How long was germany divided

Physically separate from the more famous Berlin Wall, the Inner German border was nearly 1,km long and divided East and West Germany from , when the Soviets established East Germany, until the border fortifications started to topple down in Today, tourists armed with cameras have taken the place of armed guards.

And while visitors and locals can now walk from one side of the village to the other with ease, ignoring the old warning signs, they are, in fact, still crossing another, less-visible border: the line between the federal states of Bavaria and Thuringia. The story of how this village once belonged to two contrasting political, economic and social systems — and the way in which the border still manifests itself today — is a fascinating tale.

One that begins with the local stream. Both sides became part of the united German Empire in After World War One, with the formation of the states of Bavaria and Thuringia, whose border ran along the same line as the stones, the stream took on a new role.

The demarcation lines defined in the London Protocol resulted in Thuringia going to the Soviet Union and Bavaria to the Americans.

To begin with, it was still possible for villagers to walk back and forth across the stream, even though they might be stopped for a document check. But as tensions rose between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies as the Cold War intensified, the Tannbach marked an ever-widening rift. This separation became more severe in , when the GDR closed the East-West border with little warning to prevent further large-scale emigration to West Germany.

Ideologically, they saw themselves as people's democracies, but were, in fact, dictatorships. East Germany occupied a special geographic and political role within the Eastern Bloc, for free Europe was situated at its western border. Moreover, the similarly divided city of Berlin — the former capital of Nazi Germany — was situated in the heart of its territory. The city had been a symbol of Nazi Germany and all of the Allies wanted a piece of it. Thus, West Berlin also became an island of freedom in communist East Germany.

In divided Berlin, the clash between the competing systems of capitalism and socialism could not have been more stark. The city, with a total of 3. But that hole was plugged with the construction of the Berlin Wall in Until that point, more than one million people, fed up with the economy of lack and the intellectual climate of an unfree society, had turned their backs on the GDR.

After the Wall went up, people across Germany became ever more estranged. Still, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt's policy of detente with the East led to diplomatic rapprochement in the s. In , both German states became full members of the United Nations UN , cementing their existence.

Despite that, relative stability in the GDR was short-lived, lasting only a few years. The regime was simply not economically viable. He says another contributing factor was the dissatisfaction of the citizenry, "which manifested itself in an incredible desire to leave.

Yet, East German leader Erich Honecker remained steadfast. The people expressed their anger not only through mass demonstrations in the streets, but also by filing in ever more applications for permission to travel outside the GDR. Within two years, the number of applications for travel documents doubled from 53, to more than , That said, only a fraction of applicants were in fact allowed to travel outside the country.

Read more: A dangerous escape from East Germany. In the Soviet occupying forces turned the former commercial kitchen compound into an internment camp.

The cellar was converted by the prisoners into a remand center. Victims reported that they were tormented by sleep deprivation, beatings, kickings, being forced to stand for hours or subjected to water torture. Food, clothing, and hygiene standards were terrible. Some 1, people died. In the newly-formed East German secret state police, the Stasi, took over the prison. During the 50s most inmates were those opposed to the communist dictatorship, such as reformers and strike leaders involved in the 17 June uprising.

As there was never any daylight in the damp cells, the inmates nick-named the prison 'U-Boot," German for submarine. At the end of the 50s a new building with more than cells and interrogation rooms replaced the old cellar jail.

Physical violence was replaced by psychological torture. After the Berlin Wall was built in most inmates were those who had attempted to escape or leave East Germany, but also writers and civil rights activists. Made to appear outwardly as fish or vegetable delivery vans, these vehicles had five tiny windowless cells, which meant inmates had no idea where they had been taken.

The Stasi succeeded in pressuring 90 percent of inmates to make damning statements in their first interrogation. In prison every inmate was addressed not by name but by their cell number.

Is the same true for the architects of German unification? Unification is a massive undertaking and could not have happened quickly. The 30th anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on how challenging it is for humans to really make day-to-day sacrifices for those outside their group, and what more the German government might have done to really make the East bloom like the West. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

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