The Berlin Wall

After WWII ended in 1945, Germany was split into four allied occupational zones. The Soviet Union took over the eastern part of Germany and the United States, Great Britain, and France took over the western part. The eastern part of Germany was now controlled by the Communist Government of the German Democratic Republic.

In 1984, the Soviets tried to blockade the West Berlin to starve the Western Allies out of Berlin. The Western Allies did not retreat, though. Instead, they created the Berlin Aircraft in which delivered food, fuel, and other goods to Western Berlin until the Soviets called the blockade off in 1949. The next 9 years were fairly calm until the Soviets started making threats in which the Western Allies were not going to take. In the summer of 1961, thousands and thousands of refugees in East Germany fled and crossed to border into Western Berlin.

On August 13, 1961, the Soviets began to build the Berlin Wall to divide Berlin in half. The wall took only 2 weeks to build—made out of barbed wire and concrete block wall. The wall was eventually replaced by a sturdier wall of reinforced concrete with an enormous pipe that made climbing over it close to impossible. People from East and West Berlin were no longer allowed to cross the border.

The Berlin Wall was able to stop the flood of refugees from the East to the West, which was technically calmer than a war. On the eastern side of the wall, soft sand, floodlights, vicious dogs, machine guns, and patrolling soldiers with orders to shoot escapees on site were there waiting to attack people who were trying to escape the east. 171 people were killed trying to get through the other side of the wall. From 1961-1989, more than 5,000 East Germans were able to escape across the border.

On November 9, 1989, the Communist Part of East Berlin announced that people of the east were free to cross the border at midnight. There was a huge celebration that weekend with more than 2 million people from East Berlin visiting West Berlin. People started knocking down the wall with whatever they could get their hands on. East and West Germany was officially reunified on October 3, 1991—almost a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Most of the Berlin Wall is now gone, but some parts still stand. The most famous part of the wall still stands along the East Side Gallery. There are other, smaller part of the wall that are still intact along other areas of Berlin. Much of the still standing parts of the wall have been painted.
 

View Larger Map         The East Side Gallery

 

References

A&E Television Networks: History. (n.d.). Berlin Wall. In History by topic: Places. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics

A View on Cities. (2013). Berlin Wall. In Berlin: Berlin attractions. Retrieved from http://www.aviewoncities.com/berlin/mauer.htm

Berlin Wall 1963 [Photograph]. (2002). Retrieved from Berlin Wall Online website: http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/photographs/berlinwall-1963jo/berlinwall-1963-005.htm

General Berlin city map, 1961 [Map]. (n.d.). Retrieved from Berlin Wall Online website: http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/maps/berlinwallmap_02.htm