A German historian whose work includes research on the Berlin Wall Saturday called for a bigger memorial in the German capital to the people who were killed while crossing the barrier, dpa reported. Just one day before ceremonies to mark the creation 45 years ago of the Berlin Wall, Jochen Staadt of the Free University of Berlin said a more centrally located monument was required. Wreaths were to be laid Sunday in the city's Bernauer Strasse, scene of dramatic escapes from communist East Germany. The footpath and roadway of Bernauer Strasse were in West Berlin, but buildings on one side were in East Berlin, making it an ideal place to cross covertly. A memorial, chapel and documentation centre have been built in the street, which is 3 kilometres northeast of the Brandenburg Gate. Staadt, who is one of a team of 12 academics jointly researching Communist East Germany at the university, said, "We need a place where we can commemorate the victims of the wall." History had to be kept visible and be experienced "emotionally," he said. The Wall has vanished, but a few sections have been re-erected around the city as monuments. Sunday's ceremonies will mark August 13, 1961, when East German border guards began putting up barbed wire fences that over months and years were upgraded into the Wall, a concrete barrier with tripwires, vehicle traps and runways for fierce guard dogs. The number of people killed at the Wall remains in dispute. According to the Centre for Contemporary Historical Research in Potsdam, the toll up to the fall of the Wall in 1989 was 125. However, Alexandra Hildebrandt, who heads a private museum on the Wall, estimates that 1,201 were killed by border forces between 1945 and 1989. The wreaths were to be laid Sunday by German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.
