The Berlin Wall was a long wall with guard towers and barbed wire which was built by East Germany during the Cold War, isolating West Berlin from the rest of Communist Germany. Officially called the "Anti-Fascist Protection Wall", this military barrier was more than 87 miles (120 km) long. The construction of the Berlin Wall was initiated on August 13, 1961. According to the East German government, the reason for setting up this wall was "to protect East Berlin population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people" in building a Socialist State in East Germany. Before the Wall was built, approximately 3.5 million East Germans had circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), traveling to West Germany.
In June 1961, the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and East Germany State Council chairman Walter Ulbricht had stated in an international press conference that no one had the intention of erecting a wall. Nevertheless, telephone calls records between Nikita Khrushchev and Ulbricht suggest that a plan for building a wall had already been drafted, suggesting that it was Khrushchev from whom the initiative for the construction of the wall came. On Saturday, August 12, 1961, Ulbricht signed the order to close the border and erect a wall.
Immediately, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border. By Sunday morning, August 13, the border with West Berlin was closed. East German troops and workers had begun to tear up streets running alongside the border to make them impassable to most vehicles, and to install barbed wire entanglements and fences along the 87 miles around the three western sectors.
The barrier was built slightly inside East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point. Later, it was built up into the Wall proper, the first concrete elements and large blocks being put in place on August 17. During the construction of the Wall, National People’s Army (NVA) and Combat Groups of the Working Class (KdA) soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect. Additionally, chain fences, walls, minefields, and other obstacles were installed along the length of the inner-German border between East and West Germany.
The creation of the Berlin Wall had important implications for both German states. By stemming the exodus of people from East Germany, the East German government was able to reassert its control over the country. In spite of discontent with the wall, economic problems caused by dual currency and the black market were largely eliminated. But East Germany economy remained almost stagnant, drifting wider apart from the booming economy of the free and capitalist West Germany. Politically, the Wall also proved a public relations disaster for the communist bloc as a whole. Western powers used it in propaganda as a symbol of communist tyranny, particularly after East German border guards shot and killed would-be defectors. Such fatalities were later treated as acts of murder by the reunified Germany.
Berlin Wall Documentary Video
