A Brief History
On August 13, 1961, the Soviet occupiers of East Berlin tired of unhappy citizens of the communist “workers’ paradise” defecting to the West via West Berlin and erected a barbed wire fence that would become infamous as “The Berlin Wall.”
Digging Deeper
The Soviets and East Germans cordoned off West Berlin and began erecting a concrete wall complete with guard towers and barbed wire to prevent their citizens from fleeing to the West.
The Berlin Wall stood as an icon of the Cold War between the Democratic Western countries and the Communist bloc, and in a way also a symbol of the failure of communism. Too many educated and valuable professionals were fleeing East Germany, and the “brain drain” had to be stopped.
In November of 1989 the demolition of the Wall began, but not before at least 140 people had been killed by border guards trying to cross the accursed Wall.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Charles Rivers Editors. The Berlin Wall: The History and Legacy of the World’s Most Notorious Wall. Charles River Editors, 2015.
Levy, Debbie. The Berlin Wall. Blackbirch Press, 2004.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
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