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The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a concrete barrier built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany) that completely enclosed the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The Wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses.
The separate and much longer inner German Border (the IGB) demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.
Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans had avoided Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and escaped into West Germany, many over the border between East and West Berlin. During its existence from 1961 to 1989, the Wall stopped almost all such emigration and separated the GDR from West Berlin for more than a quarter of a century. After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between around 100 and 200.
During a revolutionary wave sweeping across the Eastern Bloc, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

1 Background
1.1 Post-war Germany
1.2 The Eastern Bloc and the Berlin airlift
1.3 Emigration westward in the early 1950s
2 Erection of the inner German border
2.1 The Berlin emigration loophole
2.2 Brain drain
3 Construction begins, 1961
3.1 Immediate effects
3.2 Secondary response
4 Structure and adjacent areas
4.1 Layout and modifications
4.2 Surrounding municipalities
5 Official crossings and usage
5.1 Who could cross
5.2 Escape attempts
6 "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
7 The Fall
7.1 Oppositions
7.2 Celebrations
7.3 20th anniversary celebrations
8 Legacy
8.1 Museum
8.2 Cultural differences
8.3 Wall segments around the world
9 See also
10 Notes
11 References
12 External links
12.1 Images and personal accounts

Brain drain
Further information: Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
The emigrants tended to be young and well-educated, leading to the brain drain feared by officials in East Germany. Yuri Andropov, then the CPSU Director on Relations with Communist and Workers Parties of Socialist Countries, wrote an urgent letter on August 28, 1958, to the Central Committee about the significant 50% increase in the number of East German intelligentsia among the refugees. Andropov reported that, while the East German leadership stated that they were leaving for economic reasons, testimony from refugees indicated that the reasons were more political than material. He stated "the flight of the intelligentsia has reached a particularly critical phase."
By 1960, the combination of World War II and the massive emigration westward left East Germany with only 61% of its population of working age, compared to 70.5% before the war. The loss was disproportionately heavy among professionals—engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers and skilled workers. The direct cost of manpower losses has been estimated at $7 billion to $9 billion, with East German party leader Walter Ulbricht later claiming that West Germany owed him $17 billion in compensation, including reparations as well as manpower losses. In addition, the drain of East Germany's young population potentially cost it over 22.5 billion marks in lost educational investment. The brain drain of professionals had become so damaging to the political credibility and economic viability of East Germany that the re-securing of the German communist frontier was imperative.
Construction begins, 1961

East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, November 20th., 1961.
On June 15, 1961, two months before the construction of the Berlin Wall started, First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and GDR State Council chairman Walter Ulbricht stated in an international press conference, "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" (No one has the intention of erecting a wall!). It was the first time the colloquial term Mauer (wall) had been used in this context.
The record of a telephone call between Nikita Khrushchev and Ulbricht on August 1st., 1961, suggests that it was Khrushchev from whom the initiative for the construction of the wall came. On Saturday, August 12th., 1961, the leaders of the GDR attended a garden party at a government guesthouse in Döllnsee, in a wooded area to the north of East Berlin, at which time Ulbricht signed the order to close the border and erect a wall.
At midnight, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border and by Sunday morning, August 13th., 1961, 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 156 kilometres (97 miles) around the three western sectors and the 43 kilometres (27 miles) which actually divided West and East Berlin.
The barrier was built slightly inside East Berlin or East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point, and was later built up into the Wall proper, the first concrete elements and large blocks being put in place on August 15th.. 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.

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20 years after, Berlin revisits wall's fall USA Today -
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The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier erected by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany) that completely encircled the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany,...
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Berlin Wall: Definition from Answers.com
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History of the Berlin Wall
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Berlin Wall - The New York Times
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The Berlin Wall - Berlin.de
The Berlin Wall Trail, a well-developed hiking and bike path, traces the course ... The Berlin Wall was the symbol of Germany's division and the GDR leadership's ...www.berlin.de/mauer/index.en.html
Berlin Wall: CBC News
The fall of the Berlin Wall anniversary ... CBC RADIOBerlin Wall memorial. Service at Chapel of Reconciliation, Berlin Nov. 6, 2009 ...www.cbc.ca/news/world/berlinwall -
" The Berlin Wall : Start "
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Post-war Germany
After the end of World War II in Europe, what remained of Nazi Germany west of the Oder-Neisse line was divided into four occupation zones (per from the Potsdam Agreement), each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers: the Americans, British, French and the Soviet Union. The capital, Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the city lying deep inside the Soviet zone. Within two years, divisions occurred between the Soviets and the other occupying powers, including the Soviets' refusal to agree to reconstruction plans making post-war Germany self-sufficient and a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods infrastructure already removed by the Soviets. Britain, France, the United States and the Benelux countries later met to combine the non-Soviet zones of the country into one zone for reconstruction and approve the extension of the Marshall Plan.
The Eastern Bloc and the Berlin airlift
Further information: Eastern Bloc and Berlin Blockade
Following World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin built up a protective belt of Soviet-controlled nations on his Western border, the Eastern bloc, that then included Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which he wished to maintain alongside a weakened Soviet-controlled Germany. As early as 1945, Stalin revealed to German communist leaders that he expected to slowly undermine the British position within the British occupation zone, that the United States would withdraw within a year or two and that nothing then would stand in the way of a united Germany under communist control within the Soviet orbit The major task of the ruling communist party in the Soviet zone was to channel Soviet orders down to both the administrative apparatus and the other bloc parties pretending that these were initiatives of its own. Property and industry was nationalized in the East German zone. If statements or decisions deviated from the described line, reprimands and, for persons outside public attention, punishment would ensue, such as imprisonment, torture and even death. Indoctrination of Marxism-Leninism became a compulsory part of school curricula, sending professors and students fleeing to the west. An elaborate political police apparatus kept the population under close surveillance, including Soviet SMERSH secret police.
In 1948, following disagreements regarding reconstruction and a new German currency, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries began a massive "Berlin airlift", supplying West Berlin with food and other supplies. The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the western policy change and communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948 preceding large losses therein, while 300,000 Berliners demonstrated for the international airlift to continue. In May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin.
The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was declared on October 7, 1949, within which the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy, with an unlimited Soviet exercise of the occupation regime and Soviet penetration of administrative, military and secret police structures. East Germany differed from West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany), which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy ("Soziale Marktwirtschaft" in German) and a democratic parliamentary government. Continual economic growth starting in the 1950s fuelled a 20-year "economic miracle" ("Wirtschaftswunder"). As West Germany's economy grew and its standard of living continually improved, many East Germans wanted to move to West Germany.
Emigration westward in the early 1950s
Main articles: Eastern Bloc emigration and defection and Eastern Bloc
After Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, the majority of those living in the newly acquired areas of the Eastern Bloc aspired to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave. Taking advantage of the zonal border between occupied zones in Germany, the number of GDR citizens moving to West Germany totaled 197,000 in 1950, 165,000 in 1951, 182,000 in 1952 and 331,000 in 1953. One reason for the sharp 1953 increase was fear of potential further Sovietization with the increasingly paranoid actions of Joseph Stalin in late 1952 and early 1953. 226,000 had fled in just the first six months of 1953.
Erection of the inner German border
Further information: Inner German border and Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to controlling national movement, restricting emigration, was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, including East Germany. The restrictions presented a quandary for some Eastern Bloc states that had been more economically advanced and open than the Soviet Union, such that crossing borders seemed more natural—especially where no prior border existed between East and West Germany.
Up until 1952, the lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones could be easily crossed in most places. On April 1, 1952, East German leaders met the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Moscow; during the discussions Stalin's foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov proposed that the East Germans should "introduce a system of passes for visits of West Berlin residents to the territory of East Berlin [so as to stop] free movement of Western agents" in the GDR. Stalin agreed, calling the situation "intolerable". He advised the East Germans to build up their border defenses, telling them that "The demarcation line between East and West Germany should be considered a border – and not just any border, but a dangerous one ... The Germans will guard the line of defence with their lives."
Consequently, the inner German border between the two German states was closed, and a barbed-wire fence erected. The border between the Western and Eastern sectors of Berlin, however, remained open, although traffic between the Soviet and the Western sectors was somewhat restricted. This resulted in Berlin becoming a magnet for East Germans desperate to escape life in the GDR, and also a flashpoint for tension between the United States and the Soviet Union.
In 1955, the Soviets gave East Germany authority over civilian movement in Berlin, passing control to a regime not recognized in the West. Initially, East Germany granted "visits" to allow its residents access to West Germany. However, following the defection of large numbers of East Germans under this regime, the new East German state legally restricted virtually all travel to the West in 1956. Soviet East German ambassador Mikhail Pervukhin observed that "the presence in Berlin of an open and essentially uncontrolled border between the socialist and capitalist worlds unwittingly prompts the population to make a comparison between both parts of the city, which unfortunately, does not always turn out in favor of the Democratic [East] Berlin."
The Berlin emigration loophole
Further information: Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
With the closing of the inner German border officially in 1952, the border in Berlin remained considerably more accessible than the rest of the border because it was administered by all four occupying powers. Accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. East Germany introduced a new passport law on December 11, 1957 that reduced the overall number of refugees leaving Eastern Germany, while drastically increasing the percentage of those leaving through West Berlin from 60% to well over 90% by the end of 1958. Those actually caught trying to leave East Berlin were subjected to heavy penalties, but with no physical barrier and even subway train access to West Berlin, such measures were ineffective.
The Berlin sector border was essentially a "loophole" through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still escape. The 3.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population.
Brain drain

Immediate effects
Because of the closure of the East-West sector boundary in Berlin, the vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or emigrate to West Germany. Many families were split, while East Berliners employed in the West were cut off from their jobs; West Berlin became an isolated enclave in a hostile land. West Berliners demonstrated against the wall, led by their Mayor (Oberbürgermeister) Willy Brandt, who strongly criticized the United States for failing to respond. Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees, but the main candidate for its location was around the perimeter of the city.

US President John F. Kennedy visiting the Berlin Wall on June 26th., 1963.
John F. Kennedy had acknowledged in a speech on July 25th., 1961, that the United States could only hope to defend West Berliners and West Germans; to attempt to stand up for East Germans would result only in an embarrassing downfall. Accordingly, the administration made polite protests at length via the usual channels, but without fervour, even though it was a violation of the postwar Potsdam Agreements, which gave the United Kingdom, France and the United States a say over the administration of the whole of Berlin. Indeed, a few months after the barbed wire was erected, the U.S. government informed the Soviet government that it accepted the Wall as "a fact of international life" and would not challenge it by force.

From the East-Side 1968 the "Baby Wall" with flowers was the nearest point for visitors.
Ich bin ein Berliner speech
Speech from the Rathaus Schöneberg by John F. Kennedy, June 26th., 1963. Duration 9:22.
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U.S. and UK sources had expected the Soviet sector to be sealed off from West Berlin, which had appeared to be the best option the GDR and Soviet powers had at their disposal, but were surprised how long it had taken for a move of this kind. They also saw the wall as an end to concerns about a GDR/Soviet retaking or capture of the whole of Berlin; the wall would presumably have been an unnecessary project if such plans were afloat. Thus the possibility of a military conflict over Berlin decreased.
The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "anti-fascist protective rampart" (German: "antifaschistischer Schutzwall") intended to dissuade aggression from the West. Another official justification was the activities of western agents in Eastern Europe. A yet different explanation was that West Berliners were buying out state-subsidized goods in East Berlin. Most of these positions were, however, viewed with skepticism even in East Germany, even more so since most of the time, the border was only closed for citizens of East Germany traveling to the West, but not for residents of West Berlin traveling to the East. The construction of the Wall had caused considerable hardship to families divided by it, and the view that the Wall was mainly a means of preventing the citizens of East Germany from entering West Berlin or fleeing was widely accepted.
An East German propaganda booklet published in 1955 outlined the seriousness of 'flight from the republic' to SED party agitators:
Both from the moral standpoint as well as in terms of the interests of the whole German nation, leaving the GDR is an act of political and moral backwardness and depravity.
Those who let themselves be recruited objectively serve West German Reaction and militarism, whether they know it or not. Is it not despicable when for the sake of a few alluring job offers or other false promises about a "guaranteed future" one leaves a country in which the seed for a new and more beautiful life is sprouting, and is already showing the first fruits, for the place that favors a new war and destruction?
Is it not an act of political depravity when citizens, whether young people, workers, or members of the intelligentsia, leave and betray what our people have created through common labor in our republic to offer themselves to the American or British secret services or work for the West German factory owners, Junkers, or militarists? Does not leaving the land of progress for the morass of an historically outdated social order demonstrate political backwardness and blindness? ...
[W]orkers throughout Germany will demand punishment for those who today leave the German Democratic Republic, the strong bastion of the fight for peace, to serve the deadly enemy of the German people, the imperialists and militarists.
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General Lucius D. Clay, an anti-communist who was known to have a firm attitude towards the Soviets, was sent to Berlin with ambassadorial rank as Kennedy's special advisor. He and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived at Tempelhof Airport on the afternoon of Saturday August 19th., 1961.
They arrived in a city defended by three Allied brigades — one each from the UK, the US, and France (the Forces Françaises à Berlin). On August 16th., Kennedy had given the order for them to be reinforced. Early on August 19th, the 1st Battle Group, 18th. Infantry (commanded by Col. Glover S. Johns Jr.) was alerted.
On Sunday morning, U.S. troops marched from West Germany into East Germany, bound for West Berlin. Lead elements -- arranged in a column of 491 vehicles and trailers carrying 1,500 men, divided into five march units -- left the Helmstedt-Marienborn checkpoint at 06:34. At Marienborn, the Soviet checkpoint next to Helmstedt on the West German/East German border, U.S. personnel were counted by guards. The column was 160 kilometres (100 mi) long, and covered 177 kilometres (110 mi) from Marienborn to Berlin in full battle gear, with East German police watching from beside trees next to the autobahn all the way along.
The front of the convoy arrived at the outskirts of Berlin just before noon, to be met by Clay and Johnson, before parading through the streets of Berlin to an adoring crowd. At 04:00 on August 21st., Lyndon Johnson left a visibly reassured West Berlin in the hands of Gen. Frederick O. Hartel and his brigade of 4,224 officers and men. Every three months for the next three and a half years, a new American battalion was rotated into West Berlin by autobahn to demonstrate Allied rights.
The creation of the 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, and the economy in the GDR began to grow. However, the Wall 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 the shootings of would-be defectors (which were later treated as acts of murder by the reunified Germany).

Berlin Wall - Definition of Berlin Wall by WordIQ
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Berlin Wall: CBC News
... Berlin Wall ... src.ca/berlin. The Wall. INTERACTIVE: Explore the wall and meet ... the Wall came down, I was wandering in East Berlin, and I ...www.cbc.ca/news/world/berlinwall/timeline.html -
Berlin Wall - Wikimedia Commons
2.7 Parts of the Berlin Wall in Other Towns. 3 Maps / satellite images. 4 See also ... Brandenburg Gate on August 13, 1961, the day the Berlin Wall was erected ...commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall -
The Associated Press: Berlin inaugurates repainted Wall section
Berlin inaugurates repainted Wall section. By GEIR MOULSON (AP) – ... Berlin on Friday inaugurated the restored section of the concrete wall, which is ...google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-M41yijxjeGe2X8wj... -
List of Berlin Wall segments - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Europe
In Africa
In Australia
In the Americas
Many portions of the Berlin Wall have been given various institutions since its fall on November 9, 1989.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Berlin_Wall_portions -

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Berlin Wall now in pieces across USA - USATODAY.com
Twenty years after it fell, the Berlin Wall has spread around the world, morphing en route from an instrument of oppression to a symbol of freedom.www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-03-berlin-wall_N.htm -
gulfnews : Berlin wall: When the cold barrier buckled
... Rasheed, recounts days in Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall ... I asked the taxi driver to take me to the nearest checkpoint at the Berlin Wall. ...gulfnews.com/news/world/berlin-wall-when-the-cold-barrier... -
Berlin Wall anniversary: no cause for celebration for East ...
For thousands of former employees of Communist East Germany's loathed Stasi secret police, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall is no cause for ...telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6527056/...