Berliners | 3: East and West

Actor Andrew Sachs was born in Berlin. Returning there with his wife Melody, he discovers for himself how the 99-mile-long wall that encircles West Berlin has affected the city's landscape and its people. In East Berlin, he meets two actors: Wolf Kaiser, who worked with Bertolt Brecht, and Gerry Wolff, who spent the war in England as a member of the British Home Guard. The trip also gives Sachs the opportunity to visit family members and hear how they view the future of the Berlin Wall.

Not much of the Berlin Wall is still standing today, and those portions that survive have been preserved for historic or commemorative reasons. Part of the wall remains on Bernauer Strasse near the Chapel of Reconciliation, a memorial to the destroyed Church of Reconciliation, which was blown up in 1985, partly because it obscured the line of fire of those guarding the wall but also because it had become a symbol of the absurdity and brutality of the barricade. The old church was completely inaccessible as it was situated in 'no man's land' with its entrance in the East, while most of its congregation lived in the West. The new chapel has a documentation centre about the wall and commemorates its victims.