier consisting of two concrete walls with a 160 yard "death strip" between them. It had 302 observation towers, 259 dog runs, 20 bunkers manned by more than 11,000 soldiers, and more than 79 miles of electrified fencing. Anyone trying to get across would have to contend with floodlights, land mines, beds of nails, trip wires, guard Dogs, electric fences and antitank barricades. There was raked sand which would show up footprints.
3. Guards were instructed to shoot at anyone attempting to cross, although not necessarily to kill them. At least 138 people did lose their lives in attempts to get across, however. Some were shot by guards, others had fatal accidents, and still others committed suicide after failing to get across. That's the official figure, anyway – it could have been more. The first person to die was Ida Siekmann, who lived in a fourth floor apartment in East Germany, overlooking the wall. She wanted to join her sister on the other side of the wall and jumped out of her Window. The first person to be shot by guards was Günter Litfin, who lived and worked in the West, but had been visiting the East side when the wall went up. He was trying to get home by running across railway tracks when he got shot in the head. The last death was in 1989, a young man trying to fly over in a Hot air balloon, who hit the power lines.
4. Two US Presidents gave iconic speeches beside the wall. One was John F Kennedy, who had expressed relief that a wall had gone up, because Khrushchev had been threatening a blockade which would have led to a war. “It’s not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war," he said. On June 26, 1963, Kennedy visited the Western side of the wall and famously said “Ich bin ein Berliner.” He meant that he was identifying with the citizens of Berlin, but some say his words actually meant "I am a Doughnut" as a "Berliner" is also the German word for a jammy doughnut. However, in Berlin, they called these doughnuts “pfannkuchen”, and linguists say that Kennedy used exactly the right words to convey that he was figuratively claiming to be one of them. In June 1987, Ronald Reagan visited for Berlin’s 750th Anniversary. He stood at the Brandenburg Gate, called to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
5. Passage between the two zones was possible for people who had the correct papers. There were a number of checkpoints, the most famous being Checkpoint Charlie, in the American sector of West Berlin. It was the one used by people from outside Germany, and was the location of a crisis in October 1961 when U.S. diplomat Edwin Allan Lightner was travelling to East Germany and was stopped at the border. He refused to show his papers to the East German guards, insisting he would only show them to the Soviets. This resulted in both sides sending tanks to the wall. Luckily, after 16 hours, common sense prevailed and both sides backed down. The Brandenburg gate dates back to 1791, and was part of an 18th century customs wall around Berlin. The iconic arch was commissioned by Prussian King Frederick William II.
6. The erection of the wall caused disruption for Berlin's subway train system. There had been trains which crossed the border. Many of them could only now travel as far as the border and then turn back. A small number of West Berlin trains still travelled a little way through East Berlin, but no longer stopped at the stations. Those stations were locked and guarded and became known as Geisterbahnhöfe "ghost stations". When these opened again after the wall fell, they still had the same signs and advertisements on the wall that had been there in 1961.
7. About 10,000 people tried to cross the wall. About 5,000 actually made it. The first person to manage it was an East German border guard named Corporal Conrad Schumann, aged 19. He jumped over a 3 foot high roll of barbed wire two days after the border first went up. The Bethke brothers probably pulled off the most spectacular escape. Eldest brother Ingo escaped by floating on an inflatable mattress across the Elbe River in 1975; eight years later his brother Holger crossed the wall on a steel cable he fired with a bow and arrow to a rooftop in West Berlin. In 1989 the brothers flew an ultra-light plane over the wall and back to pick up their youngest brother Egbert. Most people who wanted to defect, however, used forged documents or bribed the guards.
8. People in West Berlin treated the wall with more contempt than people in the East. The west side of the Berlin wall was covered in Graffiti. The East side was not. In addition, West Berliners would fly tip their rubbish over the wall.
9. At a press conference on November 9, 1989, East German politburo member Günter Schabowski prematurely announced that restrictions on travel visas would be lifted, “Immediately, without delay.” What he meant was that the policy would be implemented the following day and while restrictions would be relaxed, there would still be a lengthy visa application process. Thousands of people in East Berlin took his words to mean that they'd be able to cross that night, and flocked to the wall. At the Bornholmer Street checkpoint, Harald Jäger, the chief officer on duty, tried at first to enforce the rules, but as the mob became more and more angry, he called his bosses, who were rude to him. Jäger wasn't having a good day, anyway, since he had an appointment next day to find out the results of tests to find out if he had cancer – so he must have figured he had nothing to lose and decided to open the crossing. He was followed by his colleagues on the other gates.
10. Several months later in 1990, the demolition of the wall began officially. Prior to that, people had been chipping away at the wall and taking away souvenirs. These people were called Mauerspechte - "wall woodpeckers". Some kept the souvenirs for themselves, others sold them on E-bay. When the official demolition began, much of the wall was recycled and used for German reconstruction projects. As for the pieces which found their way out of Germany, they're scattered all over the world. One can be found in the gardens of the Vatican, and still another, graffiti covered section is now in Las Vegas, in a men's Toilet with urinals mounted on it.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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