Berlin's Wall
German BERLINER MAUER, barrier that surrounded West Berlin and prevented
access to it from East Berlin and adjacent areas of East Germany during the
period from 1961 to 1989. In the years between 1949 and 1961, about 2.5 million
East Germans had fled from East to West Germany, including steadily rising
numbers of skilled workers, professionals, and intellectuals. Their loss
threatened to destroy the economic viability of the East German state. In
response, East Germany built a barrier to close off East Germans' access to West
Berlin (and hence West Germany). This barrier, the Berlin Wall, was first
erected on the night of Aug. 12-13, 1961, as the result of a decree passed on
August 12 by the East German Volkskammer ("Peoples' Chamber"). The
original wall, built of barbed wire and cinder blocks, was subsequently replaced
by a series of concrete walls (up to 15 feet [5 m] high) that were topped with
barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers, gun emplacements, and mines. By the
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80s this system of walls, electrified fences, and fortifications extended 28
miles (45 km) through Berlin, dividing the two parts of the city, and extended a
further 75 miles (120 km) around West Berlin, separating it from the rest of
East Germany.
The Berlin Wall came to symbolize the Cold War's division of East from West
Germany and of eastern from Western Europe. About 5,000 East Germans managed to
cross the Berlin Wall (by various means) and reach West Berlin safely, while
another 5,000 were captured by East German authorities in the attempt and 191
more were killed during the actual crossing of the wall.
East Germany's hard-line communist leadership was forced from power in October
1989 during the wave of democratization that swept through Eastern Europe. On
November 9 the East German government opened the country's borders with West
Germany (including West Berlin), and openings were made in the Berlin Wall
through which East Germans could travel freely to the West. The wall henceforth
ceased to function as a political barrier between East and West Germany.
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