The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin, until East Germa…
What was the Berlin Wall in World War II?
Berlin Wall. Berlin 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,...
How did the East Germans escape the Berlin Wall?
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 there they could then travel to West Germany and to other Western European countries.
What happened to the Berlin Wall in 1989?
The border between East and West Germany was opened on November 9, 1989, following anti-government protests in East Germany and the democratization of other eastern and central European states. Sections of the Berlin Wall were subsequently torn down by East German border guard crews and residents of a reunified Berlin. What was the “death strip”?
How many people crossed the Berlin Wall?
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.
Who did the Berlin Wall separate?
East GermanyFor many years, the Berlin Wall separated East Germany from West Germany, acting as a physical barrier that symbolised the political divisions of the time.
What was divided by the Berlin Wall?
The Berlin Wall was built by the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War to prevent its population from escaping Soviet-controlled East Berlin to West Berlin, which was controlled by the major Western Allies. It divided the city of Berlin into two physically and ideologically contrasting zones.
How many people were separated by the Berlin Wall?
In the 28 years the Wall stood, at least 100,000 people escaped to West Germany from the East. But the communist regime divided people in other ways too.
How did the Berlin Wall divided families?
The Berlin wall divided families who found themselves unable to visit each other. Many East Berliners were cut off from their jobs. West Berliners demonstrated against the wall and their mayor Willy Brandt led the criticism against the United States who they felt had failed to respond.
What 4 parts was Berlin divided into?
Germany was divided into four occupation zones and Berlin was divided into four sectors, with each superpower, The United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, responsible for the administration of the respective zone.
What are 3 facts about the Berlin Wall?
10 Things You May Not Know About the Berlin WallThe fall of the Berlin Wall happened by mistake. ... The Berlin Wall was erected more than 15 years into the Cold War. ... The Berlin Wall was actually two walls. ... More than 100 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall.More items...•
What sides did the Berlin Wall split?
It encircled West Berlin, separating it from East German territory. Construction of the wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin.
Did the Berlin Wall divide all of Germany?
More than 100 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall over the course of its 28-year history. But the Wall was just one part of the larger 'inner German border' that separated East and West Germany, and hundreds more were killed trying to cross other fortified border points.
How long were families separated by the Berlin Wall?
When she heard the news that would cause her separation from the father of her child for ever, Ursula Bach was 18 years old and six months pregnant.
Why did West and East Berlin split?
After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split, with the Soviets taking the eastern part of the city.
What led to the fall of the Berlin Wall?
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a pivotal moment, not just in the Cold War but in the history of modern Europe. It was brought about by political reforms inside the Soviet bloc, escalating pressure from the people of eastern Europe and ultimately, confusion over an East German directive to open the border.
Why was Berlin divided into four sectors?
Berlin, the former capital, which was surrounded by the Soviet zone, was placed under joint four-power authority but was partitioned into four sectors for administrative purposes. An Allied Control Council was to exercise overall joint authority over the country.
When was the Berlin Wall divided?
Shortly after midnight on August 13, 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.
What German city was divided by a wall?
The village is still known as “Little Berlin” It wasn't until the end of World War Two, however, that this watery border propelled the village and its residents to the frontline of tensions that would divide Europe for decades.
Why was the Berlin Wall built?
The Berlin Wall was built by the German Democratic Republic during the Cold War to prevent its population from escaping Soviet-controlled East Berl...
When did the Berlin Wall fall?
The border between East and West Germany was opened on November 9, 1989, following anti-government protests in East Germany and the democratization...
What was the “death strip”?
The “death strip” was the belt of sand- or gravel-covered land between the two main barriers of the Berlin Wall. It was constantly under surveillan...
Does the Berlin Wall still exist?
Segments of the Berlin Wall still exist in modern Berlin, notably on display at the Topography of Terror museum, the Berlin Wall Memorial, and the...
How tall was the Berlin Wall?
The Berlin Wall was actually a system of barriers that included two walls. In the system’s final form, the outer wall, called the Vorderlandmauer,...
How many people escaped the Berlin Wall?
Another student-dug tunnel sparked the most successful escape attempt in the wall’s history— 57 people escaped over the two days it was open. The well publicized escapes so shook East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, that they installed listening devices across the death strip and monitored the ground for tunneling activity 24/7.
When did Germany close the Berlin border?
German Democratic Republic officials decided to close the Berlin border for good in 1961, spurred by a spate of defections from refugees who used Berlin’s relatively permeable border to escape East Germany. By August 1961, when officials abruptly sealed the border, up to 1,700 people a day were leaving through Berlin and claiming refugee status once they reached the west. On the night of August 12-13, 1961, workers erected barbed wire and temporary barriers, trapping East Berliners.
What drove ingenuity among East Germans determined to reach West Berlin?
Desperation drove ingenuity among East Germans determined to reach West Berlin. Ida Siekmann had been holed up for days. Nine days earlier, workers had sealed the border to her country by dead of night. Three days earlier, the front entrance to her apartment had been blocked off by police. She had committed no crime, but Siekmann was in ...
How did Siekmann die?
Siekmann wanted out, so she took a chance. She shoved her bedding and other possessions out of her window and jumped. She died on the way to the hospital. She had just become the first fatality of the Berlin Wall.
How did Hartmut Richter get over the Berlin Wall?
Desperation drove creativity as others tried to get over the border. Hartmut Richter swam across the cold Teltow Canal that separated the East German region of Brandenburg from West Berlin. It was a four-hour ordeal—and then he returned again and again to take friends west in his car trunk. Acrobat Horst Klein got over the border on a tightrope; Ingo and Holger Bethke used a complex zip line, then flew ultralight planes back over the wall to pick up their brother, Egbert.
How long was the Berlin Wall?
The 27-mile-long wall was actually two walls with a no-man’s-land known as the “death strip” in between. Armed with landmines, attack dogs and barbed wire and regularly patrolled by East German troops ready to shoot and kill any would-be escapee, it intimidated most East Berliners into staying put. Recommended for you.
What drove individuals and small groups to make their escapes, but it would take a massive movement to bring down the?
Ingenuity and desperation drove individuals and small groups to make their escapes, but it would take a massive movement to bring down the wall itself.
How many East Germans fled the Berlin Wall?
In the years between 1949 and 1961, about 2.5 million East Germans had fled from East to West Germany, including steadily rising numbers ...
When did people gather at the Berlin Wall?
People from East and West Berlin gathering at the Berlin Wall on November 10, 1989, one day after the wall opened.
Why did the Berlin Wall happen?
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 ...
What happened on November 9, 1989?
Follow the events of November 9, 1989, when an innocuous public announcement led to the bloodless revolution that brought down the Berlin 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.
How tall was the Berlin Wall?
The Berlin Wall was actually a system of barriers that included two walls. In the system’s final form, the outer wall , called the Vorderlandmauer, was 11.5–13 feet (3.5–4 metres) tall, and the inner wall, the Hinterlandmauer, was 6.5–10 feet (2–3 metres) tall.
What is the boundary between East and West Berlin?
The boundary between East and West Berlin and the boundary between West Berlin and East Germany, for a combined length…. …of the Soviets, erected the Berlin Wall, isolating West from East Berlin. West Berlin, then literally an island within the surrounding GDR, became the symbol of Western freedom.
What is West Berlin?
West Berlin, then literally an island within the surrounding GDR, became the symbol of Western freedom. Generous cultural and economic subsidies and the exemption of its citizens from West German conscription made West Berlin a centre of artistic…. 9–10, 1989, when the Berlin Wall was breached.
A Moving Memorial
It took weeks of people streaming back and forth across the once-impassable border for it to register that the barrier defining her life was down for good.
Collecting the Pieces
After that first letter, offers to buy pieces of the wall kept flooding in. One U.S. businessman offered the government $50 million for the entire thing. Eventually, much of the wall did end up getting sold, on the street, in auctions, to governments, organizations and private individuals.
Who was the woman who fled the Berlin Wall?
Half a century after the infamous German wall was built, two ex-East Berliners look back at how it changed their lives forever. Ursula Bach, who fled to West Germany at 18. She was six months pregnant at the time the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, and was never to see the father of her child again. Photograph: Ursula Bach-Puyplat.
How many East Germans were in West Berlin in 1961?
By the time Bach and her mother, brother and grandmother escaped from Saxony Anhalt on 21 May 1961, 2,000 East German citizens a day were arriving in West Berlin. The 3.5 million East Germans who had left since the founding of the GDR in 1949 made up about 20% of the entire East German population.
What made De Rooij decide to never return?
It was seeing the East German government walling in its residents which made De Rooij decide to never return. "I went to the American sector [of West Berlin] and asked an official to help me. He gave me a West German ID card and put me on a plane to West Germany."
Why did Bach's mother leave the East German government?
Bach's mother decided to leave when the East German government started cracking down on private enterprise in their mission to turn a market economy into a centrally planned one.
When did the barbed wire start unravelling?
When the border guards started unravelling miles of barbed wire across the border that Sunday in August 1961 , Jan-Aart de Rooij was 14 and a long way from home, at a youth camp in West Germany run by a church charity aimed at giving city children a bit of fresh air.
Was the nostalgia for the wall logical?
De Rooij, now a father of seven, said the nostalgia for the wall was "understandable but not logical". Yes, he said, certain things were perhaps better in the east – kindergarten provision, for example, and there was maybe more community spirit.
What was the Berlin Wall?
The Berlin Wall was one of the most powerful and iconic symbols of the Cold War. In June 1963, Kennedy gave his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”) speech in front of the Wall, celebrating the city as a symbol of freedom and democracy in its resistance to tyranny and oppression.
What was Berlin divided into?
After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation.
Why was the Berlin Wall important?
The Berlin Wall was one of the most powerful and iconic symbols of the Cold War. In June 1963, Kennedy gave his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”) speech in front of the Wall, celebrating the city as a symbol of freedom and democracy in its resistance to tyranny and oppression. The height of the Wall was raised to 10 feet in 1970 in an effort to stop escape attempts, which at that time came almost daily. From 1961 to 1989, a total of 5,000 East Germans escaped; many more tried and failed. High profile shootings of some would-be defectors only intensified the Western world’s hatred of the Wall.
When did East Germany become a nation?
As this symbol of Cold War repression was destroyed, East and West Germany became one nation again, signing a formal treaty of unification on October 3, 1990.
When did East Germany start to reform?
Finally, in the late 1980s , East Germany, fueled by the decline of the Soviet Union, began to implement a number of liberal reforms. On November 9, 1989, masses of East and West Germans alike gathered at the Berlin Wall and began to climb over and dismantle it.
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After a three-month siege, Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés capture Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. Cortés’ men leveled the city and captured Cuauhtémoc, the Aztec emperor. Tenochtitlán was founded in 1325 A.D. by a wandering tribe of hunters and gatherers on ...read more
