Berlin Wall

Basic Facts (at the time of July 31, 1989)

Total border length around West Berlin: 96 mi / 155 km

Border between East and West Berlin: 27 mi / 43.1 km

Border between West Berlin and East Germany: 69 mi / 111.9 km

Border through residential areas in Berlin: 23 mi / 37 km

Concrete segment wall: 3.6m (11.81 ft.) high, 66 mi / 106 km

Wire mesh fencing: 41 mi / 66.5 km

Anti-vehicle trenches: 65 mi / 105.5 km

Contact or signal fence: 79 mi / 127.5 km

Column track: 6-7 m (7.33 yd) wide, 77 mi / 124.3 km

Number of watch towers: 302

Number of bunkers: 20

Persons killed on the Berlin Wall: 192

Persons injured by shooting: ca. 200

No: He might well have had good reason for wanting its removal, but I do not think he was instrumental in making it fall. It fell because the Russians had no further use for it: Russian foreign policy had had to change, it was far too expensive.

{| |- | It was actually fairly simple. Berlin was deep into East Germany. Its only connection to West Germany was through a railroad corridor. By cutting the rail line, the Soviets prevented any ground transportation from reaching the city. The only method of getting goods there was through aircraft. |}

us, Britain and France all controolled small parts of a western side of Germany which all united later and was a thriving democratic nation. The soviet union controlleda larger part of eastern Germeny and was communist. Berlin since it was the capitol and was in the eastern side, was also split in half, one contorled by the us and the other half was controled by the soviet union

The Soviet Union didn't put the Berlin Wall up. The East Germans did. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev told East Germany's dictator Walter Ulbricht to stop the flow of East German citizens into West Berlin or else. Ulbricht told his chief of construction troops, Erich Honecker, to construct a barricade. Honecker built the Berlin Wall. First understand that Germany was divided into four sectors after WWII, since the German government had failed and surrendered. The heart of these sectors was Berlin, the present day capital of Germany. The West was copposed of three sectors which belonged to the United States, France, and the United kingdom. The East solely belonged to the Soviets. As you are aware the Berlin wall was erected in 1961. And naturally the Soviets ran their sector under ridiculous Communism. The people in the East were separted from all sorts of loved ones in the West and were forbidden to have either cross borders to visit one another. The East's ecomomy was very poor and the landscape as described by a former Berlin Soldier of the Berlin Brigade was "all bombed out and in ruins." There were no advances in technogy and the factories were left the way they were since WWII. The people lived in truly harsh conditions and endured the pangs of longing to see their loved ones. These are the factors that drove and motivated people to try jumping over the wall, tunneling under it, or some other way of escaping into the West where things were maintained and taken care of a place where standards of living and the economy were higher. The Soviets naturally did not want people, their people, escaping into the west. Matters had gotten out of hand and the Soviet government had decided to build a wall-the Belin Wall-through Berlin. They did this deed in effort that the people-their people would stay inside. You can relate to this if you have a dog or a little child. say you don't want the child climbing up a staircase-so you put a gate up (a wall) preventing the child from "escaping" to the other side and reaching the stairs. Or with a dog. Say you want to keep the dog in your garage which is connected to your home becasue you ARE cooking steak inside. So you put up a gate (a wall) to keep the dog from entering and eating your steak. That is the same concept of why the Soveits built the wall. They did not want their citizens escaping into the West. People refused bravly not to let a mere wall prevent them from freedom over 5,000 escape attempts were made. however not all concluded sucessfully since soviet gaursd patrolled the wall border by foot and in high watchtowers with guns preparing to shoot down anyone that was caught escaping. 239 individuals were shoot tring to flee the East. Germans placed flowers and wooden crosses where their shoot up bodies landed as a remembrance that unintentionally served as a warning (these were in the west since the people went over and got shot thei r bodies landing in the west dead.). The Berlin wall was taken down though but that is another topic.

Generally, the world. The Berlin Wall was a small physical representation of the Iron Curtain. The Iron Curtain divided Europe into East and West Germany and Berlin was at the heart of this miserable division. East and West Berliners and East and West Germans specifically were affected some call it beneficial others called it good intially, then after the glitz and glamour of the fall of the wall, people, mainly East Berliners and East Germans found they were leaft in the dust as a result of the fall.

At the end of WWII, the Allies invaded Germany. The Soviets came from the East, and invaded up to the Oder-Neisse Line. The Americans, French, and British came thus far from the West. After the War, this Western part of Germany went to the Americans, French, and British. They divided up their share of Germany into their own sections; however, when West Germany was formed, these regions united.

The Soviets controlled East Germany, and imposed strict Communist rule over it, including forced collectivization and one-party rule. According to the Soviet Union, this was the "Free" Germany, but it was merely a puppet state of the Soviet Union as it now controlled most of Eastern Europe as Satellite States. As tensions between the U.S. and the Soviets grew, Berlin was also split, as both sides wanted it as the capital for its share of Germany (even though Berlin lay deep in the heart of East Germany). Eventually, West and East Berlin came into existence.

East Berlin, of course, fell into the hands of the Soviets. West Berlin, however, was controlled by the other three Allies, and it became a sort of "safe haven" deep in the heart of Communist East Germany. Eventually, the Americans, French, and British felt that their portion of Germany was ready to become a country again, and they united their regions to form a democratic West Germany in 1949. Angry at this sudden move, the Soviets bitterly retaliated the same year and made their portion of Germany a communist East Germany. Thus the two Germanies were formed, and would not be united again until 1990.

There wasn't actually a wall between East Germany and West Germany. The border was a series of fences and other fortifications. It was normally referred to as the 'inner German border' or the 'Iron Curtain'.

The Berlin wall was between West Berlin and East Berlin.

Note 'East Germany' and West Germany' were names used by the English-language media. The proper names of the two countries was 'Deutsche Demokratische Republik' (DDR = German Democratic Republic) and 'Bundesrepublik Deutschland' (=BRD, Federal Republic of Germany).

East Berlin was part of the DDR. West Berlin was not part of the BRD, it was a separate entity.

At the end of World War II, the winners divided the capital city of Germany, Berlin. The US and its allies got West Berlin; The Soviet Union and its allies got East Berlin. Berlin was right in the middle of East Germany, which was controlled by the Soviet Union and its allies.

The Soviets wanted to take over West Berlin, so that they'd have the whole city. They cut off all roads in and out of West Berlin to keep supplies from going in to the inhabitants and force a surrender.

The Truman administration initiated the Berlin Airlift, where they flew supplies into Berlin, daily, until the Soviets gave up and re-opened the roads.

fall of Berlin wall

In effect yes. The Berlin Wall consisted of a series of obstacles including alarmed chain link fences, high concrete walls, tank traps, mined strips, trip-wire operated guns, dog runs, manned watch towers and ditches.

He served as Prime Minister for Britain during World War II

The Berlin Wall was not in its entirety important to the US in a large way, any trade that they had with East Berlin would have been interrupted and also the wall stopped many skilled workers leaving the Soviets to work for the Allies. The Berlin Wall was not in its entirety important to the US in a large way, any trade that they had with East Berlin would have been interrupted and also the wall stopped many skilled workers leaving the Soviets to work for the Allies.

The guys who wrote it farted so hard that all the women in town passed out

The cold war between USA and USSR ended, and USSR disintegrated.

American think tank then did research and determined that the next threat to world peace, freedom, and the democracies is Islam. This is already clear in Koran, the book of Islam.

Steve

At all times. The War Powers (USA, France, Great Britain, and the USSR) maintained guard posts at all their points of entry and departure. The city of Berlin was technically an occupied city from the end of WWII until the dissolution of the USSR and the reunification of Germany.

The Soviet Zone, or East Berlin, was the capital of the German Democratic Republic. The wall was built in 1961 in order to prevent GDR citizens fleeing to the US, British, or French zones. The Wall was continually improved to include razor wire, machine gun nests, watch towers, land mines, attack dogs, and trip-wire explosives.

Numbers are unclear, but at least 125 people were killed in their attempts to escape to the West.

For America, I would say the War in Iraq/War on Terrorism. As far as wars worldwide, I'm not sure.

Deconstruction of the wall began November 9, 1989.

After Germany surrendered, it was split up into zones of occupation among 4 victorious powers, but it was surrounded by Soviet-controlled territory.

It was called the Cold War. Some of its significant events included Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Airlift, the building of the Berlin Wall, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

President Truman responded to the blockade by sending planeloads of much-needed supplies to West Berlin. For more information on the Berlin Airlift consult the online Truman Library and Museum by following the link to the left.

Economic hardships, social disorder, rebellion in Chechnya and a rise in organized crime added to the list of problems for Yeltsin.

The Berlin wall's construction was started on August 13, 1961 by the German Democratic Republic.

When World War 2 was over in 1945, Germany was destroyed like no other country had ever been destroyed. Almost 90% of the German cities were razed to the ground by British and American bombers or by Russion artillery.

The Eastern part of Germany was annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union (although it had been German territory for 800 years). The 15 million Germans in these Eastern territoriea were expelled to Western and Central Germany. More than 30% of these German refugees died when they tried to escape from the Red Army. More than 1.5 million German women and girls were raped by Red Army soldiers.

After the displacement of the Eastern Germans was finished in 1947, the rest of Germany was divided into

- a capitalist West German "Federal Republic" under control of the U.S. and Britain and

- a Soviet-controlled, communist Central Germany ("GDR") which now was renamed "East" Germany (because the former "Eastern Germany" was Polish now).

--->

At that time, the Allies had no interest in a German unification because of the negative experience from World War 1+2. Most Americans and Russians said to themselves: "Better two or three separate Germanys than one united Reich."

Berlin (the former capital of the German Reich) had a special status.

The city of Berlin was located in the heart of the communist East Germany.

But even though, America and Britain had negotiated with the Russians to get control over the Western part of Berlin ("West Berlin").

So, since 1949 not only Germany was divided, but also Berlin was divided into a capitalist West and a communist East.

The problem however was that West Germany recovered very quickly from the post-war depression ("German Boom Miracle"). Already in 1960, the West Germans had nearly reached the living standard of the United States. And the German exports (Volkswagen, Mercedes, Siemens etc.) had even reached the world leadership.

Communist East Germany however developed much slower. Even in 1960, 30% of the war destructions in East German cities had not yet been rebuilt.

So, it is not surprising that

* more and more East Germans decided to move to West Germany and

* more and more East Berliners decided to move to West Berlin.

By 1960, almost 25% of The East population had escaped to the West.

Now, the East German government and the Soviets feared an economic and political collapse of the East.

So, they saw no other option than

* to build a wall between West and East Berlin and

* to establish a high-security border with mine belts between West and East Germany, the so-called "Belt of Death".

Both, the Berlin Wall and the Belt of Death were completed in 1962.

In the following decades, the East Germans had no chance to visit their children, their parents or their friends in the West any longer. The East Germans were imprisoned in their own country.

Of course, many East Germans became very desperate and depressive now. Some of them had a girl friend in the West and couldn't see her any longer, although the girl friend was already pregnant.

In Berlin it could happen, that the girl friend lived only 300 yards away, but on the other side of the Berlin wall. So, the East Berlin girl could see her West Berlin lover. She could wave at him. She could shout to him. But she never got the chance to fall into his arms any longer because the wall and the death belt were insurmountable.

Some East Germans even tried to escape through the Belt of Death. But there were so many land mines and pitbull dogs and communist soldiers with machine-guns that it was almost impossible to survive this flight.

Besides, the East German Secret Service ("Stasi") was the most perfect and radical Secret Service of the world. Almost in every East German household, bugging devices were installed. And almost in every family one or two members worked as undercover agents, who denounced their own parents (when they complained about the political and economic situation).

So, East Germans were in a deplorable situation. While West Germany was one of the world's richest nations, East Germans were 20 years behind. West Germans mainly drove Mercedes, BMW and Audi whereas East Germans had to put up with the old-fashioned Trabant cars (which looked like a pre-war vintage automobile).

The only worldwide success that East Germany had were their brilliant sports results. For example in the Olympic Games in 1988, East Germany won more gold medals than the United States. But, later it became public that East Germany had established the most perfect doping system the world has ever seen.

In 1989 however, Hungary (as the first East Block nation) opened its border to Austria. At that time, East Germans were already allowed to travel to communist neighbor countries like Hungary. So, only a few days later, thousands of East Germans rushed to the new Hungarian "escape exit" and flew to Austria and West Germany.

A few months later, the pressure on the East German government became so hard that the communist East German leader resigned. And on Nov. 9, 1989 demonstrations in East Germany had reached such a dimension that the new government decided to open the Berlin Wall and the "Belt of Death" between West and East Germany.

When the Berlin Wall came down on Nov. 9, West and East German men and women fell in each other arms because they hadn't seen each other for 25 years. The welcome scenes were so sentimental, so dramatic that almost every German was moved to tears for hours. Nobody had expected this miracle to become reality.

Now when the border was open, it was only a question of 12 months until the German re-unification took place on Oct. 3, 1990.

And despite all skepticism of the Western and Eastern allies, Germany has turned out to be a peaceful nation which is perfectly integrated into the NATO and the European Union.

Some critics however say that Germany again rules Europe: this time not by force and guns, but because of its economic dominance.

The leaders of the two German states at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall were:

West Germany: Helmut Kohl

East Germany: Erich Honneker (ironically the man responsible for overseeing its construction in the first place)