By John Davis
Special to THE DAILY

The Berlin Wall shaped most of the lives of those living today. That day in August 1961, a Sunday, when most Berliners were at home, soldiers of communist East Germany began laying barbed wire across hundreds of kilometers of border around the then “Western Zone” of occupation that was West Berlin.

This horrible task was done to wall away the lure of the West — its democracy, freedom, and open political system — from those trapped in the Soviet zone of communist occupation.

Frederick Taylor, a British historian, author of the exceptional “Dresden” about the firebombing of that city, and translator of the Goebbels Diaries, has performed an outstanding work of research and scholarship in producing “The Berlin Wall, A World Divided, 1961-1989.”

For divided it made the world. Nothing was more emblematic of the poverty of spirit that was communism than the wall. Here were divided families, divided societies, indeed not only a divided nation but a divided continent and world made manifest.

The political maneuverings that brought about the secret decision to wall off the western part of Berlin are well recounted. Walter Ulbricht, the East German party boss, and his Soviet backers knew the hemorrhage of young, highly skilled and educated people to the West could not continue. Without some dramatic act, their social system and their unelected dictators backed by Soviet bayonets would collapse. So they built the wall.

There was no lack of hypocrisy in the West, however. Despite valiant escape attempts over, through, even under the wall as it was strengthened and reinforced with dogs, concrete, machine-guns, mines and lights, the West did little to remove it. Perhaps the safety valve that was Berlin could have become a flashpoint for war. Numerous dealings of the various Western and communist politicians are explored.

Tracing the wall’s history from its origin through its dramatic fall in 1989, Taylor offers an exciting, readable, and ultimately informative study. For any educated person, this book is a fine addition to the library.

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