Last weekend marked the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. For 28 years, the wall was the single most brutal and horrific reminder of the lengths to which the Soviet leadership would go to confine and restrict the citizens of the Eastern bloc under its control. Even in East Germany, the jewel of the Soviet imperium, ordinary people were ready to risk their lives for freedom.
Thankfully, that monstrosity is now a memory. Only a few short sections still stand in Berlin and other remnants are on display around the world as reminders of the evils of the era. Yet, memories are fading, and there is among some a weird nostalgia for the certainties of that time and a growing vogue for such constructions.
The Berlin Wall materialized Aug. 13, 1961, when the East German government without warning began construction of a guarded concrete barrier to physically separate and isolate West Berlin from the rest of East Germany (where it was located). The 155-km long structure was officially known as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart because it was supposedly intended to protect the East German people from the predations of the West; unofficially, it was the embodiment of the Iron Curtain that divided the capitalist and communist worlds.