The building of the Berlin Wall stands as a significant event in history, symbolizing the division of Germany and the broader ideological divide between the Soviet Union and the Western world during the Cold War. To comprehend how the Berlin Wall came into existence, we must explore the circumstances that led to its construction and the methods employed by the Soviet Union.
The Background: Two of the most exciting topics in world history are the Cold War and Germany’s Division.
After the Germany’s loss in the Second World War, the allies –United States of America, Soviet Union, Great Britain and France divided Germany into four zones of occupation. This division was supposed to help the process of reconstruction, and make sure that the Germany after the war could be a country of peace.
However there were severe Political and Ideological differences between Soviet Union and the other Allies soon. The Western Allies initially wanted the reconstruction of Germany’s economy and their ministry of education while the soviet wanted to establish socialist government and to dominated the east European nations.
Thus, there intensified civil enmity between two groups: the supporters of the western states and the supporters of the Soviet Union, which led to the progressive evolution of two rather different German states – the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany and the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany. The same applied to Berlin which was located farther within the bounds of Soviet sphere of influence and was occupied in its eastern half as well as western half.
The Berlin Wall was built to prevent the flight of East Germans to the West The Berlin Wall was built to halt the flow of people from East Germany to West Germany
When the Cold war intensified, many East Germans started crossing the Check point Charlie in Berlin to go West Germany where life was easier and freedom of speech and movement existed. It becomes clearly seen that these mass migrations seemed to be a major threat to the socialist regime in East Germany which was set up by the Soviet Union.
Thus, the authorities of the Soviet Union, and, particularly those of East Germany, agreed on the construction of a physical obstacle. The stated goal was to protect East Germany from fascists from the West who would want to destabilize its socialist system.
Mechanisms and Construction
The erection of the Berlin Wall started at night on the 12th of August 1961. Soon after that, the two parts of the city were divided by the barbed wire fences, which were put in the middle of the night. This was only achieved after eriging the first barrier which was somewhat eased as compared to the second one that had a more concrete appearence.
The wall itself ran for some 155 km (96 miles) around West Berlin, passing the city right around. It consisted of multiple elements:
- Concrete Walls: Although other structures were also erected to provided a physical barrier between east and west, its primary make-up can be summed up as concrete walls given that these were about 3.6 meters high on an average but 0.7 meters thick.
- Watchtowers: Many guard towers were built at suitable intervals of the wall with the goal of supervising the fugitives.
- Anti-Vehicle Trenches: Around the wall there were trenches designed to prevent the approach of vehicles which could destroy the wall.
- Barbed Wire: For instance, barbed wire was used on the wall to instill great difficulties in escape among those who were engaged in construction of the wall.
- Death Strip: The space between the two rows of the inner and outer walls, called ‘death strip,’ contained elements like tripwires, alarms, dogs and others.
It was over the years that the construction was con tinued and other structures were added to enhance their security along the border line. The last stage of the construction of the wall had attained its highest degree of refinement and it became almost impossible to escape from it.
The Wall and Its Fall: Consequences
The Berlin Wall has been standing for about twenty nine years as a physical and political separator between East and West Berlin. People were separated, and thousands of people perished trying to get over the wall.
Nevertheless, the current of history shifted in particular over time. The political developments in Eastern Europe based on uprisings and the reunification of Germany, The East Berlin Wall came down on November 9 th, 1989 due to citizens of East Germany protesting to have a reform on the iron curtain.
The breaking of the Berlin Wall proved to be important since signifying the end of the Cold War and the eventual reunification of Germany in 1900.
Legacy and Lessons Learned
This work aims to examine the significance of those events beginning with the construction of the Berlin Wall and culminating with its collapse. The purpose of building the wall aimed at limiting peoples’ freedom of movement and indicating how far regime heads are willing to go to quell dissent.
Today we have Got numerous sections of the Berlin wall that acts as a reformative wall that shows us the actual distinctions between division and unity, darkness and freedom.
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