Why Did Germany Build The Berlin Wall Between 1949-1940

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In the years between 1949 and 1961, a mass of East Germans had fled to West Germany. Some of the people included skilled workers and high end intelligent people. The result of the East losing such successful people the economic was destroyed. In response, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic also known as East Germnay built a barrier to close off East Germans' access to West Germany. This barrier was known as the Berlin Wall.

This barrier, the Berlin Wall, was first erected in August 1961. The first time building the wall, it was built out of barbed wire and cinder blocks, but then was required by a series of concrete walls (up to 15 feet high) that were topped with barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers. By the 1980s this system of walls, electrified fences, and fortifications extended 28 miles (45 km) through Berlin, dividing the two parts of the city, and extended a further 75 miles (120 km) around West Berlin, separating it from the rest of East Germany. (“Berlin Wall”)
Behind the wall on the East German side was what was called the “Death Strip”: which was an area of soft sand that showed footprints. They also had floodlights, vicious dogs, machine guns and soldiers to stop those who were trying to move over the …show more content…

Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. “Only today,” one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, “is the war really over.” ("The Cold War Museum.") The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin

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