What was the Berlin Wall?
What was the Berlin Wall? And why was it so important? We break down the history of the rise and fall of one of the most famous divisions in history.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1989-1110-018 / Oberst, Klaus / CC-BY-SA 3.0
The Berlin Wall is the quintessential symbol of the Cold War. To understand the Berlin Wall, it is first necessary to take a step back and think about the Germany during the Cold War.
After the end of World War II in 1945, Germany was divided among the 4 victorious allies (the US, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union). The country was divide into four sections, based roughly on population. The Soviet Union had the territory in the east. The UK was in the northwest; France was in the central western part of the country; the United States was in the south. Munich, for instance, was in the US sector of occupation. Hamburg, the second biggest city in Germany, was in the British sector. Berlin, the former capital of Germany, fell wholly within the Soviet sector. Because of Berlin’s special status, it was decided that Berlin would also be divided into 4 sectors. So France, the UK, and the US also had very small occupation sectors in Berlin, all of which were surrounded by the bigger Soviet sector of Germany.
Relatively quickly, tensions grew between the western Allies (especially the United States) and the Soviet Union. While these tensions could be seen across the world, they were particularly apparent in Europe, where Soviet and US armies that were still around from the end of World War II were directly facing off against each other. In the case of Germany, the US, France, and the UK united their three sectors of occupation relatively quickly, forming the basis of what would be West Germany. The Soviet Union in response organized its occupation sector into the country of East Germany. The divided sectors of Berlin also coalesced into West Berlin and East Berlin.
By 1949, five years after the end of the war, East and West Germany were two states firmly allied with the superpowers. And each superpower was working hard to make sure that its German ally was closely tied to its politics and ideologies. The United States, for instance, encouraged capitalism and democracy within West Germany, while the Soviet Union bolstered the socialist party in East Germany.
The issue, though, was really Berlin: although the city was divided, people could cross relatively freely between the various sectors. At first glace, this is usually how a city works: most of the time, people live a bit away from where they work, which is also somewhat separated from the places they go for education, free time, and shopping. When the city was divided into rough quadrants, many residents found that their homes, places of business, and friends were suddenly in different occupation sectors. Initially, residents were allowed to cross between the sectors to go about their daily business.
For a decade, this relative ability to travel across Berlin remained open. Mostly, residents of Berlin crossed to complete their necessary business for the day and then returned to their homes at night. But the open border also provided an opportunity that did not exist elsewhere in socialist Europe. Once in East Berlin, one could simply walk to West Berlin. From there, it was possible to travel to West Germany. And it wasn’t necessary to then travel back to East Germany. With very little danger, a person from the eastern bloc could escape to the west.
By the 1960s, this open door to the west had become a real problem for the government of East Germany. Especially, young, educated professionals were fleeing the country in droves. Rumors began to circulate of labs and medical clinics unable to function because so many employees had simply left the country. With some of the most promising—and most necessary—citizens fleeing the country, the East German government knew that something had to be done, both to stop the drain of people and the PR embarrassment of all of their citizens fleeing en masse.
In the middle of the night in August 1961, the East German government began constructing the Berlin Wall. At first, it was just a temporary structure made of barbed wire. But even this temporary structure changed life completely: almost overnight, the connections within the city of Berlin and the escape route to the west were cut off. Families and friends were now trapped on opposing sides. The layout of the city also changed. Before this moment, the city had been divided politically but was still united through infrastructure. It was only after 1961 with the construction of the Wall that roads were torn up, windows boarded up, and buildings torn down to create permanent physical divisions between the two sides. The Wall initially started off as just a wire structure. Over the coming years and decades, the Berlin Wall became a bigger and more sophisticated structure, with different layers of walls, guard towers, anti-vehicle devices, spotlights, and traps.
There is some confusion about where the Berlin Wall actually was. Remember, West Berlin was entirely inside of East Germany. So the East German government built the Berlin Wall around West Berlin so that it was not possible for residents of East Germany to access the western part of the city. Many people mistakenly think that the Wall went around East Berlin, but a wall around East Berlin would not have prevented East German residents from accessing West Berlin.
The Berlin Wall stood from 1961 until November 1989, when it fell overnight in a way that was spectacular and completely unpredicted. Before 1989, however, the Berlin Wall was an iconic reminder of the division of Germany, Europe, and indeed the whole world between the US and the Soviet Union. For the East, the Berlin Wall was a symbol of what was needed to be done to keep its citizens safe from the west. For the West, the Berlin Wall indicated that socialism had failed to win over hearts and minds—at least the US didn’t have to wall in its citizens to keep them in the country.
The Berlin Wall was one of the most iconic divisions during the Cold War. And it was certainly one that seemed like it could be most dramatic, with the US and the USSR facing off across the border. But the Berlin Wall was just one of many walls built during and after the Cold War. For instance, there was also a border across all of Germany, separating the entire country of West Germany from the entire country of East Germany.
There are also other examples of walls built across cities. Northern Ireland, especially Belfast, has miles of walls separating largely unionist and Protestant neighborhoods from those neighborhoods that are largely Catholic and nationalist. They were first built in the 1960s in response to growing conflict in Northern Ireland over British rule and Irish division. They continue to be built in the 21st century. While the Berlin Wall might remain the most iconic example of Cold War divisions, it is also important to remember that some of these lines of conflict are still present today.
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