The Berlin Wall in Cold War

Learn about the history of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. This wall kept people from freely leaving East Berlin

East Berlin’s communist government erected the Berlin Wall in 1961. East Berlin and West Berlin were divided by the wall. It was constructed to stop individuals from escaping East Berlin. It was in many respects the ideal representation of the “Iron Curtain,” which during the Cold War divided democratic western nations from communist Eastern European nations.

Berlin wall 1990

How it All Started ?

Germany ended up splitting into two different nations after World War Two. Under Soviet Union rule, East Germany developed into a communist nation. In addition, West Germany was a democratic nation that had alliances with the US, UK, and France. The country was supposed to be rejoined eventually, but this took a very long time to materialize.

The City of Berlin

Germany’s capital was Berlin. The city was under the sovereignty of the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and France despite being in the eastern half of the country.

Defections

People in East Germany started to leave the east of the country and move to the west as they realized they did not want to live under the control of the Soviet Union and communism. They were referred to as defectors.

More and more people left over time. There was a growing concern among Soviet and East German leaders that they were losing too many people. More than 2 million people departed the nation between 1949 and 1959. Over 230,000 people defected in 1960 alone.

Berlin was relatively easy to escape because it was under the jurisdiction of all four main powers, despite East German efforts to prevent citizens from doing so.

Building the Wall

The Soviets and the leaders of East Germany had finally had enough. They constructed a wall around Berlin on August 12th and 13th, 1961, to stop people from fleeing. The wall originally merely consisted of a barbed wire barrier. Later, it would be reconstructed using 12 feet tall by 4 feet wide concrete blocks.

The Wall is Torn Down

At a speech he gave in Berlin in 1987, President Ronald Reagan urged Mikhail Gorbachev, the head of the Soviet Union, to “Take down this Wall!”

Reagan at the Berlin Wall

The Soviet Union was beginning to collapse at that point and their control over East Germany was eroding and then it was announced on November 9, 1989, after a few years people could migrate freely between East and West Germany because the borders were open and they broke the wall and demolished a large part of it while they Germany was finally officially reunited as a single country on October 3, 1990.

Facts About the Berlin Wall

The wall was known as the Anti-Fascist Protective Barrier by the Eastern German administration. It was frequently referred to as the Wall of Shame by Western Germans.
In the years before the construction of the wall, almost 20% of East Germany’s population emigrated.
The German Democratic Republic, or GDR, was the formal name of East Germany.
Around the wall, there were a lot of watch towers as well. Guards were given the order to shoot any fugitives.
Over the course of the wall’s 28-year existence, an estimated 5000 persons are thought to have crossed or passed through it. 200 people died while attempting to flee.