Anti-fascist protective rampart built
 

Well at least that's what the East German's called it (antifaschistischer Schutzwall)

Most of us called it the Berlin Wall and it went up on 13 Aug 61. 52 years ago today.

OK, not so much a wall, but a barricade. The "wall" did not go up until later. :yep:

They needed the wall to protect them from mass immigration of the subjugated, enslaved and exploited people of West Germany who all wanted to enter the workers and farmers paradise...not.:-?

We have young people finishing school now who spend all days of their lives so far without the wall.

And some especially promising and potential geniuses amongst them did not even learn what it was.

A little know fact is that the wall protected us in the West - from the terrible things which grew on the other side:

http://abload.de/img/titanic_cover0807xhp5f.jpg

(Discussion about GDR border security - no shooting order is also no solution)

^ :har:

My God where did you dig this one out? Titanic? By style, it could be that.

You know, when I was in berlin on vacation, every damned gift shop tried to sell me a piece of the berlin wall.

Now the thing has turned into a giant tourist attraction

Yep, German post war history obviously doesn't exist in modern schools...I hardly know anyone who knows what the Berlin airlift was.:/\\!!

Tsk, you Germans and your technological progress in building elevators. :03:

I dunno - that chick in the back is pretty hot. :har:
(Uhm - that is a chick, right?) :arrgh!:

No, he isn't.:dead:
(we need a throw up smiley...)

http://imgcash1.imageshack.us/img144...spewingao3.gif

:salute:

The Berlin Wall was a good thing.
It kept us from them.:D
Whoever them was.:haha:

You might be surprised, but many former Westberliners of my age and older think that the city was more pleasant and better off during the cold war, than it is now. It is hard to explain and probably even harder to understand for foreigners, but it was a closed, protected habitat, with a clear border line for when you were "in" and when you were "out". When you were in, life was good and the mood of general life was "gemütlich". Compared to the 80s which I lived from autumn 79 to autumn 89 in WB, I think life in Berlin now being much worse, and the Western part of the city by looks and state definitely has lost, I thought of it all looking so shabby when I was there the last time. Even when ignoring higher crime and worse public traffic, social problems and bad financial situation, worsening school situation and a general left-leaning, prolet-like trend in the city, the mood and character in W-Berlin in the 80s was much better than it was the last times I was there, which is some time ago now. Have no intetion to ever go back there again. My friends who lived there, all have left the city. More precisely: they fled. And that is their word, not mine.

And from a personal view, since my father was classical musician, both the two major orchestras of the city were of much better quality back then (world format, both the philharmonic and symphonic orchestra) than they are today. Today they are good - not more. Which means, by global elite standards they are mediocre. A shame. Actually, there have been even more orchestras back then, not just these two big players.

Hans Conrad Schumann
http://i1162.photobucket.com/albums/...4.jpg~original



Watch how he cleverly drops the SMG as he hopes over.This was in 1961.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYtbBBBHtd0