Indeed among all baron marks of the 20th century, there is none that can closely rival the Berlin Wall. This concrete fortress, which has been built in 1961 and dismantled in 1989, prevented east and west Berliners from meeting their loved ones, yet it exposed the major political and ideological radicalities of the Cold War period.

The Historical Context

In the years following World War II, Germany found itself divided into four occupation zones controlled by the victorious Allies: the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France. Berlin city that was sequestered in the heart of the Soviet zone was also divided in a similar manner. Nevertheless, tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies quickly emerged, leading to the creation of two separate German nations: Former West Germany known as the Federal Republic of Germany, and Former East Germany known as the German Democratic Republic.

The Reasons to Build the Wall

But why did East Germany contemplate constructing the Berlin Wall? The first being to essentially curb a rising issue of mass migration from East Germany to West Germany via Berlin. After the wall was built in 1961, more than 3.5m East Germans fled to the west resulting in serious losses to both the number and quality of the population in the East.

Citing the influence of this policy on the legitimacy of the East German Government led by Walter Ulbricht , East Germany observed that this drastic policy of emigration would question the stability of their government if not well checked. This wall played the role of preventing east Germans from moving into west and the wall was almost invulnerable to the civilians.

They are Border Control and Ideological Divide.

But to build the Berlin Wall was not the mere intention of control of border but had other motives. The wall was a physical representation of the separation of two opposing political systems namely socialism and capitalism. It embodied distinct system and policy of East and West Germany illustrating the rivalry inclination of communism and liberal economy during the cold war.

The East German government suggested that building the wall was appropriate as their people were in danger from the other side+ The West or ‘American way of life’. They portrayed a dream of what socialism was going to be if only it doesn’t shift its focus and allow itself to be tainted by the forbidden whisper of the West which to them symbolizes the epitome of sin and perversion. To do this, the group isolated their population physically so as to contain them and bar all influences from the western world from affecting East Germany.

Effects that they had on the Condition of Berlin and its Residents

I doubt that the construction of the Berlin Wall had the worse impact of the two methods in the city and its inhabitants. Couples were split asunder, entire communities separated, neighbors and friends became enemies and vice versa.

The Effects of Social Psychology

The parties of Berlin felt separated as a result of the wall as well as distressed. People were left on their own without houses, without work, without families. The wall not only provided the physical barrier to separate East and West Berlin but was also painful psychologically erasing a huge part from the memory of Berlin.

What used to be integrated neighborhoods turned into village like areas and what was once a society was destroyed. The Wall was built with the people living in the divided city, which means that they saw the face of the divided city at any given one. The dogs were stressed and developed anxieties to such a point that they became angry, grieving and helpless.

Escaping the Wall

Although it was constructed to keep East Germans from escaping to West, some brave people were able to surmount all these barriers. Nights of climbing through tunnels, over wire fences, and under barbed-wire fences that separated peoples between countries earned the international attention of people, and they documented bravery and determination of people in their struggle for freedom.

Escape attempts became more frequent and creative and, gradually, a complex web of comrades on the outside and Zionist activists on the other side of the wall was developed. These stories made people realize how enclosed the East Germany was as well as giving an indication of how people wanted to get out of this country and join their families and have a free life.

The Fall of the Wall

The year 1980s came and the political map of Europe started changing bit by bit. Extended economic reforms by the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev together with increasing internal and external pressures sapped the floors of the East German regime.

The day of November 9, 1989, would go down in history, when the East German officials stated that the Border between east and West Germany can henceforth is free. In thousands, the East Berliners happily converged into the sector to be reunited with their fellow Germans and enjoy freedom.

Legacy and Reunification

End of division of Germany can be said to have started with the falling of the Berlin Wall. In the subsequent years, the two German states held negotiations and, on October 3, 1990, officially reunited to form a single nation: the Federal Republic of Germany.

There is no better representation of the effects of different patterns of political configuration than that of the Berlin Wall. Today Berlin is seen as a united city and a monument to the triumph over the walls that divided it and many others from their dreams of liberty and a life free of oppression.