The Berlin Wall

August 13, 1961 - November 9, 1989

By: Frederick Taylor

Narrated by: Peter Noble

“This vivid account of the Wall and all that it meant reminds us that symbolism can be double-edged, as a potent emblem of isolation and repression became, in its destruction, an even more powerful totem of freedom.” — The Atlantic Monthly

NOW WITH AN UPDATED EPILOGUE 30 YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE WALL

On the morning of August 13, 1961, the residents of East Berlin found themselves cut off from family, friends, and jobs in the West by a tangle of barbed wire that ruthlessly split a city of four million in two. Within days the barbed-wire entanglement would undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis: it became an imposing 103-mile-long wall guarded by three hundred watchtowers. A physical manifestation of the struggle between Soviet Communism and American capitalism that stood for nearly thirty years, the Berlin Wall was the high-risk fault line between East and West on which rested the fate of all humanity.

In the definitive history on the subject, Frederick Taylor weaves together official history, archival materials, and personal accounts to tell the complete story of the Wall's rise and fall.

Thorough

Great detail from history of Germany to different aspects of how the wall came into being, & how it came down. Excellent afterword in 2020.

Thorough and lively

The audiobook starts by reviewing the implications of WWII on the strange status of Berlin: a city with a French, British, and American sectors along with a Soviet one, all located inside East Germany under Soviet control and without a border with West Germany under Allied control. Then moves to the formation of the German Democratic Republic as a satellite state of the USSR and the Federal German Republic supported by the USA. The difference in opportunities and freedom between the two republics resulted in a massive emigration from East to West Berlin, especially of qualified manpower. The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 was the intent of the GDR authorities to stop Berliners from fleeing to the West. The Wall was finally brought down in a surprising way in 1989 leading to the reunification of both Germanies. The book ends by explaining the divide observed even today between (unified) West and East Germanies.

Very dense but excellent

This is one that requires a great deal of attention. Getting distracted causes one to not know what’s going on. Other than that, it’s very well laid out and very in depth. The reader gets the complete full story of the Berlin Wall, which was a most divisive time in out history. Excellent narration by Peter Noble.

Informative

Overall this was a very educational account of the history of the German capital Berlin. Its narration was done superbly and never once got tired of listening to it like other history books tend to have. I would recommend to any history buff looking to expand their understanding of the time when the Berlin Wall divided the German nation post WWII.

Erratic

Taylor isn’t sure whether he’s writing a strict historical telling of the facts about the Berlin Wall, or an 11th-grade level political opinion essay about anything tangentially related to Germany.