The Berlin Wall : A Secret History

The Berlin Wall is a historical symbol of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall is a symbol of the end of the Cold War. And also, the Berlin Wall played a great role in the life of millions of people and defined the fate of German people, which put them apart by the Wall for a long period of time. Sixteen years after the end of World War II, the communist government of East Germany began building a wall on (August 13, 1961), that would divide the city of Berlin into East Berlin and West Berlin. The purpose was to keep fascists from entering East Germany, but mostly to keep West German citizens, primarily people of valuable professions such as doctors, teachers and engineers, from Changing side to the West. People of Berlin Called the wall Schandmaur, which actually means " The wall of shame". Over the years of the wall being constructed it took at least 3x times to rebuild it, but each time bigger than the last one.

In 1989, one event occupied the spotlight around the world. The Berlin Wall, which for twenty-eight years had separated families and friends came down as thousands of people began crossing Bornholmer Bridge in northern Berlin. NBC’s Tom Brokaw could be seen on television throughout the United States saying, “A historic moment tonight. The Berlin Wall can no longer contain the East German people. Thousands pouring across at the Bronholmer bridge” (Dodds, 2014). This single event changed many things in Europe and around the world. The fall of the Berlin Wall that night, which was the ultimate symbol of the Cold War, was a major turning point in the collapse of communism leading to the unification of East and West Germany and was influenced by political leaders from both the Soviet Union and the United States. The fall of the wall affected the Communist world and eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union allowing countries under their control to become independent and free.

The Berlin Wall was built in August 1961 during the Cold War. The Wall that separated East and West Berlin came to show the different ideologies between different systems of government, Communism and Democratic supported by the USSR and the USA.

At the beginning of the Cold War, the communist government in East Germany (GDR) and the Soviet Union agreed that a wall, restricting the people’s free access to the west (Allies), was the only way to solve the mass exodus that threatened the East German economy and made the Soviet Union look inferior to their rival the United States. The Berlin Wall, which enclosed West Berlin, was constructed, and the East Berliners were trapped behind a desperate and failing Iron Curtain until a revolution finally led to their freedom.

The Berlin wall was built in 1961, but it was not just one wall, it was three generations of a structure. It had been 16 years after the end of world war two, Berlin had been divided into two parts, east and west. The east was controlled by the German Democratic Republic and the west was controlled by the Federal Republic of Germany. The west was the side of Berlin that has Capitalism and Democracy while the east side was the side with Communism. This essay is going to answer the question as to why did the Berlin wall get built in 1961, and the three reasons of why are because of emigration, fascism, and communism.

On August 12, 1961, the Berlin Wall was built to separate East Berlin (German Democratic Republic) from West Berlin (The Federal Republic of Germany). The Wall has a “ 66 mile concrete section that was 3.6 metres high, with a further 41 miles of barbed wire fencing and more than 300 manned lookout towers”6 and was meant to separate superpowers Britain, France, and the United States from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It lead to countless problems such as social separations, family breakages, starvation, deaths due to low living standards, hatred among politicians within a country, among others. The Berlin Wall perhaps helped the American policy of containment winning people's support.

The Berlin War that partitioned sections of Berlin from 1961 to 1989 was both physical and psychological. What started as a means of preventing educated workers from leaving the Communist controlled sector of Berlin for the western controlled sectors became a hotspot of tension and conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Berlin Wall stood as a physical line of demarcation for the ideological differences between the two “Super Powers” of the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union.

As we know, the Berlin Wall was majorly known as a symbol of the Cold War. However, the cause of the Berlin Wall was also an international issue. The Battle of Berlin, with the death of Hitler and complete military defeat on the Eastern Front, resulting in the Soviets occupying Berlin with services and distributing food to the population of the city’s inhabitants. After the soviet saw a mass decrease in population of the east side of Germany they threatened the United States zone in the west side with the use of nuclear weapons over this issue, but the United States alone with many other western European countries were committee to defending the land of West Berlin. Throughout the night of August 12-13, 1961, the soviets on the east side built

The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989 that completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in November 1989.2 By 1949, Germany had become two separate countries - The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), run by the Allies, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), run by the Soviet Union. The wall was made to define West Germany from East Germany, and has impacted the modern world in many different ways.

Could you imagine a large wall being built right in the middle of a city to split it? Well this is how the Soviet Union and the United States had to deal with during the Cold War. The Cold War was a broxing War between the Soviet Union and the United States that lasted from 1947-1991. This paper will be written about the Berlin Wall. I will be writing about why they built and what they made this out of, people escaping, and why the wall ever actually fell. Well, first of all In 1945, at the end of WWII, Germany and the city of Berlin were divided into four zones, each controlled by one of WWII’s victors. America, France, and Great Britain had west Berlin, also known as the Federal Republic of Germany, and the

The Berlin Wall was constructed on August 13, 1961. The reason for this was because West Berlin was known as a geographical loophole. That meant thousands of East Germans departed to the democratic West (history.com). The reason the wall went up, is East German did not anyone trespassing onto the West side.

The Berlin Wall was a symbol of division between two different political beliefs and two different ways of life. The population during this time was about 3.4 million. This started the Cold War and ended it. Just because of one mans (Nikita Khrushchev) approval to raise the wall; the citizens of Germany were forced to live twenty- eighty years without freedom. Berlin Wall also known as the “Iron Curtain” was ninety six miles long and twelve feet high. The Berlin Wall erected in the dead of night. Just past midnight, while Berliner’s were sleeping, crews of soldiers tore up the streets dug holes to set up concrete posts and fixed up barbed wire on top. Telephone wires were cut off between the wall. The Berlin Wall had very few openings. For example, the main access opening was called “Checkpoint Charlie”. It was used for allies personal and westerners to cross the border. It was decided during World War II when Germany lost, that Berlin was to be divided between America, France, and Great Britain. The Soviet Union started the war and wanted to spread communism around Eastern Europe and West Germany did not want that. This turning point was a physical symbol of the Cold War.

First I will talk about the Berlin Wall. On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the GDR( or East Germany/ German Democratic Republic) began to build a concrete wall with barbed wire on it, and started to build it between East Germany and West Germany. It was called “Antifaschistischer Schutzwall” or “Antifascist Bulwark”. Its purpose was to keep West “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the Socialist state. But its real purpose was the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. The

The Berlin Wall, built in August of 1961, was a physical symbol of the division between East and West Germany. After World War II, East Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic, constructed a wall that remained an indication of the divide of Germany for almost thirty years. The purpose of this barrier was to separate democratic West Germany from communist East Germany. During the Cold War, crossing this concrete wall was not an easy task, and it most likely led to punishment and death.

The creation of the Berlin Wall was a result of the uncontrolled mass migration of Germans from the communist controlled eastern Berlin to the democratic western Berlin. There are many speculations over the reasons why this migration occurred, some arguing that it was due to the Russian’s treatment of East Berliners, others that it was a drive to find employment opportunities in the thriving west. Either way, thousands of people were leaving the East for the West and it was starting to embarrass the Russians, so they accepted the proposal of the east