The Wall: The People's Story

by Christopher Hilton

For almost three decades, the Cold War was focused on Berlin, where the two (nuclear-armed) sides were kept apart by a twelve-foot wall, which had appeared almost overnight in August 1961. For a generation, until its fall in November 1989, it not only divided the city of Berlin, but also symbolised the confrontation between capitalist West and socialist East. In this astonishing book, journalist Christopher Hilton has collected together the individual stories of those whose lives it affected, including international politicians, American and British soldiers, East German border guards and, most importantly, the citizens of Berlin itself, West and East. Weaving their memories together into a remarkable narrative, this is the extraordinarily vivid, occasionally harrowing and often touching story of a city divided, and of how it affected the lives of real people.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

546 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 25, 2001

About the author

Christopher (Chris) Hilton was a former sportswriter with the Daily Express.

Hilton had begun his career in journalism at The Journal in Newcastle, and then worked at the Express‘s offices in Manchester before moving to London in the mid-1970s when recruited by then sports editor Ken Lawrence to cover Formula 1.

Hilton was a key member of the sports desk editing staff, as well as covering ice skating for the paper during the period when Torvill and Dean were winning world and Olympic ice dance titles.

For the past two decades after leaving the Express, Hilton has freelanced, especially in F1 and writing his books, including biographies of Ayrton Senna, James Hunt and Michael Schumacher, as well as a novel. As recently as last month, his latest book, about F1 team leader Ross Brawn, was published.

Chris Hilton leaves a wife, Jean, and daughter.

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched so very informative about how the Berlin Wall impacted the lives of the people in both the eastern & the western sides of the city but not a dry, boring read. Hilton's writing style & because he has focused on the stories of individuals makes this a very readable & interesting book. I also appreciated that he had photos & maps of Berlin & the wall

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a Berlin fanatic I loved this book. Real stories from real people about real places. There’s a lot of detail that might put off some.

[Koen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another tough one to rate. This is a pretty cool history of the Wall. The focus is on the people of Berlin and their stories. The author apparently conducted a great deal of interviews himself. These first-hand experiences gets the reader up-close to the wall. There's, i would say, the exact amount of clean cut history so you wouldn't need to know much about the wall before reading this book. But still, it's mostly about personal stories from people whose lives in one way or another were so much influenced by this crazy monstrosity.
There's also the problem you might have with this book. There's so many characters and you never truly get to know these people. It's fragments only. I understand this is not a book with long personal accounts of these indivuals' lives but at times i found myself wanting to know more about these people. As a historic book, there are better options.
So you could say it's a great additional read after, let's say, Frederick Taylor. But if you've, like me, just read Taylor there's a lot of stuf you already know.
I don't know. It was okay but it wasn't perfect.
Regardless, it's powefull stuff. As with the other books i've read about the wall, the accounts of the fall still give me goosebumbs. Such a powerfull and emotional moment. Even more so when looked at through the eyes of these people who were there.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book I didn't know a great deal about the Berlin Wall, other than its existence. It was fascinating to read about how it started, not just from a historical and facts point of view, but also from a person view of the people's lives that it affected, on both sides of the wall. It also paid tribute to the people that died at the wall, named and unnamed, which I thought was admirable. A really interesting book and I would definitely recommend for anyone that wants to know more about the Berlin Wall, especially for a more personal perspective than one might find in other books.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book informative and helpful, but I was reading it for research purposes. I think you have to have a pretty high level obsession with the Berlin wall to find this book digestible-- there is a lot of detail, not all of it fascinating.