I was recently in Berlin and no visit is complete without a tour taking in the Berlin Wall, erected in 1961 by Soviet controlled communist East Germany. It was designed to ensure that the inhabitants of East Berlin could enjoy the delights of living in a communist country, whether they liked it or not, free from any notions of living in the more liberal and altogether more appealing West Germany.
I need to be reminded each time I read anything about the wall that, in fact, it encircled the whole of West Berlin which was located in the then East Germany. Travel between West Berlin to the rest of West Germany was possible but restricted and controlled by the East Germans. Millions of East Germans defected to the West before the wall went up, clearly not appreciating just how good they had it in the East.
Notwithstanding the generous provision of a wall—two walls, in fact, with a kill zone between them—those naughty East Germans still could not resist trying to see what was on the other side, and to escape from the east to the west of Germany. Over a hundred people paid with their lives, left to bleed to death by callous East German marksmen. The West German police were prevented from entering the kill zone, and soldiers from the western allies dared not enter for fear of the cold war turning hot around them.
On this trip I visited the Cold War Museum which, in itself is interesting. For a few extra euros you can experience a virtual reality film which depicts a notable escape from East Germany, and brought to my attention the tragic story of Konrad Schumann. In the days immediately before the wall was erected, the west was divided from the east of Berlin; the demarcation formed by rolls of barbed wire, guarded by armed East German soldiers. One of these soldiers was Konrad Schumann.
Schumann was becoming increasingly upset by what he was seeing at the makeshift border. Families were clearly being divided and he was there to enforce that division. Elderly relatives were trapped in the East and younger relatives were able only to hand them things over the wire. Schumann managed to flatten a part of the barbed wire, and this was noticed by some protesters on the west side. As East German trucks and cranes arrived to begin construction of the wall, Schumann took his chance.
The West German police had been alerted and a van arrived; Schumann made a run and jump over the wire, abandoned his rifle and made it into the back of the police van. He also jumped into history as the event was photographed by Peter Leibing, thus producing one of the most iconic pictures of the era. Sadly Schumann, who made a new life for himself in the west, was never forgiven by his East German family and did not seem to take well to his celebrity status. He hanged himself in 1998.
Germany now has no wall and for a time it appeared to have no borders either. Germany’s immigration policy under Angela Merkel—essentially an open border policy, hailed as a success by outlets like The Guardian—has been so successful that it has recently been ditched. The extent to which the German population is largely not of German origin is obvious in the streets of Berlin, and some streets are so transformed that they are more Arabic than German. This, in itself may not be problematic, but it has been imposed on the people of Berlin whether they like it or not. Were he alive today, Schumann might not now recognise where he was. Also, if he jumped now, he would be jumping into a world of pronouns and gender-neutral language, which Germany seems to have embraced with enthusiasm.
When we ponder the ultimate sacrifice of people from the east of Berlin who simply wanted to make a better life for themselves but who were not among the 5000 or so to make it over the wall, it is hard to imagine that their top priority was avoiding being misgendered. I would not wish to make light of Schumann’s life or death, or to play down the horrors from which he undoubtedly escaped. But, given what the world has become, and Germany is not immune to any of the woke nonsense that plagues the rest of the west, would Schumann be as willing to jump now? Who knows, maybe he would have jumped back again.
Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.
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Ah yes, The Guardian and the wonderful improvement in the lives of the German people following the influx of all those highly qualified doctors and dentists. Obviously one can have too much of a good thing!