The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and had both a physical and ideological barrier as it separated East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Painfully symbolic of the political and ideological contest between East and West Germany, and the United States and the Soviet Union, this formidable structure bore on the everyday lives of people who lived in both East and West Germany.

1. Dividing a Country

At the end of World War II, Germany was split into four zones of occupation: Some American, some British, some French, some Soviet. But that divided even further as tensions heightened between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was founded in 1949; the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was formed the same year.

The Berlin Wall was built in order to stop people mass migrating from East to West. For roughly 155 kilometers it meandered, encircling West Berlin with a cut through the city’s heart. It was all concrete slabs, guard towers, barbed wire and a large network of traps that made it an almost impenetrable barrier.

1.1 The Wall’s Purpose

The main check that Berlin Wall aimed to provide was to halt great migration and drain of the brains from East to West Germany. As living standards and economic opportunities in the West vastly dotted East Germans’ who were moving to the West in hope of a better life. The East German government and the Soviet Union were both seriously embarrassed by this mass exodus.

The wall closed off 141 of the 203 miles between East and West Berlin and prevented an estimated 3.5 million East Germans from defecting to the West. In addition it symbolised the ideological chasm between the capitalist West and the communist East.

2. Human Impact

Both sides of those living in Berlin saw the effects of the Berlin Wall on their lives. Children were kicked out of school, and families were separated abruptly, hardly even able to visit or speak to anyone on the other side. The wall isolated and derailed endless personal tragedies.

But now it was becoming a deadly pursuit for someone to escape from East to West Berlin. Thousands more were killed by the various traps they found on the border, or shot by border guards facing people who attempted to cross the wall around 138 people died. Those tragic incidents bore out the oppressive wall and the people’s determination to avoid the rule of authoritarians.

2.1 Divided Berlin: A Daily Life

The physical division affected the day to day lives of Berliners. Political system and economies and way of life of the former were different from that of the latter side of the city.

• Citizens in West Berlin enjoyed more freedom and a more flourishing capitalist economy as well as better education, better healthcare and better consumer goods.
• In contrast, East Berliners lacked freedom to travel, were excluded of job options, faced a non-existent media and a dreary economy.

The wall was a never ending source of tension and resentment within the East German population because it constantly represented just how big the difference was between the two systems.

3. Fall of the Berlin Wall

November 9, 1989, was an historic moment — the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was a curtain raiser to the end of the Cold War and full reunification of Germany.

3.1 Political Change

When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the late 1980s the Soviet Union had made many political changes as a result of their policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). They included these political reforms that facilitated expression of freedom, and it culminated into the erosion of communism.

Protests against political reforms erupted throughout East Germany and the pressure put on the government became unsustainable. On November 9, 1989, an inexperienced government official announced that the border has been opened to an endless flood of East Berliners pushing up and out to it.

Lovingly inundated guards at the checkpoints finally yielded to pressure and opened the border crossings, allowing thousands of East and West Germans alike to stream across the lines between the two nations for the first time in some thirty years. The thing itself had actually come to represent Germany’s reunification.

4. Legacy and Lessons Learned

The Berlin Wall symbolized the Cold War and the agony of those caught under its oppressive grip, and remains a powerful symbol of the division it represented. It is a reminder that the price paid for political division and the cost of people’s determination to achieve freedom and reunification is only starting to come to light.

The fall of the Berlin Wall showed the power of peaceful protest and the will of people to buck oppressive regimes. It also pointed to the importance of international diplomacy and dialogue to resolving conflicts and protecting human rights.

Today there are fragments of the wall, and preserved parts of it, that are used as memorials and tourist attractions to remind people of a former time. Those who would see this wall push for peace, unity, and work to tear down barriers that stand in our way, and our enduring legacy of that will remind us not to lose sight of that.

4.1 Remembering the Past

To remember history and learn lessons from the Berlin Wall, it is important to prevent those former states that divided and fought again. Learning what has come before helps us with the legacy that we hold dear today — the notion that we are separated by insignificant but deeply entrenched differences — and reminds us of what comes next: a future without hating those who are different.

4.2 Building Bridges

We need to learn to build bridges between people and nations. And our hope is for the walls to fall away, and replaced by dialogue, understanding, and cooperation — as one.

4.3 Inspiring Change

First of all, the fall of the Berlin Wall is an inspiring knowledge that signs like ordinary people can make a difference. It’s a reminder that whatever feels insurmountable, anything we can succumb to, human resiliency and freedom are ongoing, persistent things.