6 of 16

Write now Article Tools

The Berlin Wall has become since the first day of its existence a symbol of dictatorship and of all the political and ideological barriers that limit and deny people's freedom.

Since the birth of the Communist German regime (DDR), created in the East Germany occupied by the Soviet Union at the end of W.W. II, the main goal of many citizens of this oppressive regime was to run away from that prison to live in West Germany, democratic and much richer than DDR.

Many hundreds of thousand of persons reached in escaping to the West and this created many political and economic problems to the Communist regime for its image abroad and for the loss of specialized persons and professionals. So, the DDR government decided, on August 13th, 1961, to start the building of a stable barrier all around West Berlin the easiest territory of Western Germany to reach.

At first, the regime used barbed wire and, already since August 15th and 16th, also prefab cement items to totally surround West Berlin; the total length of this wall was of 155 Km.

Since then, the escapes to the West had become much more dangerous and until 1989, the year of its destruction, only 5000 people reached in passing through it from DDR and a variable number of 192-239 people, according to the sources, were killed by the guards or by the automatic systems against the escapes, causing great impression and hostility in the Western Countries against the DDR repressive policy.

In 1962, a second concentric wall was built on the side of the DDR to create and intermediate zone and make more difficult every attempt.

A 3rd version of this wall was made in 1965 and a 4th in 1975; this was the most developed as a repressive instrument: 3,6 m high, more than 300 watchtowers, 30 bunkers, many anti-intrusion automatic systems and the check-points with West Berlin were 9 inside the town and 4 with the DDR territory.

Eventually, in 1989, the contemporary dissolution process of all the Communist regimes caused more and more popular protests against the DDR regime, lead by Erick Honecker who resigned on August 23rd, 1989, giving its power to Egon Krenz.
On November 9th of that year, Krenz decided that all the DDR citizens could pass to the West with a permission.

When the new spread in East Berlin and in the rest of DDR, many tens of thousands people gathered behind the check-points. The border guards were surprised and they didn't know how to do with all that mass of people looking for freedom and they surely couldn't give

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about The history of the Berlin Wall?
We want to hear your view. Write now!