When I was visiting Berlin, The Wall was the first thing I headed out to see the day following my arrival, after having a good night’s rest at the hostel. This is the 20th year following its fall, and today, 9 November, happens to be the anniversary of the Fall of the Wall.

Saying that I headed out to “see The Wall” may sound misleading, because there is really no one location where the wall is. The Berlin Wall was a boundary, a wall, literally, that divided Berlin into East and West and separated West Berlin from the East German territory that surrounded it.

20 years on, the wall has long been torn down and the former East and West Berlin is now one city. Although there is no one place in Berlin called “The Wall”, a Wall Memorial does exist and several locations with remains of the old wall can still be found. If you pay attention, as you walk along the streets with which The Wall once intersected, you will find the trace of a path intentionally built into the streets, marking the position that was once taken up by The Wall.

So perhaps as you drive along Potsdammer Strasse towards Potsdammer Platz, you may come across a narrow strip of cobblestone across the road. This was where The Wall once stood. Perhaps as you stroll along the pavement near the Sony Centre, you may find a strip of the pavement that is indented, like what you see in the picture above. This was where The Wall once stood.

Even though it was known as the Berlin Wall, the boundary dividing the East and the West actually had more than one wall. At the Wall Memorial along Bernauer Strasse, an observation deck allows visitors to contemplate on a reproduction of the wall at that location. There was a a wall on the East German side and another on the West German side. Between these two walls was “No-man’s Land”, or the Death Strip. It was heavily guarded and was made to be escapee-proof. Mines were laid at some stretches to deter people from making forbidden crossings.

Taking a peek through a crack in the reconstructed wall from the “East German” side at the Wall Memorial.

As I learned from the museum’s exhibits at the Wall Memorial, The Wall was not built in one day. After the Second World War, Berlin was divided into the American, French, British and USSR-occupied zones. The USSR-occupied zone would later become East Germany. How The Wall came about started with East Germany beginning to restrict its residents from crossing over to West Germany. Road barriers made of barbed wires were set up overnight blocking access between the USSR-occupied zone from the rest of Berlin.

Film footage at the museum showed scenes shot at Bernauer Strasse, along which the border between the French-occupied and USSR-occupied zones ran. In the footage, Berliners, east and west, stood and watch the barriers made of barbed wires being laid. Later, columns would be erected to set up a more rigid form of barrier. In a scene, a young woman waved from one side of the division to somebody on the other side, possibly somebody dear to her, a handkerchief in her waving hand, dabbing her eyes with it from time to time. The fence-like barrier would in turn evolve into a wall, and the wall, eventually, over the years, into a security installation. Could anyone have imagined how those first barbed wires could have turned into The Berlin Wall?

The former East German side, bordered by Bernauer Strasse. A panel by the street here indicates that tunnels were found in one of these houses and were used by East German in their attempt to move to West Berlin.

The same location on Bernauer Strasse, but looking towards the former West German side.

Engraving at one end of the Wall Memorial

The Wall Memorial and the observation deck at the Documentation Centre.

Like the rest of the city, the wall no longer stood as imposing as it did. The stretch of wall that remains along Bernauer Strasse is now a reminder of the city’s history. The city has moved on during the past 20 years and will continue to. 20 years on, the city and the world remembers.

Exhibits at Potsdammer Platz, outside the Sony Centre. This was an original piece of the wall. Panels with photographs and text were affixed to the other side.

One of the exhibition panels at Potsdammer Platz showing Brandenburg Gate behind The Wall. The sign reads, “Caution, you are leaving West Berlin” or something like that. During those days, Brandenburg Gate stood on the deserted No-man’s Land.