Berlin Wall - Bernauer Straße

A couple of miles (3km) northeast of Brandenburg Gate is the historical Bernauer Straße (Street). When the city was divided, the wall ran along this street. Since the street belonged to France, all the windows, doors and rooftops on the southside were progressively bricked up by the East German border guards and later the buildings were demolished.

It was here that the first casualty of the Wall occurred. Ida Siekmann was a 59 year old widowed nurse. Attempting to flee, she threw a quilt and some possessions into the street and jumped from her 3rd floor (4th by North American standards) window. She was gravely injured, and died on her way to the hospital. 

In 1964, a group of 34 West Berlin students began digging a tunnel beneath the street. Six months later they completed the 475ft (145m) tunnel and reached East Berlin. Over a few days, 57 people escaped, before the tunnel was discovered. It had one casualty, a border soldier who was accidentally shot by a comrade.

It is also on this street that 19 year old Hans Conrad Schumann, a border patroller, took a leap of faith and jumped over the newly installed barbed wire. In an interview, Hans recalled watching a young woman handing a bouquet of flowers to her mother over the barbed wire and apologising for not being able to cross over. Realising that he didn’t want to keep his fellow citizens imprisoned, he dropped his submachine gun and jumped. The West Berlin police were alerted and quickly arrived in a van to whisk him away to safety. His jump was captured by a photographer and the image entitled “Jump to Freedom” became a symbol of freedom. A large photo can be seen on the side of a building on Bernauer Straße and a short distance away is a sculpture attached to the side of a building.

The demolished buildings on the southside of the street were never replaced. In its place now is a memorial park commemorating the victims of the Wall and the history of the city’s division. It is a wide-open green space, filled with information boards and relics of the Wall.