Berlin's Wall

Until 1961 East German citizen were allowed to travel to West Berlin. Travelling to West Germany became difficult after closing the border between East and West Germany in 1952. The Wall was erected in 1961 because more than 2.6 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 to 1961. The life in the West was much better than in the East after 1948. West Germany includingWest Berlin had got financial help through the Marshall plan from the USA. In East Germany a communist system was established and many people had to suffer under repressions of the Communist party. In May 1952 the open border (Zonengrenze) between East and West Germany was closed by the East German government. In the years after 1952 it became more difficult and dangerous to escape to the West overthis border. However, the sectorial borders between East and West Berlin were not closed. Many East German citizens went to East Berlin and from there to West Berlin. Once arrived in West Berlin they stayed there or were fled out to West Germany. East Germany lost too many skilled workers in these years. Another big problem was the two currencies in Germany and especially in Berlin. West German DMhad been exchanged into East German DM at a rate of 1:4 in West Berlin. People with West German DM could get goods very cheaply in the Eastern part of Berlin. The East German government saw no other way to prevent from escaping to the West via Berlin than closing the border between East and West Berlin on August 13, 1961.
On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German DemocraticRepublic (GDR, or East Germany) Began to build a barbed wire and concrete "Antifascistischer Schutzwall," or "antifascist bulwark," between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western "fascists" from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it served the objective of primarily stemming mass defections from East to West. The Berlin Wallstood Until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party Announced That Could Citizens of the GDR cross the border Whenever They pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others Brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the Berlin Wall Remains One of the most powerful and enduringsymbols of the Cold War. There were twelve crossing points from East to West but only two were available to non-Germans. Tourists from abroad, diplomats and military personnel were only allowed into East Berlin at one crossing point Berlin Friedrichstarsse. This became known as Checkpoint Charlie. The two other main crossing points were Helmstedt - Checkpoint Alpha Dreilinden - Checkpoint Bravo.
Ithad many consequences, The Berlin Wall divided many families, many East Berliners were unable to commute to their jobs in the West, West Berliners demonstrated against the Wall, the East German government claimed the wall was an ‘anti-fascist protection barrier’, during the wall’s existence there were around 5000 successful escapes into West Berlin, varying reports claim that either 192 or 239people were killed trying to cross the wall and many more were injured.
The fall of the Berlin Wall had taken about three decades until the Wall was torn down. Several times people in the Communist countries rised up against the Communist system but they failed. The victims of the uprisings against the Communist dictatorship in Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956 or Prague 1968 will never been forgotten. In1989 the first free labor union was founded in the communist Poland. The end of the communist system had begun. The Soviet Union could control their satellites yet but with the new leader Gorbatshov their politics changed in 1984. Gorbatshov's reforms, Perestroika and Glasnost should renew the stalinistic system in the Soviet Union but not replace the communist system. The reforms in the Soviet...