How Much Did It Cost to Build the Berlin Wall?

While it is impossible to speak about the Berlin Wall history the issue of cost of constructing such an enormous and infamous wall can be raised. The actual wall, built by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1961, was designed mainly to halt the big brain drain to West Berlin and beyond, the free world. Also incorporated in the construction of the Berlin Wall were financial costs, which also had more than its fair share of consequences. In this paper, the estimated cost of the construction is discussed alongside the effects that this wall had on the economy.

 

Part four focuses on the initial construction costs of mobile homes.

As it can be seen, the costs entered as a sum of money for constructing Berlin Wall need to be evaluated both in primary historical documents and secondary sources, their scarcity and varying aim at making it rather difficult to come up with an exact rate. But according to available information historians and economists have not refrained from estimating approximate figures. The constructions costs for the first stage are believed to reach DM 16 million, or $8 million.

 

This cost including materials like concrete, barbed wire, guard towers and all the cost associated with people involved in construction work at the concentration camp. It is also necessary to say that these amounts do not include the cost of the continuing repair and construction costs which were in the process for almost 30 years during the existence of the Wall.

 

The Economic Impact

While the Berlin Wall was solely constructed as a dividing structure which would not allow people to escape from East Germany, it had its roots in the economic problems as well. Due to erection of the Wall, eastern and western Berlin became distinct city with different Economical standards of living, trade indicators and employment opportunities.

 

Loss of Skilled Workforce

The most obvious effect, which stemmed from building the Wall, was the circumstance of playing a part in the loss of a large contingent of the skilled workers. Some of those who migrated to West Berlin were NGO professionals of which many were doctors engineers and scientist among them were those of the political class. This, he stated, had terrible repercussions in East German economic development and in the improvement of technology.

 

Trade Disruption

The Wall affected transport between East and West Berlin and East Germany and the rest of the world. Before, East Germany used the ‘Island City’ as the conduit to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, with the construction of the Wall, communication channels meant for conducting businesses were disrupted and later completely domesticated, this entailing increased costs and time in transporting goods, and at the same time a reduced flow of goods from one place to the other.

 

In addition, the Wall caused tension in the relations with neighbouring countries. The onset of the Wall led to instigation of some rebellious measures of its equal by other Western members inclusive of West Germany, these entailing economic restriction and sanctions on East Germany. These sanctions compounded problems in East Germany’s economy even more.

 

Cost of surveillance and maintenance The monitoring activities entail considerable costs including;

To make the barrier effective, large amounts of money were deposited for the purpose of surveillance, construction as well as for the periodic overhaul of the Berlin Wall. This involved providing personnel for the wall to be manned by border guards, the construction, and deploying modern surveillance systems on the same wall. These costs accumulated to the various economic costs incurred by East Germany over the years.

 

The Human Cost

Although it is footprint important to analyze the economic effects of constructing the Berlin Wall, as we accept that there are amounts of human cost connected with this construction. Separation of families, loss of liberty, and avoidable loss of many when attempting to escape are also costs that can not be put down in dollars and cents.

 

In Conclusion

The cost of putting up the Berlin Wall included a cost which in the world today would be referred as financial cost, but also the cost in terms of human life. When the construction was initiated, it was estimated that it would only cost around 16 million East German marks ($8 million) to complete; however, circumstantial cost was unbearably high due to the disruption of trade and supply, shortage of skilled workforce, and expenditure incurred for the maintenance of this station. Of course, such statistics give only part of the picture of the Berlin Wall’s consequences, though it affected people’s lives in a devastating manner.


Posted

in

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scan the code