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The Wall began as a barbed-wire fence that later was replaced by a 5-foot cement block thick wall topped with barbed wire and broken glass. Guards patroled the Wall with orders to "shoot to kill" anyone trying to scale it. East German communist leaders with the OK from Soviet ruler Mikhail Gorbachev, in order to avoid a citizens' revolt, allowed free traffic between the East and West.
During the 28-year history of the Wall, an estimated 5,000 people were able to escape the East by getting over the Wall. About 3,200 people were arrested in the border area in attemps to get over or under the Wall. At least 136 people were killed, and another 120 were injured. An estimated 750 people lost their lives along the entire length of the Iron Curtain.
We were outnumbered on our side of the wall. We had a Berlin Brigade of about 6,000 troops. The Soviets along the border had an estimated 350,000 Russian troops and 150,000 East Germans on their side of the boundary.
A major incident that occurred when the Wall still was up has a Washington touch to it. Major Arthur D. Nicholson, an intellgence officer with the U.S. Military Liaison Mission, was shot and killed on March 24, 1985, by a trigger happy Soviet sentry in Ludwegslust, East Germany. Col.(ret.) Walt Hatcher of Washington was stationed at Heidelberg, West Germany, and was appointed to investigate the circumstances of the shooting. It was called a Line of Duty investigation. The Russians would not talk to him. He did ascertain that Nicholson was not in a restricted area when he was shot. Nicholson bled to death in a matter of minutes. He was standing outside of his jeep when shot. His driver, a sergeant, was not allowed out of the jeep for eight hours. The body was not moved for eight hours.
Nicholson was on a routine intelligence mission. The Soviets were allowed in West Germany on the same type of intelligence mission that Nicholson was on, but certain areas on both sides of the Wall were restricted for intelligence officers under an agreement.
We were fortunate to visit the Wall area twice-the first time in 1988 and the second time exactly one year to the date of the Fall of the Wall. Entering East Berlin while the Wall was up through Checkpoint Charlie in a bus was an experience we will never forget. Also East Berlin was "dead" with stores closed, few people on the streets or in restaurants, and there was little traffic. The Russians still were trying to rebuild buildings damaged by Allied bombs in World War II.
The second time, a year after the Wall came down, what was East Berlin was a lively place, Stores had reopened, people were on the streets and in business places and traffic was brisk. One big difference was that East Berliners would speak to you. On the first visit, it was difficult to find someone willing to speak to you.
To erect a Wall to separate people from freedom didn't work then and it wouldn't work today.
