On Sunday morning, august 13th 1961, the border
between West and East Berlin was closed.
East German soldiers tore up the streets and
the roads in order to prevent any vehicle
to pass by.
Barbed wire and wired fences were installed
along the border towards West Berlin.
Anyone trying to hinder the work would be
shot.
During the course of one day, many families
were split apart.
If someone happened to be on the wrong side
of the border during the closure, it was impossible
to go back.
They would not be able to return to their
friends and family for a long time to come.
Shortly after the Sunday morning, the first
concrete blocks were put into place and the
Berlin Wall had risen.
One can ask why the wall was constructed in
the first place.
After the Second World War, Germany was divided
between the Allies and the Soviet Union.
In order to rebuild the war torn Europe, and
Germany in particular, plans for economic
growth in the sector was initiated by the
US.
The Soviets did however not agree with these
plans and did not want to take part of the
combined reconstruction efforts.
Thus, this plan, called the Marshall Plan,
was only implemented on the West German side.
Due to the Marshall plan, the West German
side recovered quicker from the war than East
Germany, leading to a higher living standard
in the west.
This, combined with the fact the many job
opportunities were found on the west side
of Berlin, lead to people emigrating to the
west side.
Until the construction of the wall, approximately
3.5 million East Germans had emigrated from
east to west, which totaled around 20% of
the entire East German population.
Many of the emigrants were also young and
well educated people, which made the emigration
even more devastating for the East German
government.
The East German government built the Berlin
Wall in an attempt to stop people from leaving
the country.
Even though the wall was solid, all around
West Berlin, there were in total eight crossings
between the west and the east side.
Both West- and East Berliners could cross
the border, provided that they held the necessary
permits, which was often hard to get.
Many people also tried to cross the border
even when they didn't have any permit.
Through out the years, there were around 5000
successful escape attempts to West Berlin.
The ways of escape were many; long underground
tunnels from one side to the other, hot air
balloons, sliding along aerial wires, going
through the sewers, to name a few.
In the earlier stages of the wall, people
could cross the wall by leaping out of apartment
windows, but this was stopped when the wall
was fortified and the no-mans-land was introduced.
This so called "death-strip" was a strip between
the main wall and an outer fence.
Anyone trying to cross the "death-strip" would
be shot and killed.
The number of failed escape attempts resulting
in death is uncertain, but is believed to
be around 130-200.
The last person to be shot trying to cross
the border was Chris Gueffroy, February 6th
1989.
During the end of the 1980ies, people found
other ways to leave East Germany.
Through countries such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia,
people could escape to the west side.
Back in East Germany, demonstrations against
the government suppression begun.
By November 4th, the protests had grown significantly,
with one million demonstrators gathering at
Alexanderplatz in East Berlin.
The situation was getting out of hand for
the newly installed East German leader, Egon
Krenz.
On November 9th, Krenzs administration decided
that people would be allowed to move through
the crossing points.
This new rules were to come into effect from
November 17th and onward.
This was not however something that the East
German party secretary had been told when
he called for a press conference November
9th, where the media was told the new rules
were to come into effect immediately.
Thus, tens of thousands of East Berliners
streamed towards the wall, much to the wall
guards surprise.
There was no way for the vastly outnumbered
soldiers to hold back the crowd, so the people
were allowed free crossing.
Thus, November 9th is seen as the official
day the wall fell.
Over the next months, the wall was torn town
by both the people and the East German government.
Today, parts of the wall and a few watchtowers
still stand as memorials.
You can also still see the trace of where
the wall used to stand.
This trace is usually characterized by a different
colored concrete in the pavement.
The Berlin wall has through out history been
the symbol for the Cold War and the Iron Curtain
that divided Germany and Europe into two.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was also the start
of the reunification of Germany, which took
place not even a year after the wall had fallen.
