Facts of Berlin Wall - History of Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was erected in the night of August 13, 1961. It was a weekend and most Berliners slept while the East German government begun to close the border. In the early morning of that Sunday most of the first work was done: the border to West Berlin was closed. The East German troups had begun to tear up streets and to install barbed wire entanglement and fences through Berlin. The first concrete elements and large square blocks were used first on August 15, 1961. Within the next months the first generation of the Berlin Wall was build up: a wall consisting of concrete elements and square blocks. A second Wall was build in June 1962 in order to prevent from escaping to the West. The first Wall was improved during the next years and it's difficult to distinguish between the first and the second generation of the Wall. These two first generations were removed by the third generation beginning about 1965. The third generation of Wall consisted of concrete slabs between steel girder and concrete posts with a concrete sewage pipe on top of the Wall.

From the year 1975 the third generation of Wall was replaced by the fourth generation. New concrete segements were used which were easy to build up and were more resistant to breakthroughs and to environmental polutions. The Berlin Wall - Symbol of the Cold War Updated February 15, 2016. What Was the Berlin Wall? Erected in the dead of night on August 13, 1961, the Berlin Wall (known as Berliner Mauer in German) was a physical division between West Berlin and East Germany in order to keep East Germans from feeling to the West. When the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, its destruction was nearly as instantaneous as its creation. For 28 years, the Berlin Wall had been a symbol of the Cold War and thus when it fell it was celebrated around the world. A Divided Berlin At the end of World War II , the Allied powers divided conquered Germany into four zones, each occupied by either the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union (as agreed at the Potsdam Conference ). The same was done with Germany's capital city, Berlin.

As the relationship between the Soviet Union and the other three Allied powers quickly disintegrated, the cooperative atmosphere of the occupation of Germany turned competitive and aggressive. Although an eventual reunification of Germany had been intended, the new relationship between the Allied powers turned Germany into West versus East, democracy versus Communism . continue reading below our video Overview: The Berlin Wall In 1949, this new organization of Germany became official when the three zones occupied by the United States, Great Britain, and France combined to form West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). The zone occupied by the Soviet Union quickly followed by forming East Germany (the German Democratic Republic). This same division into West and East occurred in Berlin. Since the city of Berlin had been situated entirely within the Soviet zone of occupation, West Berlin became an island of democracy within Communist East Germany. Mass Emigration Within a short period of time after the war, living conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different.

With the help and support of its occupying powers, West Germany set up a capitalist society and experienced such a rapid growth of their economy that it became known as the "economic miracle." With hard work, individuals living in West Germany were able to live well, buy gadgets and appliances, and to travel as they wished. Nearly the opposite was true in East Germany. Since the Soviet Union had viewed their zone as a spoil of war, the Soviets pilfered factory equipment and other valuable assets from their zone and shipped them back to the Soviet Union. When East Germany became its own country, it was under the direct influence of the Soviet Union and thus a Communist society was established. In East Germany, the economy dragged and individual freedoms were severely restricted. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted out. No longer able to stand the repressive living conditions of East Germany, they would pack up their bags and head to West Berlin. Although some of them would be stopped on their way, hundreds of thousands of others made it across the border. Once across, these refugees were housed in warehouses and then flown to West Germany. Many of those who escaped were young, trained professionals.

By the early 1960s, East Germany was rapidly losing both its labor force and its population. Having already lost 2.5 million people by 1961, East Germany desperately needed to stop this mass exodus. The obvious leak was the easy access East Germans had to West Berlin. With the support of the Soviet Union, there had been several attempts to simply take over West Berlin in order to eliminate this exit point. Although the Soviet Union even threatened the United States with the use of nuclear weapons over this issue, the United States and other Western countries were committed to defending West Berlin. Desperate to keep its citizens, East Germany decided to build a wall to prevent them from crossing the border. The Berlin Wall Goes Up There had been rumors that something might happen to tighten the border of East and West Berlin, but no one was expecting the speed nor the absoluteness of the Berlin Wall. Just past midnight on the night of August 12-13, 1961, trucks with soldiers and construction workers rumbled through East Berlin.

While most Berliners were sleeping, these crews began tearing up streets that entered into West Berlin, dug holes to put up concrete posts, and strung barbed wire all across the border between East and West Berlin. Telephone wires between East and West Berlin were also cut. Berliners were shocked when they woke up that morning. What had once been a very fluid border was now rigid. No longer could East Berliners cross the border for operas, plays, soccer games, etc. No longer could the approximately 60,000 commuters head to West Berlin for well-paying jobs. No longer could families, friends, and lovers cross the border to meet their loved ones. Whichever side of the border one went to sleep on during the night of August 12, they were stuck on that side for decades. The Size and Scope of the Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall stretched over a hundred miles. It ran not only through the center of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, entirely cutting West Berlin off from the rest of East Germany. The wall itself went through four major transformations during its 28-year history.

The Berlin Wall started out as a barbed-wire fence with concrete posts, but just a few days after the first fence was placed, it was quickly replaced with a sturdier, more permanent structure made out of concrete blocks, topped with barbed wire. The first two versions of the wall (barbed wire and concrete blocks) were replaced by the third version of the Berlin Wall in 1965. This version consisted of a concrete wall, supported by steel girders. The fourth version of the Berlin Wall, constructed from 1975 to 1980, was the most complicated and thorough. It consisted of concrete slabs reaching nearly 12-feet high (3.6 m) and 4-feet wide (1.2 m), plus it had a smooth pipe running across the top to hinder people from scaling the Wall. By the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, there was a 300-foot No Man's Land, an additional inner wall, soldiers patrolling with dogs, a raked ground that showed footprints, anti-vehicle trenches, electric fences, massive light systems, watchtowers, bunkers, and minefields.

Checkpoints Although most of the border between East and West consisted of layers of preventative measures, there were little more than a handful of official openings along the Berlin Wall. These openings, called checkpoints, were for the infrequent use of officials and others with special permission to cross the border. The most famous of these was Checkpoint Charlie , located on the border between East and West Berlin at Friedrichstrasse. Checkpoint Charlie was the main access point for Allied personnel and Westerners to cross the border. (Soon after the Berlin Wall was built, Checkpoint Charlie became an icon of the Cold War and was frequently featured in movies and books set during this time period.) Escape Attempts The Berlin Wall did prevent the majority of East Germans from emigrating to the West, but it did not prevent them all. During the history of the Berlin Wall, it is estimated that about 5,000 people made it safely across. Some early successful attempts were simple, like throwing a rope over the Berlin Wall and climbing up. Others were brash, like ramming a truck or bus into the Berlin Wall and making a run for it. Still others were suicidal, like jumping from the not-yet-boarded-up, upper-story windows of apartment buildings that bordered the Berlin Wall.

As the Berlin Wall became stronger and larger, the escape attempts became more planned and more complex. Some people dug tunnels from the basements of buildings in East Berlin, under the Berlin Wall, and into West Berlin. Another group saved scraps of cloth and built a hot air balloon and flew over the Wall. Unfortunately, not all escape attempts were successful. Since the East German guards were allowed to shoot anyone nearing the eastern side of the Berlin Wall without warning, there was always a chance of death in any and all escape plots. It is estimated that somewhere between 100 and 200 East Germans died while attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. One of the most infamous cases of a failed attempt occurred on August 17, 1962. In the early afternoon, two 18-year-old young men ran toward the Wall with the intention on scaling it. The first of the young men to reach the Berlin Wall successfully scaled it. The second one, Peter Fechter , was not so lucky. As he was about to scale the Wall, a border guard opened fire. Peter continued to climb the Wall, but ran out of energy just as he reached the top. He then tumbled back onto the East German side of the Berlin Wall.

To the shock of the world, Peter was just left there. The East German guards did not shoot him again nor did they go to his aid. Peter shouted in agony for nearly an hour. Once he had bled to death, East German guards carried off his body. He became the 50th person to die at the Berlin Wall and a symbol of the struggle for freedom. The Fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall happened nearly as suddenly as its rise. There had been signs that the Communist bloc was weakening, but the East German Communist leaders insisted that East Germany just needed a moderate change rather than a drastic revolution. East German citizens did not agree. As Communism began to falter in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in 1988 and 1989, new exodus points were opened to East Germans who wanted to flee to the West.

Then suddenly, on the evening of November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official Günter Schabowski blundered by stating, "Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany) or West Berlin." People were in shock. Were the borders really open? East Germans tentatively approached the border and indeed found that the border guards were letting people cross. Very quickly, the Berlin Wall was inundated with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration along the Berlin Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying. The Berlin Wall was eventually chipped away, into smaller pieces (some the size of a coin and others in big slabs). The pieces have become collectibles and are stored in both homes and museums. There is also now a Berlin Wall Memorial at the site.

Berlin Wall built - Aug 15, 1961 - HISTORY.com Berlin Wall built Publisher A+E Networks Two days after sealing off free passage between East and West Berlin with barbed wire, East German authorities begin building a wall–the Berlin Wall–to permanently close off access to the West. For the next 28 years, the heavily fortified Berlin Wall stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War–a literal “iron curtain” dividing Europe. The end of World War II in 1945 saw Germany divided into four Allied occupation zones. Berlin, the German capital, was likewise divided into occupation sectors, even though it was located deep within the Soviet zone. The future of Germany and Berlin was a major sticking point in postwar treaty talks, and tensions grew when the United States, Britain, and France moved in 1948 to unite their occupation zones into a single autonomous entity–the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). In response, the USSR launched a land blockade of West Berlin in an effort to force the West to abandon the city. However, a massive airlift by Britain and the United States kept West Berlin supplied with food and fuel, and in May 1949 the Soviets ended the defeated blockade.

By 1961, Cold War tensions over Berlin were running high again. For East Germans dissatisfied with life under the communist system, West Berlin was a gateway to the democratic West. Between 1949 and 1961, some 2.5 million East Germans fled from East to West Germany, most via West Berlin. By August 1961, an average of 2,000 East Germans were crossing into the West every day. Many of the refugees were skilled laborers, professionals, and intellectuals, and their loss was having a devastating effect on the East German economy. To halt the exodus to the West, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev recommended to East Germany that it close off access between East and West Berlin. On the night of August 12-13, 1961, East German soldiers laid down more than 30 miles of barbed wire barrier through the heart of Berlin. East Berlin citizens were forbidden to pass into West Berlin, and the number of checkpoints in which Westerners could cross the border was drastically reduced. The West, taken by surprise, threatened a trade embargo against East Germany as a retaliatory measure.

The Soviets responded that such an embargo be answered with a new land blockade of West Berlin. When it became evident that the West was not going to take any major action to protest the closing, East German authorities became emboldened, closing off more and more checkpoints between East and West Berlin. On August 15, they began replacing barbed wire with concrete. The wall, East German authorities declared, would protect their citizens from the pernicious influence of decadent capitalist culture. The first concrete pilings went up on the Bernauer Strasse and at the Potsdamer Platz. Sullen East German workers, a few in tears, constructed the first segments of the Berlin Wall as East German troops stood guarding them with machine guns. With the border closing permanently, escape attempts by East Germans intensified on August 15. Conrad Schumann, a 19-year-old East German soldier, provided the subject for a famous image when he was photographed leaping over the barbed-wire barrier to freedom. During the rest of 1961, the grim and unsightly Berlin Wall continued to grow in size and scope, eventually consisting of a series of concrete walls up to 15 feet high.

These walls were topped with barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers, machine gun emplacements, and mines. By the 1980s, this system of walls and electrified fences extended 28 miles through Berlin and 75 miles around West Berlin, separating it from the rest of East Germany. The East Germans also erected an extensive barrier along most of the 850-mile border between East and West Germany. In the West, the Berlin Wall was regarded as a major symbol of communist oppression. About 5,000 East Germans managed to escape across the Berlin Wall to the West, but the frequency of successful escapes dwindled as the wall was increasingly fortified. Thousands of East Germans were captured during attempted crossings and 191 were killed. In 1989, East Germany’s communist regime was overwhelmed by the democratization sweeping across Eastern Europe. On the evening of November 9, 1989, East Germany announced an easing of travel restrictions to the West, and thousands demanded passage though the Berlin Wall. Faced with growing demonstrations, East German border guards opened the borders.

Jubilant Berliners climbed on top of the Berlin Wall, painted graffiti on it, and removed fragments as souvenirs. The next day, East German troops began dismantling the wall. In 1990, East and West Germany were formally reunited. Related Videos Berlin Wall Berlin Wall Introduction In post- World War II Germany, the Berlin Wall was erected on August 16, 1961, along the demarcation between the eastern sector of Berlin controlled by the Soviet Union, and the western sectors occupied by the United States, France, and Great Britain. East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a Communist state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet occupation zone of Germany. The Soviet sector was by far the largest and covered most of east Berlin, including Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, and Lichtenberg. Its twofold purpose was to prevent well-educated East Germans from leaving East Germany ï¿½ a "brain drain" ï¿½ and to impede approximately 80 spy centers and organizations from interfering with the Russian sector.

The threat of a second Great Depression loomed large in Europe, and Germany was one of the hardest-hit areas. Most German cities had been all but obliterated, and transportation systems lay in ruins. Routinely, refugees fled from East to West in search of a society sound enough for them to work for the barest daily essentials. In a rare move, the Allied victors decided to allay an economic crisis by helping to rebuild the most-devastated areas as quickly as possible. That effort was called the Marshall Plan , in honor of George C. Marshall , then U.S. Secretary of State, who first called for Allied participation in the restoration of Europe. The success of that strategy earned Marshall a Nobel Peace Prize . The " Berlin Crisis " involved a controversy so bitter and so sustained that at its height, world leaders feared that a misstep could trigger a nuclear war. The crisis unfolded through a war of words, diplomatic negotiations, superpower summits, and military posturing and preparations , ï¿½ thus the term " Cold War " ï¿½ as East and West disputed over Berlin`s future. For presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy , U.S.

credibility was at stake: A failure in Berlin could disrupt NATO and weaken American influence in West Germany, the key to the balance of power in Europe. The Berlin Wall was the flashpoint of the Berlin Crisis. The Berlin Crisis was a flashpoint of the Cold War. The Iron Curtain descends Berlin was considered to be the key to the balance of power in post- World War II Europe. The postwar, sequestered Soviet Union, was nevertheless active beyond its borders. Events around the world, many seemingly unrelated, represented battlefronts in the Cold War. Some battlefronts were hidden from public view for decades. Other battlefronts, like the Berlin Crisis, were highly public. The Berlin Crisis started with the 1948 Berlin blockade ordered by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev , which led to the Berlin Airlift by the Western Allies. Cold War tensions continued to smolder for four decades after the World War II defeat of Germany. The construction and destruction of the Berlin Wall stand as milestones of the Cold War era. In July 1958, the East German Fifth Congress ordered a wholesale collectivization of agriculture and a sharp rise in industrial output.

That was part of a seven-year economic plan to bring per capita consumption in the GDR up to the level of West Germany. The plan also repressed private trade and created supply gaps behind the Iron Curtain, which became increasingly severe and oppressive. Dissatisfaction by an increasing number of people in the GDR caused them to seek refuge in the West ï¿½ a major loophole in the GDR scheme of things. The border to West Berlin lay open to East Germans, and hundreds left the country daily. Nearly all of them went by subway or S-Bahn (electric commuter train), undetected among the thousands of commuters who worked or shopped in the West. Regular spot checks by the police on anyone carrying a suitcase exerted little impact. Most people easily evaded them by making repeated journeys with a few belongings at a time. At an international press conference on June 15, 1961, the leader of the east German Socialist Unity Part of Germany (SED) and president of the Privy Council, Walter Ulbricht, answered a journalist`s question: "I understand your question as follows: There are people in West Germany who want us to mobilize the construction workers of the GDR to build a wall.

I am not aware of any such plans ... No one has the intention of constructing a wall." But the wall was exactly what he wanted from Khruschev. The international political situation between NATO and Warsaw Pact nations continued to intensify. On November 27, 1958, the Soviets under Khrushchev delivered the Berlin Ultimatum in an attempt to stem the tide of refugees. The ultimatum demanded that the western allies withdraw their troops from West Berlin and that it should become a "free city" within six months. The threat of a separate peace treaty between the Soviet Union and East Germany loomed on February 17, 1959. A meeting in Vienna between President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev on June 3 and 4, 1961, failed to end the impasse. The ultimatum was a fiasco, and the situation was even worse than before. Continued tension during the six-month period had only increased the flow of refugees who feared that time was running short. When the ultimatum ran out, there was a brief respite. But as the effects of the "Seven-Year Plan" began to be felt, the flow of refugees rose again.

Construction of the Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was erected on August 13, 1961. Early on that Sunday morning the GDR began, under Secretary General Erich Honecker, to block off East Berlin and the GDR from West Berlin by means of barbed wire and antitank obstacles. Streets were torn up, and barricades of paving stones were erected. Tanks gathered at crucial places. The subway and local railway services between East and West Berlin were interrupted. Inhabitants of East Berlin and the GDR were no longer allowed to enter West Berlin, amongst them 60,000 commuters who had worked in West Berlin. In the following days, construction brigades commenced to replace the provisional barriers with a solid wall. Thousands of angry demonstrators quickly gathered on the West Berlin side of the divide. At one crossing point, protesters tried to trample down the barbed wire, only to be driven back by guards with bayonets. The West German chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, appealed for calm, saying in a broadcast to the nation the following evening: "Now, as always, we are closely bound to the Germans of the Russian zone and East Berlin.

"They are and remain our German brothers and sisters. The Federal Government remains firmly committed to the goal of German unity." Outrage from the international community erupted at the abrupt decision to cut off one side of the city from the other. A Foreign Office spokesman in London said the restrictions were contrary to the four-power status of Berlin, and therefore illegal. The American secretary of state, Dean Rusk, called it a "flagrant violation" of East-West agreements, and said there would be a vigorous protest to Russia. Yet, the reaction of the Allies was moderate, given that the three essentials of American policy regarding Berlin were not affected: the presence of allied troops, free access to Berlin, and the West Berliners` right of self-determination. After August 23, 1961, citizens of West Berlin were no longer allowed to enter East Berlin. On September 20, the forced evacuation of houses situated immediately at the border to West Berlin began. On August 17, 1962, Peter Fechter, an 18-year-old citizen of East Berlin, bled to death after he was shot down by a East Berlin border patrol in his attempt to escape over the wall.

The last to die was Chris Gueffroy on June 2, 1989. Many attempted to escape over the 28 years of the wall`s existence. First, there was a wall that comprised concrete segments with a height of about about 13 feet, usually with a concrete tube on top of it. Behind it on the east side lay an illuminated control area ï¿½ also called the "death area." Refugees who had reached that area were shot without warning. A trench that followed was intended to prevent vehicles from breaking through. Then there was a patrol track, a corridor with watchdogs, watchtowers and bunkers, and a second wall. The barrier cut through 192 streets (97 between East and West Berlin and 95 between West Berlin and East Germany), 32 railway lines, eight S-Bahns, and four underground train lines, three autobahns (freeways), and several rivers and lakes. On the waterways, the wall consisted of submerged railings under constant surveillance by patrol boat crews. The total length of the Berlin Wall was 96 miles. Twenty-seven miles went through the center of the city. Twenty-three miles went through residential areas.

Sixty-six miles comprised a concrete barrier 13 feet high. It also consisted of 302 watch towers and 20 bunkers. More than 5,000 people successfully crossed the Berlin Wall to freedom. About 3,200 people were arrested in the border area. More than 160 people were killed in the death area, and another 120 people were injured. Due to the danger of escape attempts over the wall, numerous tunnels were dug, allowing about 150 East Berliners to escape undetected. As time passed, the wall was gradually perfected and became more impassible. After October 1964, it was gradually strengthened, doubled up and transformed into a "modern border," which assumed its final appearance from 1979 to 1980. The partition left West Berlin stranded in the midst of the Soviet zone, 110 miles from the border with the western zones. That unusual geopolitical situation became difficult to handle. On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered a historic speech in Rudolph Wilde Square in Berlin. The square was packed with cheering West Berliners.

It was a spectacle new to Kennedy ï¿½ one to two million people assembled to greet him. In the midst of the Cold War he declared, ï¿½There are many people in the world who really donï¿½t understand, or say they donï¿½t, what is the great issue between the free world and the communist world. Let them come to Berlin." President Kennedy, identifying with the citizens of Berlin in their quest for freedom and to be reunited with their families in East Berlin, said, ï¿½Ich bin ein Berliner." (ï¿½I am a Berliner"). The Iron Curtain begins to ascend President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin on June 12, 1987. His comments were to the people of West Berlin, but audible on the East side of the Berlin Wall. Part of Reagan`s intended audience was none other than Mikhail Gorbachev : "There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! The Iron Curtain began to rise when the wall met its demise. Soon afterward, Gorbachev made his first official visit to West Germany in May 1989. While there, he announced that Moscow would no longer forcefully prevent democratic conversion of its outlying states. Hungary opened its border with Austria on September 11, 1989. The opening of the borders between East and West Berlin, which also symbolized the end of the Cold War , began on June 13, 1990. Reconstruction of Berlin Since the Berlin Wall became obsolete with the 1989 opening of the borders between East and West Germany, Berliners have created massive reconstruction, mostly in what was East Berlin. The heart of the city, the Mitte district, was rebuilt, though remnants of the communist regime still remain.

The 19th-century Reichstag building, the new seat of the German parliament, gained a modern glass cupola to replace the original dome destroyed by fire when the Nazis came to power. A museum at the former site of Checkpoint Charlie, the famous border post in the American sector, memorializes the Berlin Wall. The greatest reconstruction has been the reconnection of a people ï¿½ reconstruction of strained relationships and cultures, not just in Germany, but across Eurasia. The terms Perestroika and Glasnost, Russian for restructuring and openness respectively, were used to describe the set of reforms instituted by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s. The terms also could be used to describe the end of the Cold War. ---- Selected Quotes ---- The Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall The mounting tensions between the Allies and Soviets culminated in the Berlin Crisis and the construction of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall During the early years of the Cold War, West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. It was thrown up overnight, on 13 August 1961.

For the next three decades, the city became the hot end of the Cold War as the world's nuclear superpowers faced off across the Wall. Half a century later, we look back on the Wall and its impact through a BBC archive collection. Photo: West Berliners gather at the Wall whilst an East German soldier patrols the other side, in August 1961. (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) More information about: The Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses.

The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period. The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protective Wall" (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) by GDR authorities, implying that the NATO countries and West Germany in particular were considered equal to "fascists" by GDR propaganda. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the "Wall of Shame"—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement. Along with the separate and much longer Inner German border (IGB), which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize a physical marker of the "Iron Curtain" that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.

Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from which they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. In 1989, a series of radical political changes occurred in the Eastern Bloc, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere.

Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall; the governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of what was left. Contrary to popular belief the Wall's actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990. History of the Berlin Wall: Why the Wall was built up Until 1961 East German citizen were allowed to travel to West Berlin. Travelling to West Germany became difficult after closing the border between East and West Germany in 1952. The Wall was erected in 1961 because more than 2.6 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 to 1961 (total population of East Germany was about 17 million!). The life in the West was much better than in the East after 1948. West Germany including West Berlin had got financial help through the Marshallplan from the USA.

In East Germany a communist system was established and many people had to suffer under repressions of the Communist party. In May 1952 the open border (Zonengrenze) between East and West Germany was closed by the East German government. In the years after 1952 it became more difficult and dangerous to escape to the West over this border. However, the sectorial borders between East and West Berlin were not closed. Many East German citizen went to East Berlin and from there to West Berlin. Once arrived in West Berlin they stayed there or were fled out to West Germany. East Germany lost too many skilled workers in these years. Another big problem were the two currencies in Germany and especially in Berlin. West German DM had been exchanged into East German DM at a rate of 1:4 (1 DM West = 4 DM Ost) in West Berlin. People with West German DM could get goods very cheaply in the Eastern part of Berlin. The East German government saw no other way to prevent from escaping to the West via Berlin than closing the border between East and West Berlin on August 13, 1961.

Remembering the Berlin Wall - Photos - The Big Picture - Boston.com Remembering the Berlin Wall In 1961, East Germany erected a wall -- initially barbed wire, eventually concrete -- in the middle of Berlin to prevent its citizens from fleeing the communist country to West Germany during the height of the Cold War. It has been reported that 136 people died while trying to escape, but the total number is unknown. The wall finally came down at the beginning of November in 1989, part of the reunification of East and West Germany. Here are images from this past weekendâs recognition of the construction of the wall 50 years ago, as well as historic images. -- Lloyd Young ( 30 photos total ) A nun walks in front of a line of wreaths during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin Aug. 13. Germany marks the 50th anniversary of the day communist East Germany sealed itself off behind the Wall. Germany had been divided into capitalist western and communist eastern sectors after the end of World War II.

At the height of tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, the East German regime started building the wall through the capital on Aug. 13, 1961. (Markus Schreiber/Associated Press) 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall - Berlin Wall - Now and Then - Pictures - CBS News Next 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was erected August 13, 1961 by the communist regime of East Germany dividing Berlin for 28 years. Nov. 9th is the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an historic event that opened the border crossings between East and West Germany and led to reunification of the country. BEFORE: East German policemen remove barbed wire from a brick wall while other police officers (in background) raise the wall to 15 feet at the border between the French and Russian sector at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin Sept. 9, 1961. AFTER: The line the of former Berlin Wall in the pavement at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin Oct. 21, 2014.

Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: West Berliners wave to relatives in East Berlin one year after the Berlin Wall was erected at Bernauer Strasse Aug. 13, 1962. AFTER: People cross the area of the former Berlin Wall in Berlin Oct. 26, 2014. Photo credit: Werner Kreusch, Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: U.S. President John F Kennedy looks across the Berlin Wall into East Germany during his visit June 26, 1963. AFTER: The area of the former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing Sept. 24, 2014. Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: U.S. President John F Kennedy walks past a cordon of saluting servicemen and Checkpoint Charlie sentry post June 26, 1963.

AFTER: Actors wear uniforms at the former location of Checkpoint Charlie, with a rebuilt checkpoint as a tourist attraction in Berlin Sept 24, 2014. Photo credit: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: Children play next to the Berlin Wall on Sebastianstrasse near Heinrich-Heine-Strasse in 1968. AFTER: A man walks over the once divided Sebastianstrasse Nov. 3, 2014. Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: U.S. President Richard Nixon looks across the communist wall into East Germany during his stay in the divided city Feb. 27, 1969. AFTER: The area of the former Berlin Wall at the Checkpoint Heinrich-Heine-Strasse Sept. 24, 2014. Photo credit: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: The Berlin Wall checkpoint at Heinrich-Heine-Strasse March 12, 1971.

AFTER: People walking and cycling in the area of the former checkpoint in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin Oct. 1, 2014. Edwin Reichert, Markus Schreiber/AP Photos Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: A view of East Berlin, taken from an observation platform in Bernauer Strasse, West Berlin, 1980. AFTER: Trams crossing the area of former Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin Oct. 1, 2014. Photo credit: Elke Bruhn Hoffman, Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: A woman looks at the Berlin Wall along the Spree river in central Berlin in 1980 with the construction site of the Charite hospital in background. AFTER: People walk along the bank of the Spree river at the Reichstagsufer in Berlin, Germany on Sept. 16, 2014.

Photo credit: Elke Bruhn Hoffman, Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: A child plays on a playground next to the Berlin wall July 1981. AFTER: Cars park at the same spot in Berlin's Kreuzberg district Oct. 2, 2014. Photo credit: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: The Berlin Wall Aug. 13, 1985 on Friedrichstrasse near Checkpoint Charlie and Friedrichstrasse. AFTER: Friedrichstrasse with shops, restaurants, and pedestrians Oct. 2, 2014. Photo credit: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: East Berlin citizens crowd the new passage at Bernauer Strasse to West Berlin where East German border police tore down segments of the wall Nov. 11, 1989. AFTER: People walk along the crossing of Bernauer Strasse and Oderberger Strasse Oct. 26, 2014.

Photo credit - Rudi Blaha, Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo 25th Anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall BEFORE: The Brandenburg Gate landmark with people dancing on the Berlin Wall Nov. 10, 1989. AFTER: The Brandenburg Gate 25 years later Oct. 2014. Photo credit: Thomas Kienzle, Markus Schreiber/AP Photo Credit: AP Photo Berlin Wall: What you need to know about the barrier that divided East and West | The Independent Berlin Wall: What you need to know about the barrier that divided East and West On Sunday, it will be 25 years since the Berlin Wall fell Friday 7 November 2014 16:22 BST Click to follow Indy Lifestyle Online Sunday will mark 25 years since the Berlin Wall was torn down, ending almost 30 years of division in the German capital. It had been constructed overnight and on the night of 9 November 1989 it fell, with thousands of East Germans travelling to the barrier to demand the gates be opened.

They were met on the other side by huge crowds of “Wessis” waiting to greet them with flowers and champagne, starting celebrations that lasted for days. This weekend, Berlin is celebrating again, with a symbolic wall of illuminated balloons being released into the sky amid a programme of concerts, plays and exhibitions throughout the city. Most Germans marking the occasion will not remember the construction of “Die Mauer”, which caught Berliners by complete surprise. Read more West German people smashing down the Berlin Wall in November 1989 When was the Berlin Wall built? The first barrier was constructed overnight on 12 August 1961, after the leader of the East German Communist Party, Walter Ulbricht, ordered a barricade to stop East Germans defecting. An estimated 2.5 million people had flooded into West Berlin since 1949 and the Government wanted to put a stop to the exodus from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Berliners woke up on 13 August to find themselves separated from friends, family, work and even their homes and in the coming weeks and months, the barrier was strengthened with concrete walls and guard towers.

The finished wall was made up of 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 look-out towers. It did not just go through the centre of the city – it completely encircled all of West Berlin, which was surrounded by the communist GDR. Two women wave to their family across the Berlin Wall, 1961 Why was it constructed? 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. Although Berlin was in East Germany, as the capital it was also shared between Britain, France, America and the Soviet Union. The inner German border was officially closed in 1952 and the city became the main route for disaffected East Germans reaching the West. Thousands of people exploited what became known as the “Berlin emigration loophole” and the GDR’s introduction of new passport laws in 1957 only drove more people through the capital – up to 90 per cent of all refugees.

Families and friends, once neighbours, now stand divided and wave across to each other over the Berlin wall. What impact did it have? The wall divided friends, families and loved ones, causing people on both sides to lose their jobs and livelihoods if trapped on the wrong side. In total, about 5,000 people are thought to escaped East Germany by crossing the wall – including more than 1,300 guards. Tales of daring escapes became a fixture in the Western media, including acrobat Horst Klein, who dangled off a disused cable as he made his way to the West inch-by-inch. Heinz Meixner famously cut out his car’s windscreen and ducked underneath the barrier at Checkpoint Charlie, as he sped through with his mother in the boot. Perhaps the most famous symbols of freedom became Hans Strelczyk and Gunter Wetzel, who constructed a hot air balloon to fly themselves over the wall in 1979. There was one group of Berliners that crossed without risking their lives – the 50,000 Grenzgängers – who were permitted to work in the West, with its larger salaries, capitalist economy and political freedoms.

A man lies in the back of lorry after crossing the Berlin Wall by ladder fearing the guards may have seen him escape, 1965 How many people died? The first person to be killed trying to cross the wall was Gunter Litfin, on 24 August 1961. Like many East Germans, he worked in West Berlin and had woken up little over a week before to find his livelihood as an apprentice tailor destroyed. He was also a member of the centre-right CDU party, which was quickly made illegal by the GDR and rented a flat in the West. The wall was still mostly a barbed wire barrier at the time and he hoped to break through with a well-timed run on what he believed was a poorly-guarded stretch. But when he was spotted climbing over railway tracks, he was shot in the head. In the immediate aftermath, officials hushed up his death and responded to rumours with claims that Litfin was a gay man known as “Dolly” fleeing due to his “criminal acts.” For the 28 years it stood, up to 200 people are believed to have died at the wall, although estimates vary.

Many lost their lives along the heavily fortified “death strip”, which contained anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire and beds of nails under blinding floodlights. The wall, nicknamed the Iron Curtain, became a symbol of the division in Europe between the west and the oppressive east, despite the GDR’s attempts to characterise it as a protective shell against “fascism” allegedly remaining from the Nazi era. 1959: East German 'wall guards' observe West Berlin over a barrier erected by the GDR in August that year. Why did it fall? The proximity of West Berlin, offering the prosperity and freedom that the East lacked, was a constant bane to the GDR’s leadership. Positive propaganda about the “Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart” was not enough to stop East Germans succumbing to the lure of the Western city or the rest of democratic Europe. As revolutions against the Soviet Union rose through the 1980s, people in the GDR started to demand greater personal and political freedoms, as well as that of movement, and protesters demanded they be allowed into the West. A protest outside the DDR parliament on 7 November 1989 calling for the Wall to come down.

It did so two days later After Hungary and the then Czechoslovakia opened their borders to East Germany, defectors began to drain from the country and the Government found it increasingly difficult to refuse calls to open legal crossings. When the border was eventually opened, it was almost by accident. East Berlin's Communist party spokesman, Günter Schabowski, announced East Germans would “immediately” allowed to travel directly to West Germany on 9 November in a broadcast that was seen across the country at 7pm. When the GDR attempted to backtrack later that evening, calling on citizens to queue at the migration office the next day, it was too late and thousands of East Germans were already on their way to the barricade. When did the wall come down? Crowds of East Germans arrived at the wall to find confused guards, until then ordered to shoot those attempting to cross on sight, unaware of the sudden change. As soldiers made frantic calls, they demanded the gates were opened until their request was finally opened at 10.45pm. To avoid a stampede, officials began to gradually let people in, before finally losing control and opening the barriers.

As East and West Germans celebrated that night, singing and dancing on the wall, many soldiers were said to have joined in the revelry.

The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on 1/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on East German border guards stand on a section of the Berlin wall in front of the Brandenburg gate on November 11, 1989 AFP/Getty 2/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on Cars line up at the Pomezy border station, on November 5, 1989 as East German refugees cross the border to West Germany AFP/Getty 3/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on East German refugees penned behind barriers outside the West German embassy wait for the buses to take them to the railway station to leave Prague on 4th October 1989 AFP/Getty 4/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on Thousands of young East Berliners gather at the Berlin Wall, near the Brandenburg Gate on November 11, 1989 AFP/Getty 5/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on East Berliners climb onto the Berlin Wall to celebrate the effective end of the

 city's partition, 31st December 1989 Getty 6/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on A replica of a watchtower of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) on display in the "Potsdamer Platz Arkaden" shopping mall in Berlin where an exhibition titled "25 Years of the Fall of the Berlin Wall" has been staged AFP/Getty 7/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on Berliners from East and West celebrate at the Brandenburg Gate in December 1989 AFP/Getty 8/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on East German drivers queue at the Schirnding border crossing into Czecho-slovakia five days before the fall of the Berlin EPA 9/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on The Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, watched by his wife Raisa, right, kisses his East German counterpart Erich Honecker in East Berlin in October 1989 AP 10/10 The fall of the Berlin Wall – 25 years on Police from both sides stand idly by as the Berlin Wall

 is breached for the first time between East and West, at the Sandkrug Bridge crossing-point on Invaliden Strasse, in November 1989 AFP/Getty The 9 November 1989 is considered to be the date the wall “fell” but the structure was not completely taken down that night.

It was gradually smashed to pieces over the following weeks, with many people taking it apart themselves with hammers and chisels, keeping pieces of history for themselves. The government finally destroyed the wall in 1990 although parts of it remain in Berlin and in museums around the world. Talks between East and West Germany started that year and at midnight on 3 October 1990 – less than a year after the Berlin Wall fell – the republics were officially reunited. Berlin Wall - Cold War - HISTORY.com Berlin Wall A+E Networks Introduction On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West.

The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War. Google The Berlin Wall: The Partitioning of Berlin As World War II came to an end in 1945, a pair of Allied peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam determined the fate of Germany’s territories. They split the defeated nation into four “allied occupation zones”: The eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union, while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and (eventually) France. Did You Know? On October 22, 1961, a quarrel between an East German border guard and an American official on his way to the opera in East Berlin very nearly led to what one observer called "a nuclear-age equivalent of the Wild West Showdown at the O.K.

Corral." That day, American and Soviet tanks faced off at Checkpoint Charlie for 16 hours. Photographs of the confrontation are some of the most familiar and memorable images of the Cold War. Even though Berlin was located entirely within the Soviet part of the country (it sat about 100 miles from the border between the eastern and western occupation zones), the Yalta and Potsdam agreements split the city into similar sectors. The Soviets took the eastern half, while the other Allies took the western. This four-way occupation of Berlin began in June 1945. The Berlin Wall: Blockade and Crisis The existence of West Berlin, a conspicuously capitalist city deep within communist East Germany, “stuck like a bone in the Soviet throat,” as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev put it. The Russians began maneuvering to drive the United States, Britain and France out of the city for good. In 1948, a Soviet blockade of West Berlin aimed to starve the western Allies out of the city. Instead of retreating, however, the United States and its allies supplied their sectors of the city from the air.

This effort, known as the Berlin Airlift , lasted for more than a year and delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and other goods to West Berlin. The Soviets called off the blockade in 1949. After a decade of relative calm, tensions flared again in 1958. For the next three years, the Soviets–emboldened by the successful launch of the Sputnik satellite the year before and embarrassed by the seemingly endless flow of refugees from east to west (nearly 3 million since the end of the blockade, many of them young skilled workers such as doctors, teachers and engineers)–blustered and made threats, while the Allies resisted. Summits, conferences and other negotiations came and went without resolution. Meanwhile, the flood of refugees continued. In June 1961, some 19,000 people left the GDR through Berlin. The following month, 30,000 fled.

In the first 11 days of August, 16,000 East Germans crossed the border into West Berlin, and on August 12 some 2,400 followed—the largest number of defectors ever to leave East Germany in a single day. The Berlin Wall: Building the Wall That night, Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good. In just two weeks, the East German army, police force and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barbed wire and concrete block wall–the Berlin Wall–that divided one side of the city from the other. Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely: They crossed the East-West border to work, to shop, to go to the theater and the movies. Trains and subway lines carried passengers back and forth. After the wall was built, it became impossible to get from East to West Berlin except through one of three checkpoints: at Helmstedt (“Checkpoint Alpha” in American military parlance), at Dreilinden (“Checkpoint Bravo”) and in the center of Berlin at Friedrichstrasse (“Checkpoint Charlie”).

(Eventually, the GDR built 12 checkpoints along the wall.) At each of the checkpoints, East German soldiers screened diplomats and other officials before they were allowed to enter or leave. Except under special circumstances, travelers from East and West Berlin were rarely allowed across the border. The Berlin Wall: 1961-1989 The construction of the Berlin Wall did stop the flood of refugees from East to West, and it did defuse the crisis over Berlin. (Though he was not happy about it, President Kennedy conceded that “a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.”) Over time, East German officials replaced the makeshift wall with one that was sturdier and more difficult to scale. A 12-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide mass of reinforced concrete was topped with an enormous pipe that made climbing over nearly impossible. Behind the wall on the East German side was a so-called “Death Strip”: a gauntlet of soft sand (to show footprints), floodlights, vicious dogs, trip-wire machine guns and patrolling soldiers with orders to shoot escapees on sight. In all, at least 171 people were killed trying to get over, under or around the Berlin Wall.

Escape from East Germany was not impossible, however: From 1961 until the wall came down in 1989, more than 5,000 East Germans (including some 600 border guards) managed to cross the border by jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying in hot air balloons, crawling through the sewers and driving through unfortified parts of the wall at high speeds. The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders. East and West Berliners flocked to the wall, drinking beer and champagne and chanting “Tor auf!” (“Open the gate!”). At midnight, they flooded through the checkpoints.

More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, “the greatest street party in the history of the world.” People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall–they became known as “mauerspechte,” or “wall woodpeckers”—while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. “Only today,” one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, “is the war really over.” The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Tags

Question: In what year was the Berlin Wall erected?
Answer: 1961