Peter Fechter bled to death in the "death strip", on 17 August, 1962. This led to a public outcry. American troops watched him, but could not help him. The East-German border policemen, who had wounded him, did not help him either.
In 1966, two children, aged ten and thirteen years, were killed in the border strip. This is unusual because the East German border police had orders to not shoot on pregnant women, children or mentally ill people.
On 6 February, 1989, border guards shot and killed Chris Gueffroy as he tried to cross the wall. He was the last person to be killed by border guards. On 8 March, 1989, Winfried Freudenberg died after falling from a gas balloon. He was the last person to die trying to cross the Berlin Wall and escape into West Berlin.
The Berlin wall eventually started to fall once people rioted. Many jumped on top of the wall, and even crowded against it. This caused the wall to collapse in some areas, and more people could get through to the refugee camps that were set up on the other side. "Tear down this wall!" was a speech made by United States President Ronald Reagan to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the wall. The speech was made at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987. It was made to honor the 750th anniversary of Berlin. His speech and its fallout might have aided in the wall's demolition.
By late 1989 the GDR was suffering from many problems such as a struggling economy, and large-scale protests. The Hungarian regime had collapsed and was dismantling its border fences with Austria by August 1989. Since the Warsaw Pact allowed citizens to travel within the Soviet bloc, many East German tourists fled to the west via Hungary. When the Hungarian government refused the GDR's demand to stop defectors, East Germany banned all travel to Hungary; prompting demonstrations and protest. This began the GDR's isolation within the bloc.
Erich Honecker, leader of the GDR since 1971, was forced to resign on October 18, 1989. He was replaced by Egon Krenz after a unanimous vote by the politburo. Under Krenz's regime, East Germans could still escape to Hungary via Czechoslovakia.
The number of defectors grew and caused tensions between East Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Krenz regime decided to allow people to leave directly to the west through border checkpoints in East Berlin. This prompted many East Germans, who learned about it broadcast from West German media, to go to the border crossings and demand to be let through immediately.
Border guards at each checkpoint told the people to go back home as they had no orders that the wall would open that night. As time passed, the number of people arriving at the checkpoint was increasing and the guards were becoming alarmed. They began taking the more aggressive people aside and stamped their passports with a special stamp that allowed them access to West Berlin however, the people were not aware that they were effectively revoking their East German citizenship and were shocked to be refused entry back into the GDR. The Chief Guard of the checkpoint frantically telephoned his superiors hoping to get answers as to why so many people thought that the wall was to open. By 22:45, it was clear that the outnumbered and overwhelmed border guards would not use their weapons to suppress the crowds. The Chief Guard surrendered and ordered the gates to West Berlin to be opened. The crowds of East Berliners were met with crowds of West Berliners in a happy scene as the Berlin wall had just fallen.
Many people even climbed up onto the wall by the Brandenburg Gate in protest and began to chisel away at the wall. The GDR authorities responded to this initially by blasting the people with water cannons; this proved to be ineffective. The East German army later climbed up onto the wall to prevent others from standing on the wall. The government began demolishing the wall the next day. The fall of the wall destroyed the SED, the ruling party of the GDR, and caused many of its officials to resign. The German Democratic Republic would cease to exist less than a year later; reuniting with the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3, 1990.
The wall was changed and added to several times. It was not really a wall, but a collection of walls and fences and other devices. This is what the "border fence" was made of, starting from the east, going west
The whole was done in an a zone of between 30 and 500 m wide. The official ("civil" border) began before the first fence. Entering the installation required a special permit. The real border was about one or two metres in front of the concrete wall, so that the whole of the wall complex was inside East Germany (only the East Berlin part of the wall was inside East Berlin).
The border between East Germany and West Germany was also heavily defended with fences and mines. East Germans needed a special permit to live close to the border.
After the Reunification of Germany in October 3, 1990, the Berlin Wall was demolished and taken away. A few sections of the wall remain; some of the sections became a museum.
The East Berlin special police who guarded the wall had the order to shoot if this was necessary to stop people fleeing. East German leaders such as Egon Krenz were arrested after German reunification because guards were ordered to shoot to kill.
However, after the Wall was built, many people were no longer able to leave East Berlin using normal border posts. The only way they could do so was to race through the Wall or try to dig a tunnel underneath.
After the unification of Germany, border guards who had shot people were convicted by West German Courts. The judges said, that some of the laws of the border police (about shooting) were against human rights. They therefore should have refused to shoot.
The same was of course applied to those people who had shot border police on their flight.
Border guards who did shoot, and stop someone from fleeing could get a reward of up to 500 Marks. Some of those guards were sentenced after the unification.
The other choice was to not shoot, or to miss badly. Such guards risked losing their well-paid jobs.
Another strip of land was given to West Berlin. This strip was only the width of a road which joined West Berlin with a tiny exclave.
Łódź
Łódź (pronounced "wuj") is the third-largest city in Poland, with 776,000 inhabitants. It is in the Łódź Voivodeship in the centre of the country. In Polish the name also means "boat". The mayor of Łódź is Hanna Zdanowska.
The first documents mentioning the city date from 1332. Łódź was awarded city rights (according to the Magdeburg law) in 1432. The Congress of Vienna decided in 1815 that the city should be part of Russia. Only in 1918 did the city fall back to Poland.
The city is about 120 km south-west of Warsaw. In and around the city, there are some textile and electronics industries. Because of prolonged economic difficulties, there has been a decline in the population of the city. The city has a university and a film academy. Łódź has a humid continental climate ("Dfb" in the Koeppen climate classification).
There are two major football teams in Łódź: the first is called ŁKS Łódź and the second is Widzew Łódź.
Kraków
Kraków (Polish: "Kraków"; (pronounced: ); variant English spelling Cracow; in full Royal Capital City of Krakow, Polish: Królewskie Stołeczne Miasto Kraków) is one of the oldest and largest cities in Poland. In 2014 in Kraków lived 759,800 people. It is on the Vistula river. Krakow is the capital of Lesser Poland Voivodeship ("województwo małopolskie"); before that it was the capital of Kraków Voivodship (since 14th century).
During the mid-early 19th century, Krakow became an independent city-state, under the name of "The Free, Independent and Strictly Neutral City of Krakow". However, it was annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1846.