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Wall
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer, Russian: Берли́нская стена́, Berlinskaya stena) was a barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany. more...
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As an iconic symbol of the Cold War, the wall divided East and West Berlin for 28 years, from the day construction began on August 13, 1961 until it was dismantled in 1989. During this period 125 people were killed trying to escape to the West, according to official figures. However, a prominent victims' group claims that at least 1,245 people had been killed trying to flee East Germany. Newly discovered documents confirm that the Communist regime gave explicit orders to shoot and kill attempted defectors, including children. The East German government had always denied having such a policy.
When the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that entering West Berlin would be permitted, crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove the rest of it.
The fall of the Berlin wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.
Background
After the end of World War II in Europe, what territorially remained of Nazi Germany was divided into four occupation zones (per the Potsdam Agreement), each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers: the Americans, British, French and Soviets. The old capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was similarly subdivided into four zones despite the city lying deep inside the zone of the Soviet Union. Although the intent was for the occupying powers to govern Germany together inside the 1947 borders, the advent of Cold War tension caused the French, British and American zones to be formed into the Federal Republic of Germany (and West Berlin) in 1949, excluding the Soviet zone which then formed the German Democratic Republic (including East Berlin) the same.
Divergence of German states.
West Germany developed into a western capitalist country with a social market economy ("Soziale Marktwirtschaft" in German) and a democratic parliamentary government. Prolonged economic growth starting in the 1950s fuelled a 30-year "economic miracle" ("Wirtschaftswunder"). Across the inner-German border, East Germany established an authoritarian government with a Soviet-style planned economy. While East Germany became rich, at least by the standards for countries in the Eastern bloc, many of its citizens still looked to the significantly wealthier West for political freedoms and economic prosperity. The flight of growing numbers of East Germans to non-communist countries via West Berlin led to Germany erecting the inner German border (of which the Berlin Wall was a part) to prevent any further exodus.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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