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History Of Berlin Wall

The Cold War that continued for over 40 years was a struggle between two ideologies. The Berlin Wall was one structure that was the most recognizable symbols that symbolized the struggle between the East and West. The Cold War eventually ended with the tearing down Berlin Wall.

When the World War II ended, the Nazi Germany was sliced into four specific occupation zones, they would from this point be controlled by the Allied powers that included the British, French, Russians and the Americans. The city of Berlin was also divided in to four zones controlled by four Allied members. When the Cold War began in 1949, the Soviets formed a new state called German Democratic Republic (GDR) which included Americans while French consolidated their regions forming one state called Federal Republic of Germany including West Britain.

The two countries started to diverge quickly as they were based on different ideologies. The ideology of West Germany was based on democratic government and West’s free market system. The GDR was based on communist ideology and Soviet Style planned economy. After a short time of few years when each country was formed, there were great differences in quality of style and life. West Germany and West Berlin became quite prosperous during the early 1950′s and East Berlin and GDR lagged behind. Many in East Germany and East Berlin started emigrating.

Many living in the Eastern countries crossed through borders at East and West Berlin to flee the Sovietization and Joseph Stalin. There was no natural border between East and West Berlin in the early 1950s and the traffic moved freely between the cities. A lot of East Berliners moved back and forth between the border during this time. With the passage of time, the exodus to the West caused the Soviet Union and GDR to take action.

During the 1950s, nearly a million citizens left the GDR for the West. It was causing an enormous brain drain since most the people who were highly skilled and educated.

During the early 1950s, the East/West Berlin border could be easily crossed. As the Soviets and the Eastern Bloc countries including the GDR started to crack down on emigration, a meeting took place between leaders of East Germany and Stalin on April 1, 1952. Stalin told the East Germans to quickly build up the border and to create a demarcation line between East & West Germany, a border which the East Germans will guard with their lives.

As a result of the meeting, border between East & West Germany was closed and a barbed wire fence was erected. With the rise of restrictions, many Eastern Bloc citizens and East Germans started fearing further tightening and started to emigrate.

In 1956, as emigration continued on a large scale under the disguise of family visits, the East German eliminated all travel to the West. As the Berlin border was administered by the four occupying powers, many East Germans and Eastern Bloc citizens were able to find ways through Berlin to the West. By the end of 1950s, nearly 90% emigrants came through the border at Berlin. Since there was no natural border and there were even subway train access to East Berlin, Berlin was considered by many to be the most practical way for crossing into West Germany.

The emigration problem was doing plenty of damage to not only East Germany but Eastern Bloc countries for more than a decade. In 1961, the border issue came to a head and on 12th August 1961, Walter Ulbricht, the First Secretary of the Socialist Part and GDR State Council Chairman closed the border and built a wall to separate East & West Berlin.

The construction of wall began at midnight on Sunday 13th August 1961. The Berlin Wall was built on the inside of East Berlin and East Germany to ensure that none of the Allied borders were infringed on. On 15th August, concrete slabs of the Berlin Wall started to be laid.

With the construction of the Berlin Wall, many citizens of East Germany tried to defect by climbing over the wall. About 5000 people successfully escaped to West Berlin during the time the wall was erected. Many people also died trying to cross the wall. Being one of the many symbols of communism, it is no surprise that with the decline and eventual end of the Soviet Union and communism also came the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

On 9th November 1989, Krenz decided to allow emigration directly through crossing the East German border into the West. The new border crossing regulations were to be implemented on November 10 in order to give the border guards enough time to prepare. From November 9 on, the Berlin Wall was quickly chipped away, using sledge hammers, construction tools, etc. The official dismantling of the Berlin Wall began on 13th June 1990. Both the GDR and West Germany agreed to reunify. Reunification officially took place on 3rd October 1990.

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You might also be interested in learning the history of the Eiffel Tower and also history of the Berlin Wall

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