Register of Documents 1974- @ James Fuentes

Where the Berlin Wall once marked the frontier between the two opposed political
systems of Germany, Sony and Mercedes Benz have now constructed new
headquarters, celebrating their victory in the Cold War. Materially speaking, these
structures are light, soaring tensile monuments of steel and glass - the ideological
antithesis of the heavy opaque wall the buildings replaced.

Not far from here is Bernauer Straße, a street that bisected the border and gained
notoriety for escapes that began from windows of the apartment blocks in the East,
down to the road in the West. As Bernauer Straße belonged to the French sector of
West Berlin, the entrances and windows of the houses on the southern side were
successively bricked up by East German border guards and access to the roof was
blocked. On 22 August 1961, Ida Siekmann became the first fatal casualty at the
Berlin Wall: she died after jumping from her third floor apartment at no. 48.

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