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| The Wall was built on ], ] in order to stop the citizens of ] from entering the American, British or French sectors of Berlin. The wall divided the city into ] and ], the wall completely surrounded West Berlin. | The Wall was built on ], ] in order to stop the citizens of ] from entering the American, British or French sectors of Berlin. The wall divided the city into ] and ], the wall completely surrounded West Berlin. | ||
| The Wall was over 155km long. After the initial construction it was regularly improved up the Fourth Generation wall, built from 1975. This wall was reinforced concrete, 3.6m high and constructed out of 45,000 |
The Wall was over 155km long. After the initial construction it was regularly improved up the Fourth Generation wall, built from 1975. This wall was reinforced concrete, 3.6m high and constructed out of 45,000 separate 1.5m sections at a cost of 16,155,000 East German Marks. There was also mesh fencing, signal fencing and anti-vehicle trenches as well as barbed wire, over 300 watch towers and thirty bunkers. | ||
| At first there was only one crossing point for Westerners at Friedrichstrasse, the Western powers opened two further checkpoints at Helmstedt on the country border and Dreilinden in Berlin. The checkpoints were named phonetically Alpha (Helmstedt), Bravo (Dreilinden), and Charlie (Friedrichstrasse). | At first there was only one crossing point for Westerners at Friedrichstrasse, the Western powers opened two further checkpoints at Helmstedt on the country border and Dreilinden in Berlin. The checkpoints were named phonetically Alpha (Helmstedt), Bravo (Dreilinden), and Charlie (Friedrichstrasse). | ||
Revision as of 01:57, 17 June 2002
After WW II Berlin was divided into four sectors. The Russians, Americans, British and French each had a portion of the city under their control. The Russian sector was by far the largest and covered most of eastern Berlin - Friedrichshain, Köpenick, Lichtenberg, Mitte, Pankow, Prenzlauer Berg, Treptow, and Weissensee.
Initially the citizens of Berlin were allowed to freely move between all the sectors but as the Cold War developed movement became restricted, the border between East and West Germany was closed in 1952 and the attractiveness of the Western sectors of Berlin to the citizens of East Germany increased. Around 2.5 million East Germans crossed into the West between 1949 and 1961.
The Wall was built on August 13, 1961 in order to stop the citizens of East Germany from entering the American, British or French sectors of Berlin. The wall divided the city into West Berlin and East Berlin, the wall completely surrounded West Berlin.
The Wall was over 155km long. After the initial construction it was regularly improved up the Fourth Generation wall, built from 1975. This wall was reinforced concrete, 3.6m high and constructed out of 45,000 separate 1.5m sections at a cost of 16,155,000 East German Marks. There was also mesh fencing, signal fencing and anti-vehicle trenches as well as barbed wire, over 300 watch towers and thirty bunkers.
At first there was only one crossing point for Westerners at Friedrichstrasse, the Western powers opened two further checkpoints at Helmstedt on the country border and Dreilinden in Berlin. The checkpoints were named phonetically Alpha (Helmstedt), Bravo (Dreilinden), and Charlie (Friedrichstrasse).
During the Wall's existence there were around 5000 successful 'escapes' into West Berlin, 192 people were killed trying to cross and around 200 were seriously injured.
On August 23, 1989 Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria and in in September 1989 more than 13,000 East Germans escaped via Hungary. Mass demonstrations against the government in East Germany begun in November 1989. Erich Honecker resigned on October 18, 1989. The travel restrictions for East Germans were removed by the new government on November 9, 1989 and many immediately went to the Wall where the border guards opened access points and allowed them through - it was the first step to the reunification of Germany, which finally took place on October 3, 1990.
See Berlin; http://www.wall-berlin.org/