Berlin Wall: Overview

Berlin Wall (1961-1989), an overview video about the construction of, living with and the fall of the Berlin Wall between 1961-1989.

On Sunday, August 13, 1961, border soldiers of the GDR started building a wall right through Berlin. The Berlin Wall would remain in place for more than 28 years. In this video we look at the causes and consequences of the Berlin Wall.

After World War II, the Allies divided Germany and Berlin into occupation zones. The victors of the war (the Russians, Americans, English and French) would rule these occupation zones. The three western zones and West Berlin were given democratic governance and a capitalist economist. Communism was introduced in the eastern Soviet zone. This led to tensions between the two power blocs.

The Berlin Blockade from June 1948 to July 1949 was a prime example of these tensions. The moment that the western part of Germany (and therefore also West Berlin) introduced its own currency, it was the reason for Stalin to close all access roads to West Berlin. Stalin hoped that this action would create all kinds of shortages in this part of the city and that the West would give up West Berlin. However, the Americans, together with the British, set up an airlift to supply the city with aircraft. Seeing that the Western Allies would not stop their airlift, Stalin lifted the blockade.

Life in East Germany was tough. The people there had no freedom and experienced a lot of poverty. Many young, often highly educated East Germans, did not want to lead such a life. They decided to pack their things and flee to West Germany. The influx of refugees took enormous proportions. The country was about to run out. Walter Ulbricht ordered that West Berlin be closed off with barbed wire during the night from Saturday 12 to Sunday 13 August 1961. It was the beginning of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

There was a lot of demonstrations against the construction of the Berlin Wall and many articles appeared in the press that wiped the floor with the policy of the GDR. There were also protests from the United States. US President Kennedy paid a visit to West Berlin almost two years later, encouraging the population with a speech. The words 'Ich bin ein Berliner' from this speech would become world famous. But for all the encouraging words, America did not intervene. For twenty-eight years, Berlin was literally a shared city. It was almost impossible to get from one side of the city to the other. A large number of people have attempted to flee. Sometimes they managed to get to the West, sometimes they were discovered and caught and/or killed on their run.

With the appointment of Willy Brandt as Chancellor of West Germany, there was some more freedom. The so-called Ostpolitik that Brandt conducted was aimed at getting a better relationship with the communist Eastern bloc. From the 1980s there were also changes in the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev became the country's leader and implemented economic and political reforms. This perestroika and glasnost increased the pressure on communism. On October 7, 1989, the 40th anniversary of the GDR was celebrated. The leadership of the GDR wanted to celebrate in a big way. But instead of a big party, there were large demonstrations against the policies of the GDR government. These protests only increased in the weeks that followed. The pressure on the GDR government kept increasing. In an effort to salvage things, the communist leadership agreed to make it easy to travel from the GDR to the West.

At the press conference on 9 November 1989 in which this measure was announced, there was uncertainty about when it would take effect. When Gunter Schabowski announced that the settlement would take effect immediately, thousands of East Berliners marched to the border crossings at the Berlin Wall to head west. The border guards decided to raise the barriers. The Wall had fallen after more than twenty-eight years. Less than a year later, East and West Germany would be reunited in a new Germany.