Skip to main content

The Berlin Wall - Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall-Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall .The construction and especially the fall of the Berlin Wall have been great events that have marked the history of the 20th century since This wall divided Germany into two parts for more than 28 years.
In this article we want to explain the background, the history of the construction, the fall and where you can see the remains of the Berlin Wall.all about the Berlin Wall, the Cold War symbol !
The Berlin Wall - Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall
Index of the article

Background of the Berlin Wall

Let's start the article explaining how Germany was and what happened for the construction of the Berlin Wall.When World War II ended Germany was divided , we focused on Berlin where the city was segmented and n four sectors depending on the countries that occupied it.Or what is the same, Berlin was divided into these four sectors of occupation :
  • The Soviet area
  • The American zone
  • The French zone
  • The English zone
When four countries with such different political ideologies were found, the bad relations between the communists and the allied countries , this led to the birth of two currencies, two very marked and different political ideas, and, in the end, the division into two of Germany.
The Berlin Wall - Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall
In this way Germany is divided into 1949 in the German Federal Republic (RFA) that formed the US, France and Britain and on the other hand the GDR German Democratic Republic formed by the Soviet Union .But p In order for there to be communication between the two Germans, they created 81 crossing points between the two zones.
Surely you are interested in knowing everything about World War II to know all that happened so that Germany would be divided, click in these links:

Construction of the Berlin Wall

We know that there was a bad relationship between the two policies that were in Germany but why or what led to the construction of the Berlin Wall? The problem arose between 1960 and 1961 when the economy of the GDR (Soviet Germany) began to go bad and the population of East Germany began to move to West Germany.
Nearly three million people moved to the RFA or what is the same they abandoned communism to move to capitalism, as the Soviets realized that they did not stop losing population, the night of August 12, 1961 a provisional wall was erected , where they closed 6 9 access points on the other side, leaving 12 but guarded.
The next day, in the morning, 155 km of wire fence separating Berlin were placed and no one could go to the other Germany.During the following days the wall was built well, with bricks so they had to evict the people who lived in those areas.
The Berlin Wall - Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall
Even though there were many attempts to escape to the other area, the population still had the desire to go to the RFA ( Capitalist Germany) and some succeeded, so the wall continued to expand to prevent the entire population from escaping.
There came a point that the Berlin Wall became a huge wall that separated all of Germany, exactly it was a concrete wall (inside it was built with steel cables) 4 meters high where in the pa The upper part had a hemispherical surface to prevent people from clinging to jump to the other area.
The Berlin Wall - Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall
But not only did they avoid the passage to the RFA zone with the wall they also created the Death Strip , this was formed by a moat, a fence and a road full of armed soldiers and 24-hour military vehicles a day, not forgetting the watchtowers, so that no one could cross into the other Germany.
Like this, I also do not prevent a lot of people from trying to cross the wall in 1975 by 43 km and it was formed by the strip of death and full of fences.

People who crossed the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989

As we have mentioned in the previous section, you are sure to know how many people got crossing into capitalist Germany or RFA (West Germany) between 1961 and 1989 .
Approximately 5000 people tried to cross from these 3000 of them were arrested and about 120 died trying to have a better life .The last person who died trying to cross was on February 5, 1989.
As a curiosity we recommend you go to the Checkpoint Charlie Wall Museum where you can see many images of the time and they will tell you many stories of the people they wanted crossing the Berlin Wall.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

In May 1989 the opening of the borders between Austria and Hungary motivated the fall of the Berlin Wall, this favored because More and more Germans were going to Hungary requesting asylum from the RFA embassies, provoking a multitude of demonstrations in Alexanderplatz.
In this way on November 9, 1989 the government of the German Democratic Republic allowed the passage to the west , so that this day many people crossed over to the other side, there was a mass exodus of Germans.
The Berlin Wall - Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall
And the next day, on November 10, 1989 the first breaches of the wall were made and finally, after 28 Many families, friends and loved ones were able to meet again.

Where to see the remains of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall is a symbol of e the Cold War and meant a very important step the fall and, therefore, the disappearance of that forced separation from Germany.Although we have commented that the wall was destroyed today remains partly standing.
The Berlin Wall - Construction, history and fall of the Berlin Wall
In East Side Gallery you can see part of the Berlin Wall , exactly you can see 1.3km of a wall that is decorated with different paintings that reflect the events that were happening during those 28 years.
But it is not the only place where you will be able to see it, next to Checkpoint Charlie you can also see remains of the wall in the exhibition «Topography of Terror» .

Photos of the Berlin Wall

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guillermo Manuel Ungo Biography

Guillermo Manuel Ungo (San Salvador, 1928-Mexico, 1991) Salvadoran politician who was president of the Revolutionary Democratic Front of El Salvador (FDR) and secretary general of the National Revolutionary Movement.The son of a printer, he took some courses in Graphic Arts at an institute in Pennsylvania, United States. Guillermo Manuel Ungo After leaving them, he returned to his country and entered the Faculty of Law.He received a doctorate in Jurisprudence and Social Sciences from the University of El Salvador and his graduation thesis obtained the gold medal.He worked as a lawyer and university professor, and was president of the Center for Legal Studies, director of the José Simeón Canas Research Institute of the Central American University and head of the Procedural Law department of the University of El Salvador. In 1968 he founded the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR) party, a social-democratic political formation of which, in 1970, he was appointed secretary gener...
Post a Comment
Read more

Andreas Papandreu Biography

Andreas Papandreu (Chios, 1919-Athens, 1996) Greek politician.Son of the former prime minister, Giorgos Papandreu, he studied law at the University of Athens and economics at Harvard University.In 1941, after being imprisoned and tortured during the Metaxas dictatorship, he was released and went to the United States, where his entire family emigrated.In 1944 he obtained North American citizenship.He was Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Minnesota, Northewestern, Berkeley; and Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Science.He was also a Marine in the US Navy and married twice, the second time to the American Margaret Chant in the early 1950s. In 1959 he returned to Greece in order to conduct research on economic development.In 1961 he was appointed president of the Administrative Council and director of the Center for Economic Research and advisor to the Bank of Greece.He began his political career in 1962.Two years later, in the legislative elections of February 16, 1964,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Refugio Velasco Biography

José Refugio Velasco (Aguascalientes, 1851-Mexico, 1923) Mexican military.He evicted Pancho Villa de Torreón during the Huerta regime and, after the latter's fall, was part of the interim Carbajal government.Appointed commander-in-chief of the army, he signed the Teoloyucán Accords (1914) with the constitutionalists, which put an end to the Huerta period.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Surrender of Granada

« Do not cry as a woman what you did not know how to defend as a man «.They say of this phrase that was pronounced by Aixa, mother of Boabdil when this surrende Granada .It was three o'clock in the afternoon on January 2, 1492 when Boabdil , left the Alhambra through the door closest to Genil.Alli broken by pain, the emir got off his horse and bowing to the King Ferdinand of Aragon and all his sequoia of nobles tried to kiss his hand while handing him the keys to the city.The King, holding him, incorporated him to avoid dishonor and took the keys of the Alhambra, he gave them to Isabel, the Queen , and this in turn to the Prince Juan , who passed them to what would be named warden of the Alhambra, the count of Tendilla.But how Granada was achieved, what consequences it had, all these questions will be answered in this article dedicated to The Surrender of Granada. The Surrender of Granada | Background The Surrender of Granada puts an end to a historical process called...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gustav Kirchhoff Biography

Gustav Kirchhoff (Königsberg, Prussia, 1824-Berlin, 1887) German physicist.A close collaborator of chemist Robert Bunsen, he applied spectrographic analysis methods (based on the analysis of radiation emitted by an energetically excited body) to determine the composition of the Sun. Gustav Kirchhoff In 1845 he enunciated the so-called Kirchhoff laws, applicable to the calculation of voltages, intensities and resistances in the yes of an electrical mesh; understood as an extension of the law of conservation of energy, they were based on the theory of physicist Georg Simon Ohm, according to which the voltage that causes the passage of an electric current is proportional to the intensity of the current. In 1847 he served as a Privatdozent (non-salaried professor) at the University of Berlin, and after three years he accepted the post of professor of physics at the University of Breslau.In 1854 he was appointed professor at the University of Heidelberg, where he befriended Rober...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clément Ader Biography

Clément Ader (Muret, 1841-Toulouse, 1925) French aeronautical engineer.Already in his childhood he designed a large kite that could lift adult men off the ground.Ader was inventive, and in his youth he made a velocipede with rubber wheels and a balloon that he built during the Franco-Prussian War and that he gave to the city of Toulouse at the end of the war. In 1876 he left his job at the Administration des Ponts et Chaussées (Ministry of Bridges and Roads), he moved to Paris and devoted himself to communications.In 1880 he collaborated in the installation of the first private telephone line in the city, using components designed by him; one of them was the Théâtrophone , with which you could listen to opera from your own home.All of this brought him great income. Ader observed the flight of numerous species of birds and bats, which he captured and kept in facilities built in his own home.His purpose was to achieve a machine with a lifting force such that it counteracts that o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jordi Llopart Biography

Jordi Llopart (Prat de Llobregat, 1952) Spanish athlete, the first of the great Spanish walkers who achieved projection in international athletics.It was formed under the direction of his father, coach Moisés Llopart, who was the world's most refined marcher in his time. Jordi Llopart He got the first gold medal in an absolute European Championship in the 50 km march from Prague (1978), and also the first medal in Spanish athletics in an Olympic Games: the silver in the 50 kilometers marches in the Moscow Games (1980).His sports career was much longer, but a chronic kidney disease prevented him from achieving greater achievements.Seventh at the Los Angeles Games (1984) and twelfth at the Seoul Games (1988), always in 50 kilometers, he retired in 1990 and dedicated himself to the preparation of other walkers.His pupil Daniel Plaza was champion of the 20 kilometers at the Barcelona Olympic Games (1992).
Post a Comment
Read more

Gaston thorn Biography

Gaston Thorn (Luxembourg, 1928-2007) Luxembourgian politician, Prime Minister of his country between 1974 and 1979 and President of the European Commission between 1981 and 1985.Active member of the resistance against the Nazis , his father was arrested by the Germans, accused of trying to dynamite the railway network to stop the Nazi advance in World War II.Both he and his mother also collaborated with the resistance, and in 1943 he was arrested. Gaston Thorn After the war he pursued law studies at the Universities of Montpellier, Lausanne and Paris.Although he practiced as a lawyer, he soon entered the world of politics.In 1959 he was elected Member of the Parliament of Luxembourg.Later he presided over the Liberal International.Between 1976 and 1980 he assumed the presidency of the Liberal and Democratic Parties within the European Community. After the legislative elections of 1968, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.The following year he also to...
Post a Comment
Read more

George Edward Moore Biography

George Edward Moore (London, 1873-Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1958) British philosopher.He studied at Cambridge, where Bertrand Russell guided him to the study of philosophy.He was a professor at the same university between 1911 and 1939, when he retired and left his chair to Wittgenstein, whose philosophy he had followed with interest. George Edward Moore Moore took up the tradition of Anglo-Saxon realism against the idealistic climate of the beginning of the century, to which he opposed a series of everyday truths or common sense, such as the existence of time or objects outside one's own consciousness. As he stated in his Refutation of Idealism (1903), Moore understood that the ignorance of these truths caused undesirable effects even for the most idealistic of philosophers, such as the denial of the other consciences (solipsism).It further questioned the criterion according to which the philosopher ultimately gave more credence to the premise of his own skeptical argu...
Post a Comment
Read more