February 6, 2018 Comments Off on Lost section of the original Berlin Wall rediscovered Views: 1784 Berlin, Virtual Memoirs

For far too many years, the infamous Berlin Wall snaked across the entire Berlin, dividing the city into East and West. Fortunately, it was dismantled by the early 1990s. Most of it was removed, with parts ending up in museums to serve as a reminder of dark and gloomy days, and others such as those at the East Side Gallery turned into a vibrant venue where international artists were invited to leave their imprints on a concrete slab of it.

However, it turns out the fate of all parts of the wall have not yet been sealed. Reportedly, a segment of it has been lost at some point, and it was rediscovered only now, beginning of 2018. German media has reported on the finding, that a large original section of the Berlin Wall, reaching some 80 meters in length, and which everyone assumed demolished, has survived all these years. Its condition, however, deteriorating.

According to City Lab, this section has in fact been noticed in the past by a local historian named Christian Bormann, but for some reason, the local has brought attention to the original surviving section of the Berlin Wall only now. He has published a video on YouTube and has posted on his personal blog, allegedly, amid concerns that the rediscovered remainder was close to collapse.

The section of the wall has remained hidden in the suburban Berlin area of Schönholz. It sits in an area in which rarely who will pay a visit. On the one side, there are graveyards, on the other, tracks of S-Bahn railway, City Lab further reports. It is still strange how this section has remained uncharted as the wall once composed one of the most heavily monitored borders in Europe.

Furthermore, the newly rediscovered section does not look exactly like the rest of how the wall was. It has been described as a strange leftover of early makeshifts, that erected in the early years of the wall’s existence. According to Bormann, this section has been structured from remains of walls that previously composed tenements that were battered during World War Two bombings. The basements of these buildings have also been left with rubble to prevent any tunnel access.

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Parts of the original Berlin wall rediscovered, Video courtesy: Bormann Pankowerchronik

The barrier that marked a lifetime of stagnation for East Berlin and East Germany first emerged in the early morning between 12 and 13 August, but back then it was only a nimbly installed cordon of barbed wire fences. Concrete started to reinforce the wires several days later, all in the effort to stop refugees who wanted to leave East Berlin and move to the western parts of the divided city.

Even today, abandoned buildings in the eastern parts of Berlin remain to be another reminder of the dark past. The erection of the Berlin Wall itself also caused a period of crisis between the U.S. and Soviet blocks relations back then. The makeshifts appearance of the wall, such as the latest found section, continued to exist until the mid-1960s when the wall started taking its final outlook as a chain of concrete slabs. It was ultimately remembered as a symbol of the Cold War between the East and the West.

Just recently, on 5th of February, the Berlin Wall marked another interesting observation. By this date, it was down as long as it was up, 10,316 days in total.

We also thought to remind you that the first movie theater in history was in Berlin

Tags: Berlin, Berlin Wall, East Berlin, East Germany, lost section, virtual memoirs, Virtual Memoirs Berlin