American Gam

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” ~ President Ronald Reagan

In my last posting I failed to mention that we also stopped at another park on the trolley tour. This park is dedicated to the Berlin Wall. Here in this park they actually have two monolithic sections of that famous historic wall that were given to Rapid City by “generous citizens mindful of the price of freedom.”

The history of this wall began on August 13, 1961 when the East German Army, with Soviet support, began constructing a barrier of barbed wire, cinder blocks, and mortar between East and West Berlin. The barrier was intended to stop the exodus of citizens fleeing from Communist oppression and dreary living conditions in the Soviet-controlled East Berlin. Later, concrete slabs were erected and capped by wide cylindrical pipe to prevent an easy grip. For the first time in history, both a country and a city were divided in two.

Armored vehicles were deployed along the East-West border to prevent any protests. Communications were severed. Trains were stopped. Occupants living on the eastern side of buildings straddling the boundary were compelled to evacuate and the buildings were subsequently razed. They even demolished a historic church that was blocking a sentry’s view.

And so for 49 years, Berlin, former capital of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, was occupied by the victorious allies of World War II–the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. For much of that time the ugly wall divided the city geographically, politically, spiritually and economically. Until masses of people began dismantling it on November 9, 1989, this wall symbolized the “Cold War” that pitted democratic principles against communism.

Rapid City’s two wall segments and two tank traps came from the two-mile section between the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie. The four-foot wide sections are 13.5 feet tall and six inches thick and they weigh about four tons each. The concrete is laced with one-inch steel reinforcement bars every four inches.

I have to tell you, it was a powerful feeling to touch an actual section of the infamous Berlin Wall.

I hope we never see another wall like this one.

The gam continues…