[Strelitzer Straße, 01.40 p.m.]
Bernauer Straße / Versöhnungskirche. A man appears with a homemade poster: “People’s Chamber deputies—former National Socialists.”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR33-06-031 bis 039, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Nordgraben, 11.03 a.m.]
Bergmann-Borsig / Nordgraben. Three building workers from the Märkisches Viertel throw a tin lid at the sentry post.
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR31-01-003 bis 011, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Provinzstraße, 07.35 p.m.]
A man orders the sentry to desert. The man drops a bag, jumps over the wall to get it back,
and is then arrested.
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR31-09-040 bis 048, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[S-Bahnhof-Wilhelmsruh, 6.40 a.m.]
A man curses the border guards: “You want to be communists and you go over other borders.”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR31-11-057 bis 067, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Bernauer Straße, 01.27 p.m.]
Bernauer Straße / Sophienfriedhof. A man shouts out: “Heil Hitler, comrades, things are better over here.” Then he removes some bricks from the old wall.
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR33-00-019 bis 025, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Grenzübergangsstelle Chausseestraße, 01.57 p.m.]
A thirty-five to forty-year-old West Berlin man puts a letter and two cigarettes on a railing at the security line and calls out to the sentry: “Pass that on to Walter Ulbricht!” The sentry fires two warning
shots, the man pretends to be hit and bends over, saying: “I die for Germany.”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR33-03-063 bis 073, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Liesenstraße, 4.30 a.m.]
Friedhof Liesenstraße. A man screams out: “Shoot that dog over there, I can’t sleep!”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR33-04-071 bis 077, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Bernauer Straße, 02.15 p.m.]
The brigade leader working on the demolition of house number 48 calls out of the first story of the
ruin to a woman in West Berlin: “Mama!” When the captain orders him to leave
the building site immediately, he weeps and says: “Can’t you see that that is my mother?”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR33-07-018 bis 026, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Brandenburger Tor, 09.45 p.m.]
Two men, around thirty years of age, shout at the sentry: “If you come over, grab the flag from the Brandenburg Gate and bring it with you.”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR33-09-023 bis 035, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Gleimstraße, 10.45 a.m.]
Gleimtunnel / Falkplatz. Six youths on the viewing platform at Gleimstraße throw stones at a screen.
They are taken away by a West Berlin policeman.
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR33-xx2-037 bis 043, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Zimmerstraße, 10.00 p.m. to 0.20 a.m.]
Zimmerstraße / Markgrafenstraße. From a demonstration line moving toward the Springer tower, chanting can be heard: “Springer is a fascist!”, “Get out of Vietnam!”, “Johnson is a murderer!”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR35-01-025 bis 031, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Checkpoint Charlie, 03.12 p.m.]
Friedrichstraße / Checkpoint Charlie. An American soldier at the checkpoint barracks holds up a 25 × 30 cm photo of a nude.
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR35-01-045 bis 051, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Stresemannstraße, 04.30 p.m.]
Five men hold up a placard: “We know that if you don’t report anything
and don’t know anything, things look bad. Thanks to everyone who can live with that.”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR35-08-039 bis 047, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Potsdamer Bahnhof, 08.15 p.m.]
Potsdamer Bahnhof / Stresemannstraße. One of the sentries is shot at by two men with catapults. He is not injured.
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR35-08-049 bis 057, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Clara Zetkin-Straße, 9.00 a.m.]
Clara-Zetkin-Straße / Ebertstraße. A West Berlin policeman: “Is it as cold over there as it is over here?”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR35-10-020 bis 026, BArch-DVH 60 Bild- GR35-09-069 bis 073, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Humboldthafen, 07.05 p.m.]
Kapelleufer / Alexanderufer. West Berlin police officers shoot at wild ducks.
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR35-11-051 bis 057, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Potsdamer Platz / Voßstraße, 12.36 a.m.]
“Come on over, we’ve got some nice women for you. You can have a car too.
Whether now or later, we’ll get you anyways!”
Quelle: BArch-DVH 60 GR 35-08-71-73 und BArch-DVH 60 Bild-GR 33-09-01 bis 03, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
[Bernauer Straße / Eberswalder Straße, 10.15 p.m.]
Eberswalder Straße / Schwedter Straße. A man calls through a megaphone: “No coal in the basement,
no balls in the bag, this is your twentieth anniversary.”
Quelle: BArch-MA-DVH 58-8476 GR31-34a bis 34c, without notice, reconstruction and interpretation Arwed Messmer
» Catalog
A catalog will be published in August 2011:
The Other View: The Early Berlin Wall, Annett Gröschner, Arwed Messmer (eds.)
Hardcover, 752 pages, Hatje Cantz Verlag
» Panoramas
» Exhibition Site
Unter den Linden 40 (second floor, between Friedrichstraße and Neustädtische Kirchstraße), 10117 Berlin, D - 10117 Berlin, from August 5 to October 3, 2011, opening hours daily 10am–8pm, admission 8.00 Euro, reduced 5.00 Euro
» Guided tours
» Press
PR-Netzwerk
Annette Schäfer
Phone +49 30 - 61 65 11 55
» Press Release, June 14, 2011 (Download)