“No one has any intention of building a wall“

This sentence was said by the former GDR head of state Walter Ulbricht in a press conference on June 15, 1961. It was a lie. The Berlin Wall was built two months later and the inner German border was closed. The building of the wall had the most painful consequences for the people in East Berlin and the former GDR. The citizens of East Berlin lived together with their neighbors, citizens of West Berlin, in the same city and yet could not live together. There were no neighborhood customs as it is usually the case among people who live in a common city, sometimes even in a common street.

Anyone wishing to flee the wall had to expect to be shot. Many people lost their lives trying to escape. This was not only true for Berlin – Germany was divided for 28 years. The Germans lived as neighbors in their own country – separated by a wall. Free movement as a human being was impossible.

Mutual visits were strongly regulated and only possible from west to east – not the other way around.

It was not until the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR in 1989 that the Wall fell, which then ended the SED dictatorship and finally led to German reunification.

Since January 1989 there have been rallies and demonstrations in Leipzig that have grown in size, despite the fact that there was no right to freedom of expression. The citizens of Leipzig and later many other GDR citizens risked their usual lives; bans on occupation, imprisonment and torture were common.

In retrospect, it still verges on the miraculous that it finally ended without violence and this encourages me.