Germany honoured yesterday those who died while trying to cross the Berlin Wall, which was built 55 years ago.
Berlin’s Mayor Michael Mueller laid a wreath at the central memorial on Bernauer Street and attended a prayer service at the Protestant Chapel of Reconciliation, which was erected on the former border strip.
The building of the wall began on August 13, 1961, and was spearheaded by Walter Ulbricht, communist leader of Soviet-influenced East Germany, the so-called German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Berlin was a special case, as the city was divided into four zones of influence between the occupying powers after World War II.
The Berlin Wall physically divided the city’s three western zones – with troops from the United States, Britain and France still stationed there – from the eastern zone, and created an enclave within the larger Soviet sector.
At nearly 155km long, the wall divided Berlin for more than 28 years.
The division of the country finally ended on November 9, 1989.
According to current data, at least 138 people died while trying to cross the Berlin Wall, including Peter Fechter, an 18-year-old who was one of the first victims shot by GDR border guards as he tried to escape to West Berlin a year after the wall was built.
Flower wreaths were placed at a memorial in his honour yesterday.
The number of victims killed along the nearly 1,400km internal German border that separated East from West Germany is still being investigated.
