It has been 65 years since the Berlin Wall abruptly divided a city and a nation.Â
On August 13, 1961, over 10,000 police and army personnel started building the wall. It sliced through Berlin, separating East and West Germany, dividing streets and neighborhoods, families and friendships, democracy and communism.
Prior to its collapse 28 years later, at least 140 individuals lost their lives due to the wall, including escapees, bystanders, and border guards.
“No one could have foreseen that it would stand for 28 years,” recalled Hartmut Richter, whose family was trapped in the East on that Sunday morning.Â
Richter managed to flee to West Berlin in 1966 by swimming across a frigid river, later aiding 33 people in escaping East Germany in the trunk of his car.Â
Now, more than six decades later, Richter views his struggle for freedom as more than a memory: he perceives it as a cautionary tale.
“I fear for the freedom we enjoy here.”
This freedom could face a significant test in the upcoming state elections, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is on the brink of a momentous breakthrough.
Experts suggest that the AfD has effectively utilized deep-seated grievances between former East and West Germany, positioning itself as the defender of East German identity while advocating radical policies that challenge Germany’s post-war democratic norms.
Recent research, including a study by economic research institute DIW Berlin, also connects the AfD’s rise to economic disparities, demographic shifts, and collective dissatisfaction in the country’s eastern regions.
“It’s ironic that while we talk extensively about reunification in Germany and becoming a unified nation again, we now have a party that is causing division in German society,” remarked Justus Bender, a Frankfurt-based journalist and political analyst specializing in the AfD.Â
Sixty-five years after the Berlin Wall divided Germans between east