Berlin+Wall

The Berlin Wall
At the end of WWII, the Allied powers divided Germany into 4 zones, occupied by each one of the four powers. From this, the Berlin Wall (Berliner Mauer- in German) was constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) ,or East Germany. They started construction on August 13, 1961 and fell November 9, 1989. It's purpose was meant to prevent massive emigration between East and West and it did just that. It separated West Berlin from East Germany, and East Berlin with over 96 miles of concrete. The building of the Berlin Wall was ordered by East German leader Walter Ulbricht, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The man given the responsibilty of overseeing the building of the wall was Erich Honnecker, the Central Committee secretary for security matters. Ironically, Honnecker was the leader of East Germany when the wall was finally breached on November 9 1989 and opened to unrestricted traffic, marking the beginning of the end of the wall.

=Construction=

Around 2.7 million people left the GDR and East Berlin between 1949 and 1961, causing difficulties for the leadership of the East German communist party. Half of these refugees were under the age of 25. Roughly half a million people crossed the sector borders in Berlin each day in both directions, enabling them to compare living conditions on both sides. In 1960 alone, around 200,000 people made a permanent move to the West. The GDR was on the brink of social and economic collapse.

Construction of the Wall began on August 13, 1961, and took a mere 24 hours. Before that, with the approval of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, there was a first version of the Wall that was not a wall, but 96 miles of barbed wire fence. However, eventually proved too easy to scale and the German's needed something sturdier. Work started in 1962 on a second fence, parallel to the first but up to 100 yards further in. The area in between the two fences was demolished to create an empty space, which became known as "death strip".



This new concrete wall was lined with guard towers, tanks and thousands of soldiers 24 hours a day preventing emigration. It was often referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" or the "Wall of Shame". German's who tried to escape were shot and killed daily. Nearly 5,000 people attempted to escape, resulting in a death toll varying from 100 to 200.

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 * The “Shoot-to-Kill” Order **

Laws, regulations, and orders allowed the use of firearms on the external borders of the GDR. An order issued by the GDR’s Ministry of Defense in October 1961, border troops were permitted to shoot in order to arrest people who ignored the border guards. They were allowed to shoot directly at them if after the "warning shot" was fired was ignored or, if “there was no other way to make an arrest.” There was no legal requirement to shoot to kill, but bonuses were handed out for guards who had shot and killed escaping fugitives. It took until Schabowski's announcement on 3 April 1989 that they were forced to stop. media type="youtube" key="jEpMpBIFiNg" height="281" width="378" align="right" == = = = = =The Fall=

The fall began with the Berlin Blockade. The blockade was initiated by Stalin on April 9, 1948. He ordered all American Military personnel maintaining communications equipment out of the Eastern Zone. Stalin ordered a stop to all trains delivering to US Berlin only the air corridors, protected by treaty, stayed open. From there, the Berlin Airlift took place in which a series of large Cargo planes delivered the supplies to Berliners because Stalin had stopped the on land transportation. It succeeded which in turn only led Stalin to embarrassment. Later, in 1988 and 1989, as communism began to falter in Poland Hungary and Czechoslovakia, new exodus points were opened to East German's who wanted to flee to the West. On November 9, 1989 an announcement was made by East German Governor Official, Günter Schabowski that stated, "Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between GDR and FRG". Everyone was confused but quickly, the Wall was engulfed with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the wall with hammers and chisels. To these people, it was a huge celebration and the fall happened just as suddenly as the Wall had gone up. And by October 3, 1990, Germany had been reunified.