35 years after the Berlin Wall opened, fragments of East Germany's border remain
Most of communist East Germany's heavily fortified border was torn down quickly after it was opened in 1989, but there are still places where visitors can see the remains of the Berlin Wall and other sections of the frontier.
East Germany closed the border in Berlin on Aug. 13, 1961, and expanded the Wall into an increasingly elaborate fortification snaking through the city and around the capitalist enclave of West Berlin.
The Wall plugged the last gap in the border between east and west. East Germany's leadership had already sealed off the country's main frontier with West Germany, snaking from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia, in 1952. It stayed that way until the border was opened on Nov. 9, 1989.
Remains of the Berlin Wall at the official Berlin Wall memorial side are pictured at Bernauer Strasse, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Visitors walk along remains of the Berlin Wall at the official Berlin Wall memorial site at Bernauer Strasse, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Bornholmer Strasse crossing in Berlin was the first to open that night. Border guards, who hadn't received orders to let anyone pass, gave way under pressure from a large crowd demanding to be let through after an off-handed announcement of new regulations by Politburo spokesperson Günter Schabowski.
Today, a section of Wall slabs with photos of those events and a series of plaques marking the night's main developments — including an alert sent by The Associated Press’ German service — stands at the former crossing.
The longest section of Wall remaining in Berlin is the East Side Gallery, where the once-gray concrete slabs are covered with murals that were painted by 118 artists after the opening of the border.
A visitor looks through a gap in remains of the Berlin Wall at the official Berlin Wall memorial site at Bernauer Strasse, in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The evening sun shines on remains of the Berlin Wall at the official Berlin Wall memorial site at Bernauer Strasse, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
People gather at a paining of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, left, kissing former East German leader Erich Honecker at the so-called East Side Gallery, a popular place for street art on remains of Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Otherwise, the Wall has largely disappeared now and much of the former “death strip” — between the exterior wall that faced West Berlin and an interior wall that faced east — has been built over.
Among the exceptions is a strip of the former border at the Bernauer Strasse memorial site in downtown Berlin, and there are fragments dotted around elsewhere in the city and on its edges.
In most cases, the main East-West German border outside Berlin consisted of heavily fortified fences rather than walls. There were a few exceptions, however: most famously in the village of Moedlareuth, divided between Bavaria and the eastern region of Thuringia, which earned the nickname “Little Berlin.” Part of Moedlareuth's border can still be seen today.
Germany was reunified on Oct. 3, 1990, less than a year after the border opened.
People gather at a painting at the so-called East Side Gallery, a popular place for street art on remains of the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
People gather at a painting of at the so-called East Side Gallery, a popular place for street art on remains of the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
People gather at a painting of at the so-called East Side Gallery, a popular place for street art on remains of the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Remains of the former Berlin Wall are covered with graffiti at the Mauerpark (Wall Park) in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Graffiti-covered remains of the former Berlin Wall stand at a cemetery in central Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Crosses of a cemetery stand in front of remains of the Berlin Wall in central Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Original segments of the Berlin Wall for sale stand on a closed property in Teltow, near Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The original remains of a wall separating the two parts of the village Mödlareuth during the German division in East and West Germany is pictured on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
A view out of a border control tower on the original remains of a wall separating the two parts of the village Mödlareuth during the German division in East and West Germany is pictured on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
People gather at a painting at the so-called East Side Gallery, a popular place for street art on remains of the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Stones on the street mark the course of the former Berlin Wall near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Stones on the street mark the course of the former Berlin Wall near the former Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The inscription “ At 19:05 The DDR (former East Germany) opens its borders - news alert of the AP” is embedded in the ground near the former border checkpoint between East and West at Bornholmer Strasse in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
A person walks along the so-called East Side Gallery, a popular place for street art on remains of the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Lead photo: The evening sun lights remains of the Berlin Wall at the official Berlin Wall memorial site at Bernauer Strasse, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Text with AP News story, AP Photos: 35 years after the Berlin Wall opened, fragments of East Germany's border remain
Photos by Markus Schreiber
All photos were taken with analog film and a panorama camera
