French Sector

Berlin's French Sector receives extremely short shrift in this photo-essay, and what little material has found its way here is not particularly pleasant.  It is not that I intend to slight the neighborhoods and nationalities concerned; it is only that I rarely had occasion to visit the French Sector, other than to dine at the French military restaurant or catch a plane.  Still, there is material of interest, even if only to present a Cold-War base-line by which to gauge progress since.

Flugplatz Tegel

So far as I am aware, Reinickendorf's main point of interest is Tegel Airport, which serves as both a commercial terminal and an allied (French) air base.  Situated on the northern outskirts of the city, it is rather out of the way, but it is the only airfield in West Berlin with runways and clearances sufficient to accommodate large commercial jetliners—a category represented at the time mainly by the DeHavilland Comet, the Boeing 707, and the Douglas DC-8.  (I'm sure I have a photo of one of these birds on the runway; I'll put it up if and when I find it.)

(It is my understanding that Tegel was not used for the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49, though the reason is not clear.  The newest of West Berlin's three airports, perhaps it had not yet been built.)

◄ Denkmal Plötzensee

This out-of-the-way memorial is dedicated to the victims of the Hitler regime.

◄ Bernauer Strasse

Bernauer Street has the dubious distinction that the street and sidewalk are in the French sector, while the buildings along it are in Soviet territory.  As the Wall (visible at lower left) was being built in August 1961, many who lived in these apartments frantically jumped from their windows to the sidewalk below, before the buildings were fully evacuated and their windows bricked up.

West Berlin firefighters brought in nets, but some jumpers missed them in their panic.  It says something about a government when its people fear it as much as a fire in their homes.

Wedding was the western terminus of one of the first refugee tunnels dug underneath the Berlin Wall.  It extended from the basement of an abandoned factory on Schönholzer Strasse in the Soviet sector, underneath Bernauer Strasse to another building in the French Sector.  Though marvelously well constructed and its secrecy maintained, the tunnel was plagued by water from leaking pipes, and had to be shut down after only a few days of operation.

Soviet Sector

The Soviet Sector is the largest of the four, and, to be sure, only a small proportion of it is devoted to the Wall and its death strip.  There are many things of interest in East Berlin, even some of great beauty, such as might be found at Museeninsel (Museum Island).  But while it is permissible for most allied personnel to visit the East, my association with intelligence operations precludes my crossing into either East Berlin or East Germany, except by "secure transport"—which means a military duty train, an air force transport, or on an American airliner.  And even were I permitted to go there, my camera would not be.  No casual stroll along Unter den Linden for me!  And so the only photos that appear here are what I can take from the Western side.

◄ The Wall

The 43-kilometer-long Wall emphatically marks the border between East and West Berlin.  It slashes brutally through neighborhoods, across streets and tracks.  Polyglot signs warn, "You are entering the Soviet Sector."  Right—with a ladder, wire cutters, and a death wish, maybe!

◄ Death Strip

To discourage would-be refugees from approaching the Wall, an area along the Soviet side contains anti-personnel mines, vehicle barricades, attack dogs, and machine guns actuated by trip wires, in addition to watch towers manned by armed guards.

The external borders of West Berlin—those facing the East German state rather than East Berlin—are likewise barricaded by a 110-kilometer fence—long enough to stretch more than half-way to West Germany!

Although the building of the wall is roundly deplored and condemned, some in the West note (under their breath) that it actually has a couple of significant benefits.  First, it stops a mass immigration of labor to the West, which would otherwise eventually have the effect of driving wages down and prices up (as will indeed happen following reunification).  And second, it offers Western leaders a propaganda windfall, as a demonstration of the wholesale failure of Communism at the popular level.

Mitte

▲ Brandenburger Tor

Perhaps the most famous landmark in all Berlin (aside from the Wall), Brandenburg Gate is the only major point of interest in the Stadtmitte (central city) that I can approach closely enough to photograph.  The cast-bronze quadriga atop the Gate is a Russian replacement of the original, which was destroyed during the war.

Brandenburg Gate is situated just inside the Soviet Sector at the eastern end of Tiergarten in the British Sector.  Viewed here from Strasse des 17. Juni, the Wall slices across Berlin's proud East-West Axis boulevard just in front of the Gate, as if cutting the city's throat.  Beyond, the street becomes Unter den Linden as it passes through the Gate and onward into the central city.  Standing to the left and under construction is East Berlin's new television broadcast tower.

Once its smooth outer skin has been installed, the broadcast tower will unexpectedly delight many by reflecting the rays of the sun in the pattern of a four-pointed star or cross.  Hardly a miracle, mind you, just a familiar reflective effect of curved surfaces—but it will become known as "Saint Walter's Cross," to the dismay of its namesake, East German Chancellor Walter Ulbricht.