Beginning on August 13, 1961 East Germany started building The Berlin Wall. East Germany built this physical separation between East and West Berlin which instantly split families and friends from one another. Our blog explores why the East Germans built the Berlin Wall and shows how this structure altered both German and international dynamics.
The Political Context
After World War II ended the Soviet Union and other Western powers created four separate authorities to regulate Germany. The Soviet Authority split Berlin into four separate zones to control the entire city region. The United States and USSR strong disagreement turned into a Cold War beginning after World War II.
In 1949 both the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) appeared through separate government establishments. The political division between West and East Germany brought endless problems that caused many people to flee from one state to the other.
Rapid Exodus
Between the 1950s and early 1960s East Germans in numbers ran from their homeland to West territories to escape communist rule. The system lost highly trained workers when East Germany faced this large migration problem.
East Germany’s government leaders feared that their nation would face economic failure and lose political power because people kept moving to the West. With strict measures failing to stop citizens from leaving the region they decided to create a permanent barrier.
The Government of East Germany Built the Wall for These Reasons
There were several key reasons why the East German government decided to build the Berlin Wall:
1. Political Isolation
West Germany received strong backing especially from the United States to block out East Germans from entering. Many East German citizens left their home country to join the West because they found better living standards and were encouraged by Western backing. The East German leadership believed it lacked political support so they built the Wall as protection.
2. Brain Drain
When many skilled workers and professionals left East Germany the country lost valuable people in their field. Highly skilled workers escaped to the West which caused damage to East German economic progress.
3. Ideological Divide
With the Berlin Wall standing to divide two worlds the United States and Soviet Union showed the deep ideological differences between East and West. Each government worked to stop the spread of different political philosophies and economic systems. Under East Germany’s socialist rule the government worked to shield its residents from the supposed corruption and Western capitalist system.
4. Political Control
East German authorities heightened their power over people by placing Berlin into two parts. The barrier helped officials check movements better to stop possible rebellion against the government.
The Impact
The construction of the Berlin Wall had profound effects both locally and globally:
1. Humanitarian Crisis
The physical wall separated loved ones and social groups. People who lived next to one another before found themselves permanently divided by physical barriers. The wall’s creation caused a serious humanitarian problem that left long-term emotional trauma across families.
2. Symbol of the Cold War
During the Cold War the Berlin Wall symbolized the deep enemy conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. The barrier marked both the ongoing cold war between communist and capitalist power blocs and their underlying conflicts of the era.
3. Escalation of Tensions
The Soviet-US tensions grew much worse when the wall started being built. Military standoffs including the Cuban Missile Crisis grew more likely between superpowers as the wall made tension between East and West Germany worse.
4. Fall of the Wall
In 1989 the fall of the Berlin Wall changed how history would be written. After Cold War ended the wall fell to piece together West and East Germany back again. After the wall fell Eastern European states adopted democratic systems and changed how world leaders viewed international affairs.
In Conclusion
East Germany built the Berlin Wall because authorities wanted full control over their citizens while blocking out skilled workers who wanted to leave. The barrier between East and West Berlin physically separated the two sides and huge changes spread through Germany and other nations. Thearten fall of 1989 stands strong as a defining moment in world history.