The Berlin Wall was in effect, a physical barrier separating east of the city, Berlin, from west of it (Berlin), East Germany (German Democratic Republic) from West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) during the Cold War. The building was built by the Soviet controlled German Democratic Republic (GDR) government.
Berlin Wall Construction
On August 13, 1961, the Berlin Wall was begun from its very start without notice to the public, without any prior announcement. The erection of the wall, the GDR government said, was necessary to protect its citizens from the influence of Western imperialism and, in the case of Westerners with Soviet citizenship, prevent them from emigration to West Germany, where ‘they could surrender their socialist conscience to apostasy, neo-imperialism and fascism’.
It started out as barbed wire fences but later had become a labyrinth of concrete walls and watchtowers, all heavily guarded with checkpoints. The wall was really built to keep people from East Germany from going across into West Germany.
The GDR Government’s Role
Construction of the Berlin Wall was spearheaded by Walter Ulbricht, now head of the German Democratic Republic government. Ulbricht was a politically committed communist, and sought to obtain the power of the GDR regime. Preventing defections, and tightening East Berlin’s control over it, the building of the wall was seen as a way to achieve that.
And to support the wall the GDR government deployed border guards and military personnel drafted to make sure the wall was effectively policed and escape attempts we stopped. The billboard served as a symbol for East and West Germany, a repressive regime of the GDR, and the wall itself.
Life with the Berlin Wall
When it came up, the Berlin Wall shaped the life of Berliners. Loved ones have been separated and families have been ripped apart, with no grandparent ever seeing a grandchild or with a grandchild never seeing a grandparent, for years or even decades. East Germans living under the state’s strict travel restrictions and extensive surveillance were prevented from going out.
Few escaped attempts, neither were they made without risking their lives in daring escapades to cross the wall. Failing to get out was punished and those caught trying to get out would do well to take a different way. Tens of thousands of people passed in vain through the wall, struggling to get across and leaving several hundred to die.
Fall of the Berlin Wall
That November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall finally fell because of political pressure mounting and an increasingly strong desire to reunite East and West Germany. It was after a series of peaceful protests and border opening by the GDR government that the wall was dismantled.
The fall of the Berlin Wall served to formally bring an end to the Cold War division of Germany, some four decades following that country’s division into East and West, paving the way to the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990.
Conclusion
The cold war world brought about the Berlin Wall and this is a powerful reminder of political social split. Designed by the German Democratic Republic government to cordon off East Berlin from mass emigration, it was built to enforce control. But above all, it impacted the lives of Berliners severing families, reducing personal freedoms. Yet political change in the end proved too much, and East and West Germany were reunited. Today, the Berlin Wall reminds us of what strength of the human spirit can endure in the most desperate of times.