The Wall: The Cold War

From 1948 to the 1960’s, The Cold War’s most central geopolitical location, was not in Washington, Moscow, Cuba or outer space but in fact in the city of Berlin, with a wall almost one hundred miles long acting as the key symbol of the Cold War, Jeremy Isaacs maintained in his online article that "The Wall came to symbolize Europe’s division, at the heart of the Cold War."

The Cold War developed after the most destructive and deadly war, in which the two greatest super powers and victorious allies; United States and the Soviet Union, became enemies. Following the victory over Hitler’s Germany, the Soviets and the United States began a power struggle over Europe. In the global clash between American capitalism and Soviet Communism, both sought

On the late eve of August 13th 1961, the Soviet’s with no warning from Nikita Khrushchev (soviet leader) started constructing a wall of barbed wire, throughout the center of Berlin. The Soviets named the wall “Antifascistischer Sc`hutzwall “ which translates to English “fascist bulwark”, meaning the western fascists needed to be kept out of the east, even though in reality the cause was to keep eastern residents from going to the west. The Berlin Wall was built two months after Walter Ulbricht the leader of the East Germany declared “Nobody intends to put up a wall!" (German.About, Walter Ulbricht and The Wall

In 1962 a second stronger wall, was built to prevent escapes. A third generation was again built to make it even more difficult to escape; this wall was rounded at the top, thicker and smoother throughout. The fourth and final generation was the infamous ‘Grenzmauer’, it had modern, expensive and excessive features, like touch sensitivity, sand pit’s as to detect footprints, self-firing guns, dogs as well as a huge number of guards. Very few East Berliners were able to flee through the gate after these improvements. Due to the millions of Soviet dollars invested in keeping this divides front, proves how important Berlin was to the Soviet