Rare footage shot by an ordinary traveler walking along the Berlin Wall in 1989 captures a city seemingly frozen in time. Completely unaware that this symbol of division was about to vanish.
We all know that the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989. But, while the structural demolition took almost 5 years, it was on that November night that the passage between East and West Berlin was opened to all citizens.
I was still too young to know, but it seems like even the world’s best political observers were not aware of what would happen. Some of them even predicted that Germany would still be divided for a few more decades. I can imagine that, even on the afternoon of November 9, the border guards had no idea that Günter Schabowski would mistakenly declare on national television that travel liberalization was effective “immediately, without delay,” and that the Berlin Wall would be over.
A City Caught Between Two Worlds
Let me talk about this YouTube video I found over the weekend. It shows the summer of 1989 in Berlin, and it was shot with a consumer camcorder, which makes it even more nostalgic for me to watch.
The video begins in East Berlin, where you can see some East German Trabant cars on the road passing by places that no longer exist, like the Palace of the Republic. The footage takes us down the iconic Unter den Linden towards the Brandenburger Tor.
You can spot the old Prussian glory of times past in some buildings, but, overall, the atmosphere in the video is quiet and almost slow. A day in the life of the people who are surrounded by the Cold War geopolitics of the time. But they still have to run their errands, catch the bus, and go shopping.
The Reality of the Border
When the footage switches to the West Side, the focus of the video changes, and the concrete barrier becomes the main character. The Berlin Wall appears covered in layers of graffiti, some of them political, but most of them are just scribbles. The video even shows the wooden observation platforms that existed around Potsdamer Platz where people could peer over the desolate “death strip” on the other side. The same place that, in a couple of years, would be the location for Roger Water’s The Wall as a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In the video, there is still menace in the East German border guards. Through the lens, we see East German soldiers standing in watchtowers, watching the tourists through binoculars. At one point, the camera even captures an East Berlin border patrol boat moving along the Spree River.
Remembering Those Who Dared to Cross
Perhaps the most heartbreaking moment of this random walk occurs right along the border fence near the Reichstag building and the northern bend of the Brandenburg Gate. This is the place where the camera pans across the white crosses, called Weiße Kreuze in German. This is a sobering memorial erected on the West Berlin side to honor those who lost their lives attempting to flee to freedom. And you can still spot it today.
Among the names on these markers is Chris Gueffroy, who was shot and killed in February 1989 while trying to cross the canal between Neukölln and Treptow. His name is left to history as the last person to be shot and killed by border guards while attempting an escape. Just a month later, in March 1989, Winfried Freudenberg would become the final person to die in a crossing attempt when a makeshift gas balloon he rigged up crashed in West Berlin.
Watching this footage decades later provides a surreal perspective on the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today, Berlin is a wholly different place that has evolved into one of the most vibrant, structurally unified, and popular capitals in Europe. The rapid urban evolution has completely transformed the old border zones into popular commercial hubs and parks. Especially in areas like Potsdamer Platz and the strip of Friedrichshain close to the river.
If Chris Gueffroy, Winfried Freudenberg, or even the anonymous traveler who shot this video were to stand in those same spots near the Bundestag today, they would hardly recognize the open, reunited city before them.
