Berlin Wall: History and Fall of a Divided Germany

The Berlin Wall: A History

The Berlin Wall was built by the communist government of East Berlin in 1961. The wall separated East Berlin and West Berlin. It was built in order to prevent people from fleeing East Berlin. In many ways, it was the perfect symbol of the "Iron Curtain" that separated the democratic western countries and the communist countries of Eastern Europe throughout the Cold War.

Division of Germany

After World War II, Germany ended up dividing into two separate countries. East Germany became a communist country under the control of the Soviet Union. At the same time, West Germany was a democratic country and allied with Britain, France, and the United States. The initial plan was that the country would eventually be reunited, but this didn't happen for a long time.

The Fall of the Wall

President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in Berlin where he asked the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to "Tear down this wall!" Around that time, the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse. They were losing their hold on East Germany. A few years later, on November 9, 1989, the announcement was made. The borders were open, and people could freely move between Eastern and Western Germany. Much of the wall was torn down by people chipping away as they celebrated the end to a divided Germany. On October 3, 1990, Germany was officially reunified into a single country.