The Berlin Wall in Berlin, Berlin, Germany | Memorial

The Berlin Wall has long since disappeared from reunified Berlin, Germany.   Memories of The Berlin Wall,  however, are still very much alive, and many of the visitors who come from all over the world are disappointed or surprised to find that so little remains of Berlin’s most infamous structure. The two halves of the city, separated for decades by The Berlin Wall, have in fact been visibly reunited,  while the remaining sections of the GDR’s border fortifications no longer inspire fear.   A moment of silence can help visitors to grasp the message of the Memorial sites dedicated to those who died trying to cross The Berlin  Wall.
On 13 August 1961, the GDR leadership closed the border to West Berlin. On August 22, the GDR Ministry of the Interior established crossing points, seven on streets and one at a train station  to be used by West Berliners, citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany, and foreign nationals. East Berliners and GDR citizens were not permitted to cross the border.
People traveling between the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin used transit routes with their own border crossing points.
Well over 100,000 citizens of the GDR tried to escape across the inner-German border or The Berlin Wall. Several hundred of them were shot and killed by GDR border guards or died in other ways during their escape attempt.
Today, The Berlin Wall Memorial, the Memorial for Günter Litfin, the “Parlament der Bäume” (Parliament of Trees), the Wall Memorial at the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, and other sites that were established between 1961 and 1989 honor the memory of the people who died trying to cross The Berlin Wall.