The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer), an iconic symbol of the Cold War, was initially constructed starting on August 13, 1961, and dismantled in the weeks following November 9, 1989. Part of the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall was the most prominent part of the German Democratic Republic’s border system.
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer, pronounced [b??'li?n? 'ma???] (listen)) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.[1] Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall cut off (by land) West Berlin from virtually all of surrounding East Germany and East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989.[2] Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992.[1][3] The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls,[4] accompanied by a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany.
This wall was a representation of seperation between the East side of Berlin and the West. Families were seperated and lives were lost because of this seperation. There were numerous deaths at the Berlin Wall, which stood as a barrier between West Berlin and East Germany from 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989.
Before the rise of the Berlin Wall in 1961, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin, from where they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration.
Now becasue it was so hard for families to cross between sides many came up with creative unique ways to see there family memebers and here is a website to show you some of them.
This website shows that people where not only desperate to get to there loved ones but many also felt there was no need for the wall to exist. In this website they talked about 8 creative ways people went over the berlin wall. Second they talk about Lady Death The All Time Sniper. Lastly they talk about a brief history presidential funeral train to conclude.
Before we get into how the wall came done lets start with why it was built in the first place after world war 2 and Hitler came out of power.
On 15 June 1961, First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and GDR State Council chairman Walter Ulbricht stated in an international press conference, "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" (No one has the intention of erecting a wall!). It was the first time the colloquial term Mauer (wall) had been used in this context.[48]
The transcript of a telephone call between Nikita Khrushchev and Ulbricht on 1 August in the same year, suggests that the initiative for the construction of the Wall came from Khrushchev.[49][50] However, other sources suggest that Khrushchev had initially been wary about building a wall, fearing negative Western reaction. What is beyond dispute, though, is that Ulbricht had pushed for a border closure for quite some time, arguing that East Germany's very existence was at stake.[
Separation of Berlin. ... On June 23, 1948, the western powers introduced a new form of currency into the western zones, which caused the Soviet Union to impose the Berlin Blockade one day later. After Germany was divided into two parts, East Germany built the Berlin Wall to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the west.
Shortly after midnight on this day in 1961, East German soldiers begin laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between Soviet-controlled East Berlin and the democratic western section of the city. After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation.
The seperation of Berlin is also known as The Berlin Crisis of 1961, (German: Berlin-Krise) occurred between 4 June – 9 November 1961, and was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany.
The Berlin Crisis started when the USSR launched an ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of all armed forces from Berlin, including the Western armed forces in West Berlin. The crisis culminated in the city's de facto partition with the East German erection of the Berlin Wall.
