The Berlin wall 1961 to 1989 The Cold War
The Berlin wall would become a symbol of ideological division and suppression of
human rights during the Cold War in August 1961 the communist
government of the German Democratic Republic of East Germany
Begin construction of the wall and placement of barbed wire between West Berlin and The East
its purpose was to stop Western fascists from entering the socialist state of East Germany and stopping
defections from east to west it would continue to do so until November 9th
1989 when the East German regime announced that its citizens had the right
To cross the border when they wanted
The Wall Goes UP
when world war 2 came to an end in 1945 the victors came together at the Yalta and Potsdam
conferences to split Germany into four Allied occupation zones
East Germany would go to the Soviet Union while the Western Park went to the United States
Great Britain and France even though Berlin was located entirely within the
Berlin was located entirely within the Soviet part of the country the city
would be split into four sectors in the same way the Russians were determined to
remove the United States Britain and France from Berlin a Soviet blockade in
1948 attempted to starve them from the city however the United States and its
allies resisted by dropping food and fuel supplies from aircraft which became
known as the Berlin Airlift the booming Western sector which was the showcase of
capitalism contrasted sharply to the 
economically poorer East
many German refugees flowed from the east to the west including highly skilled workers
such as doctors teachers and engineers between 1945 to 1961 15 to 20 percent of
the East German population had left to the west premier Nikita Khrushchev
leader of the Soviet Union had had enough and gave the East German
government permission to close Berlin's borders for good on the night of August
12th and 13th 1961 East German soldiers the  police force and volunteer construction
workers laid down barbed wire and a cinderblock wall which stretched over hundred miles
🔛 Escaping East Berlin 🔛
Berlins will no longer be able to cross freely with ease to work or shop or go to cinema as they had done before
now in order to get from west to east they had to pass through 3 check points
Ahffaha Bravo and Charlie on October 1961 US chief of mission in West Berlin
Alan Lightner was stopped in his car by East German police this prevention access
for American officials to East Berlin caused a standoff between American and
Soviet tanks which faced off at checkpoint charlie from many hours both sides
stared each other down waiting for their enemy to fire the potential for
world war 3 was eventually averted when President John F Kennedy contacted
Nikita Khrushchev and convinced him to withdraw his tanks the American tanks
also backed away soon after armed soldiers patrolled the wall and would shoot anyone on sight attempting to
escape ditches barbed wire guard dogs searchlights and minefields were also
set up to prevent escape attempts demolished four had their windows
bricked up so that people could not escape by jumping from them at least 171
people were killed trying to cross the wall but this didn't mean that Escape was impossible hundreds of East Germans
tried to escape across the wall including by flying in a hot-air balloon
by zip line on a tightrope in a car without a windshield by swimming and
through a tunnel President John F Kennedy protested he realized a wall was better than war
The Berlin Wall had a few tension and stopped the flow of refugees from East Berlin
The Fall of the wall on November 9th 1989 with the cold war thawing and political changes happening across the Eastern Bloc
The eastern German government announced that all GDR citizens could
visit West Germany and West Berlin crowds of East Germans crossed
and climbed onto the wall and celebrated with West Germans on other side
People knock down the wall with hammers and with the help of bulldozers it
was pulled down the reunification of east and west germany was made official october third 1990
