Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall, erected on August 13, 1961, was a significant barrier that physically and ideologically divided East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Its construction was a response to the mass exodus of East Germans fleeing to the West, which threatened the stability of the East German communist regime. Initially, the wall was a makeshift barrier of barbed wire, later replaced by a more formidable structure of cement slabs. The Wall not only prevented escape to the West but also became a powerful symbol of the broader ideological divide between communism and democracy.
Throughout its existence, the Berlin Wall was a focal point for international attention, with high-profile visits from Western leaders, including U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who famously declared, "Ich bin ein Berliner." The Wall also played a role in consolidating power for the East German government while generating negative perceptions of the communist regime globally.
Its fall on November 9, 1989, marked a pivotal moment in history, spurred by popular demonstrations for democracy and the announcement of new travel policies. The dismantling of the Wall signified not only the end of a physical barrier but also a broader movement towards the reunification of Germany, which was officially completed on October 3, 1990. The Berlin Wall remains a poignant reminder of the struggles for freedom and the impacts of political division.
Berlin Wall
Date: August 12-13, 1961
International crisis surrounding the city of Berlin during the Cold War era.
Origins and History
Following Germany’s defeat in World War II, the capital city Berlin was occupied as was the entire country by the four victorious powers: the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France. Berlin, located deep within the Soviet zone of occupation, however, was to be administered jointly by the four powers. In 1948, when the ideological rift between the East and West increased, the Soviets denied the Western powers access to Berlin. The Western allies had sponsored the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, made up of the Western zones of occupation. The Soviets’ main purpose for the blockade was to drive the West out of Berlin to gain a free hand in converting their zone into a communist dictatorship. The Soviets rightly feared that a continued Western presence in the middle of their planned state would prevent the consolidation of the communist political and economic system.
The answer of the Western allies to the challenge of closed land routes to Berlin was an eleven-month-long airlift that brought food, fuel, and other supplies to the more than two million inhabitants of the three Western sectors of the city. The Berlin Air Lift, a logistical masterpiece, proved a propaganda nightmare for the Soviets, who lifted the blockade in May, 1949.
The Wall
By tacit agreement, the Western sectors of Berlin were allowed to participate in the political and economic system of the Federal Republic, and East Berlin became the capital of the newly founded German Democratic Republic, a Communist satellite state modeled after the Soviet Union. Fortified border defenses cordoned off the Communist bloc from Western Europe. Berlin remained the only loophole in the Iron Curtain because people from the communist world could escape to the free world. In this divided city, escaping was as easy as crossing the street from an Eastern to a Western district. Between 1945 and 1961, an estimated six million people (three million since 1953) fled from communist domination. The people fleeing to the West were some of the most skilled and productive in society, and their leaving threatened the stability of a strong communist regime in East Germany.
In 1958, the new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, delivered an ultimatum that he would turn control of the city and its approaches over to the East Germans. The threat of closing off Berlin led to an increase in the number of refugees. In 1960, more than 230,000 people left East Germany, three-fourths of them under forty-five years of age. At the Vienna Summit, where Khrushchev and the newly inaugurated U.S. president John F. Kennedy met, the Soviets repeated threats for a unilateral change of the status of Berlin. Despite efforts by the East German police to restrict citizens’ access to Berlin and aggressive patrolling of the boundaries of the Soviet sector of the city, the rate of refugees rose to more than 20,000 per month. The hemorrhaging of East Germany was widely publicized by the Western media.
On Sunday, August 13, 1961, at 2:00 a.m., East German troops closed the checkpoints between East and West and sealed off the entire Soviet sector with barbed wire in accordance with a decree passed the previous day. The temporary barrier was soon replaced by a crude cement block wall running thirty miles through the center of Berlin, as well as surrounding all of West Berlin. The West had been completely taken by surprise but could intervene only at the risk of war. The coarse makeshift wall was soon replaced by a twelve-foot-high wall of prefabricated cement slabs. The Wall effectively stopped the flow of refugees and started a period of consolidation and economic growth for the East German state.
This gain was not without costs. After the Wall was built, the United States dispatched high-profile politicians to Berlin, including Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and the former U.S. high commissioner Lucius D. Clay, who represented the United States during the Berlin blockade. President Kennedy personally came to see the Wall and made his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”) speech to reassure the population of West Berlin of continued U.S. support. The West German government took every important visitor and world leader to inspect the structure, thus keeping media attention focused on the division of Germany. President Ronald Reagan also gave a noteworthy speech on a visit to the wall in 1987, exhorting Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."
The West accepted the Berlin Wall as an alternative to continual international crisis verging on the brink of war and benefited from the negative publicity it generated for those who built it. The structure vividly demonstrated the failure and inhumanity of a system that needed to wall in its people to keep them from running away.
Fall of the Berlin Wall
In the fall of 1989, popular demonstrations for more democracy by East Germans led to a replacement of the leading Communist politicians. At an international news conference in East Berlin on the evening of November 9, 1989, as the result of continuous popular unrest, the new Communist leadership announced a policy of free travel. Thousands of East Berliners spontaneously went to the border crossings to test the new policy, demanding passage to West Berlin. This demand caught the border guards by surprise. In panic, they telephoned the Communist Party chiefs to confirm the new policy, adding that they did not have enough forces to contain the growing and angry crowd. They received word to let the people pass without formalities. The news of the open Wall reached others via Western radio and television. The number of East Berliners who crossed into West Berlin that night reached several hundred thousand. An unprecedented fiesta of celebration and fraternization commenced. The impromptu festivity lasted until dawn when most Easterners returned home. The very next day, as a prelude to the formal unification of Germany on October 3, 1990, Berliners from East and West dismantled the Wall with hammers and chisels.
Legacy
Berlin celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 2009. The festivities included eight-foot-tall foam domino tiles being placed along the former route of the wall and then toppled. The German embassy in the United States marked the anniversary with a campaign called Freedom Without Walls, hosting events at universities throughout the country to raise awareness among young people of the events and their significance.
Though much of the wall was destroyed, a few segments still stand in Berlin, and many others are held at museums and other institutions around the world. Locations in the United States include the John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan Presidential Libraries.
Bibliography
Attwood, William. The Twilight Struggle. HarperCollins, 1987.
Beschloss, Michael A. The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963. Open Road Media, 1991.
Gelb, Norman. The Berlin Wall. Endeavour Press, 1986.