The White Crosses Memorial

The white crosses you see on the railings pay tribute to those who lost their lives trying to cross the Berlin Wall. Originally, there were crosses at every exact location where someone had been killed, but maintaining these scattered memorials throughout the city proved too complicated. As a result, only a few were kept and gathered near the Reichstag. Each cross bears the victim’s name and their date of death, but they are dedicated to all those who lost their lives trying to escape. There is also a cross dedicated to the unknown victims. In 1961, a new law authorized East German border guards to shoot, and I quote, “with the aim of stopping traitors and, if necessary, killing them.” Naturally, these shootings sparked widespread protests in West Germany and internationally. West Berlin authorities often tried to protect fugitives, sometimes leading to fatalities and complex political ordeals. A formal complaint was even filed to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. On the other side of the wall, the Stasi, East Germany’s state security service, was concerned about public opinion, so they falsified many death certificates of people who had died at border crossings. According to official reports, they had supposedly died of heart attacks during routine checks. You should also know that both sides referred to the Berlin Wall differently: in the West, it was known as the “Wall of Shame,” while in the East, it was referred to as the “Antifascist Bulwark.” Residents on each side therefore had a completely different version of events.There is some discrepancy between sources in the exact number of people considered to be victims of the wall, but approximately 1,245 people were killed trying to cross the border between East and West Germany between 1961 and 1989. More than 100,000 East German citizens tried to escape to the West. At least 140 people lost their lives at the wall itself: 100 fugitives were shot, 30 civilians with no intention of fleeing were killed anyway, 8 East German border guards died, and 251 travellers perished during border checks—whether from heart attacks or otherwise. Not to mention the numerous suicides of those who had been arrested. In 1990, during the reunification of Germany, Berliners decided to remove the wall, a symbol that brought too much suffering. Today, only about 1% of the infamous 155-kilometer-long Berlin Wall remains. More than 90% of its debris was crushed and reused for the construction of the A20 motorway.