Why was the Berlin Wall built?

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Until relatively recently, Berlin was divided by a wall to differentiate two opposite forms of government that occurred among themselves but that were occurring in the same city. A wall also known as the Wall of Shame or the Fascist Retaining Wall. If you want to know more about this separation, then in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we will delve into in the construction of this wall that was undoubtedly a symbol for the Cold War and for the very Germany. Keep reading this lesson and you can find out why was the berlin wall built, one of the symbols of the contemporary age that derived from the Second World War and the Cold War between the United States and the USSR.

Index

1. Background to the construction of the Berlin Wall
2. The construction of the Berlin Wall
3. Berlin separated by a wall

We must place ourselves for this in the period of Cold War in which there were two opposing political, social and economic systems, while the United States was in favor of the

After the occupation of Germany, this was divided into two blocks, the western bloc formed by the United States and its allies France and England that created the Federal Republic German, on the eastern side were the Soviets who also created their own republic, the Democratic Republic German.

Life after this separation proceeded normally, everyone could go from one place to another because they only needed an identification card; However, over time the differences between the two republics were accentuated since each of them created their own currency and unlike the eastern side.

The United States over the course of a year embraced the European reconstruction plan, the Marshall plan, which was offered to both parts of Germany, however the Soviets rejected it. The economy of the western side was increased and in such a situation the Soviet population brutally decreased, since many people went to live on the western side German.

In this other lesson we will discover the causes and consequences of the Cold War.

If you want to know why was the berlin wall built we have to understand that there was a great inequality between the two Germanies. East Germany needed that workforce that emigrated years ago, so Walter Ulbricht, the then head of state of the German Democratic Republic, decided to build a wall that separated Germany in two. This construction began on August 13, 1961 while everyone was sleeping; The next morning they were separated by a high barbed wire fence, and their passage to the western side of Germany was forbidden.

Meanwhile the US Army watched the action in the silence of the night. Only the most cunning managed to jump the fence, among them Conrad Schumann that he became the first officer to leave the eastern side. In no time, that entire fence system became a 1200 kilometer long wall that separated Germany, with a total of 45 kilometers for only the city of Berlin. It was a reinforced concrete wall with a height of 3.6 meters and it was erected so quickly that many families were separated by it.

Image: AARP

All the houses that were in the construction axis were evicted, demolished and bricked up. Regarding transport systems such as the railway line, they continued to function although the Soviet state stations became ghost stations as trains did not make their stops at they. Nine months later, Stalin only allowed diplomatic and military personnel through three steps borderlines that the inhabitants of the western territory could walk through the Soviet territory with the condition of always returning to its state.

Even so, the wall did not turn out to be an obstacle for those who wanted to continue fleeing from the communist side, in this way they create very subtle ways of passing through it, among the simplest we could highlight the excavation of a tunnel known as the " Tunnel of the Elders”Since it was dug by an 81-year-old man, another way was through a zip line ...

Hence, little by little, they were adding complicated security systems before reaching the wall between them towers of surveillance, security guards with submachine guns and guard dogs, anti-vehicle barriers in the transit areas... This area was called the death strip because anyone who managed to pass this obstacle course before reaching the wall the guards of who were closest to him had the authorization of the head of state so that they could murder him.

Although in the first years of the construction of the wall more than 40,000 people managed to cross it, over time and once the death strip was created around 125 people were murdered and more than 200 were injured.

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