EAST MEETS WEST

The Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) more commonly known as East Germany, was the communist state which was formed in 1949. It occupied the soviet zone of Germany, and the eastern half of the Allied occupied Capital of Berlin.
The DDR did not wish its Citizens from moving to the Western half of the Berlin, and began to impose blocks on immigration and visits in the 1950s and erected a barbed wire fence by 1952. Despite their efforts 3.5 million East Germans had left by 1961, which totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population.
As a result, by 1961 work began on the construction of the concrete wall to surround West Berlin, shutting out western influence on East Germany's citizens. Western citizens were able to visit the eastern half of the city, once they had applied for a pass, but traffic the other direction was near to impossible and anyone who attempted escape had to consider the soldiers patrolling the wall with orders of "shoot to kill"



In 1965 the DDR began construction on the Fernsehturm (Television Tower) in the eastern half of Berlin. The tower was East Germany's way of boasting their technological advancements over their neighbours, but ironically, the tower reflected sunlight off its dome in the form of a cross, much to the annoyance of the atheist communist government and was coined "Pope's Revenge" by Berliners.

Despite Berlin being split into two halves with the use of walled boundaries, it is different to our proposed State of South London in the sense that we are blocking ourselves off instead of partitioning off north London. Also in Germany, citizens were escaping the communist regime by entering into the Walled half of West Berlin which was landlocked by East Germany, whereas we are walling off our Country to preserve our diversity and rich culture. Whereas we will allow people to travel freely between our country and the United Kingdom, we are taking on the ideals of checkpoints to allow us to control our population. The Television Tower is an interesting point, as South London has few landmarks which are visible from a distance (excluding the Crystal Palace Tower, which is mainly visible in south) so the erection of a new structure in celebration of our Independence is something that we will need to consider.