Fall of the Berlin Wall

By: James Braman

At the end of W.W.2 the allied forces of the
United States, Great Britain, France, and the
Soviet Union divided the conquered country of
Germany into four pieces, one for each of the
allied powers. They did the same with the
countries capital, Berlin.
As the years went by, relations
between the communist Soviet Union
and the other countries controlling Berlin
began to fall apart. The once
cooperative nature of the occupation
quickly disappeared soon split Germany
into East vs. West, Democracy against
Communism.
This division of the country became
official in 1949 when West Germany
became known as the Federal Republic of
Germany, and East Germany became the
German Democratic Republic
After suffering a loss of 2.5 million
people, the East German government
launched into a plan to stop the mass
evacuation of it's citizens.
Just past midnight the night of August
12, 1961, trucks filled with armed
soldiers and construction workers
poured out, tearing up the roads that
lead towards West Berlin. These
workers dug holes to place concrete
posts, and strung barbed wire all across
the border between East and West
Berlin.
The Berlin wall not only cut through
Berlin itself, but it actually wrapped
around all of West Berlin, spanning over
a hundred miles. Transforming it into a
island of Democracy within a sea of
Communism.
The wall itself went through four major
transformations. The first two stages of
the wall was barbed wire and concrete
blocks. But as people easily slipped
through this basic barrier, it was
replaced by the third version, a concrete
wall that was braced by steel girders in
1965.
The final version of the Berlin wall was
constructed over the span of 1975 to
1980, and was the most complicated yet
effective of versions of the wall. Made from
12-foot high concrete slabs that were also
4-feet wide, with the top of the wall being
covered by a smooth pipe making it near
impossible for anyone to scale the wall.

Even with this momentous obstacle,
people still tried to escape to a better life.
Many succeeded in their attempts. Some
attempts were simple, like throwing a rope
over the wall and climbing over. While
others were a bit more head on, like
ramming a truck or bus into the wall and
running through the hole. And others were
crafty, yet dangerous like digging tunnels
under the wall.
One of the most infamous cases on the
failed escape attempts is that of 18 year
old Peter Fechter. He and a friend ran
towards the wall planning on climbing over
it too freedom. Fetchers friend made it to
the wall and scaled over it, but Peter
wasn't that lucky. As he tried to scale the
wall, he was shot and he fell just as he
reached the top of the wall.
To the shock of the world, the guards did
not shoot him again, but left him to bleed
to death tangled up in the barbed wire
surrounding the wall. Only after Peter
Fetcher had passed away, did the guards
remove his body.
Then, almost as suddenly as the Wall
rose, it fell. There had been signs
throughout the year of The communist
blocs grip weakening, and even though
the East German Government thought that
a moderate change was only needed the
citizens thought otherwise.
As communism began to falter in other
countries like Poland , Hungary, and
Czehoslovakia new points to escape
through were opened to those who wanted
to escape West. And on November 9th,
1989, East German official Gunter
Schabowski stated that relocations can be
done through all border checkpoints
between East and West Berlin.
People were in disbelief. Were the pathways
through the symbol of oppression they'd been
living under finally been open? East Berliners
slowly made their way to the border, and
were amazed to find border guards actually
letting people through. In a flash, people from
both sides came together in a tidal wave of
hugging, kissing and even dancing. All the
while, citizens from both sides quickly
attacked the wall that had separated them for
close to 30 years.
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