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Cycling the Iron Curtain: Bike race to pay tribute to Berlin Wall fall

The course for this year's Tour of Germany will pay tribute to the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, organizers said Monday.

Published: 1 April 2019 19:12 CEST
Updated: 2 April 2019 08:44 CEST

Cycling the Iron Curtain: Bike race to pay tribute to Berlin Wall fall

Bikers in Hanover in the "Everyman race in 2018". Photo: DPA

The four-stage cycling race starts on August 29th in Hanover and will finish in Erfurt on September 1st.

This year's route, unveiled on Monday, will criss-cross the route of the former 'Iron Curtain' — the formidable border which divided East and West Germany — to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this November.

SEE ALSO: How united is German 28 years after the Berlin Wall's fall?

“The course pays tribute to the opening of the inner German border with several crossings of the former frontier strip,” said organizers in a statement.

The 'Deutschland Tour' returned to the cycling calendar in 2018 after a ten-year absence and last year's race was won by Slovenia's Matej Mohoric.

Last year's Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas finished in the peloton and the Welshman's presence boosted the Tour of Germany's profile on its return.

Each of the four stages this year offers opportunities for sprinters and climbers, especially around the Harz mountain range in Thuringia on the first day.

“After our successful return last year, we wanted four classic stages again,” said former elite-level cyclist rider Fabian Wegmann, 38, the Tour of Germany's sports director.

“The course favours both sprinters and aggressive 'punchers' (riders who prefer rolling terrain), which will keep the race open to the last metre.”

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'Wall of Shame': How the Berlin Wall went up 60 years ago

A cyclist passes the Berlin Wall memorial on Bernauer Straße in Berlin. The wall was erected 60 years ago on August 13th, 1961. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jörg Carstensen

Rumours that the border between East and West Berlin was about to be closed had been swirling for 48 hours.

On Friday, the parliament or People’s Chamber of communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) had given the green light to take any measures necessary to halt the exodus of its population westwards.

READ ALSO: What it was like voting as an American in Germany right before the Berlin Wall fell

Over the preceding 12 years, more than three million citizens had fled the strict regime, opting for the freedom and prosperity offered by West Germany.

News flashes

At 4:01 am on that Sunday, a top-priority AFP flash dated Berlin hit the wire: “The army and Volkspolizei are massing at the edge of the Eastern and Western sectors of Berlin to block passage.”

In a second flash, the story was firmed up. “Berlin’s metropolitan trains have for the past two hours not been going from one sector to the other.”

Then one flash after another fell:

– 4:28 am: “The GDR’s Council of Ministers has decided to put in place at its borders, even at those with the western sector of Berlin, the checks usual at borders of a sovereign state.”

– 4:36 am: “An order from the East German interior ministry forbids the country’s inhabitants to go to East Berlin if they do not work there.”

– 4:50 am: “Inhabitants of East Berlin are forbidden to work in West Berlin, according to a decision by the East Berlin city authorities.”

Barbed wire and guns

In the very early morning, AFP’s correspondent at the scene described the situation on the ground.

“Barbed wire fences and defensive spikes have been put in place overnight to hermetically seal the border between East Berlin and West Berlin.

READ ALSO: What happened during Germany’s ‘catastrophic winter’ of 78/79?

“The road is practically cut off for refugees.

“Most of the crossing points between the two sides of the city have been cut off since sunrise and are heavily guarded by the police patrolling with machine guns on their shoulders.

“Only 13 border crossings remain open between the two Berlins, controlled by numerous reinforced units of armed police.

A sign on the wall next to Brandenburg Gate reads: “The wall is coming down – not in 30, 50 or 100 years.” This photo was taken a year before the wall fell. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Wolfgang Kumm

Dramatic escape

“Germans from East Berlin can no longer go to the West without a special pass, the controls are excessively strict.

“As the net falls over the communist part of the city, a young Berliner from the East manages against all odds to ram with his car the barbed wire separating the two sectors of the city.

“Seeing the young man arriving at high speed in a Volkswagen, the police were too taken off guard to be able to stop the car, which carried the barbed wire placed across the street right to the French sector,” AFP wrote.

‘Death strip”

Little by little, the kilometres of barbed wire will give way to a 43-kilometre-long (27-mile-long) concrete wall cutting the city in two from north to south.

Another outer wall, 112 kilometres (70 miles) long, cuts off the enclave of West Berlin and its two million inhabitants from the GDR.

Constantly upgraded over its 28 years of existence, more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the wall is made up of slabs of reinforced concrete, 3.60 metres (12 feet) high, crowned with a cylinder without a grip making it almost impossible to climb.

The remainder is made of metal wire.

Along the eastern side of what is widely called the “wall of shame” stands a “no man’s land”, 300 metres (990 feet) deep in places.

Border soldiers from the DDR look over the wall in May 28th, 1988. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Wolfgang Kumm

At the foot of the wall a “death strip” made up of carefully raked ground to make it possible to spot footprints, is equipped with installations that set off automatic gunfire and mines.

However hermetic this formidable “anti-fascist protection rampart”, as it was officially known, would be, it would not prevent the escape of nearly 5,000 people until it fell on November 9th, 1989. Around 100 fugitives lost their lives trying to cross over.

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