Position:Home>History> Does anyone know any information about the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Look it up on Yahoo!.

If you would have simply gone to google and typed "Berlin Wall FAQ" you would have found this link and all your anwers!.

http://www!.dailysoft!.com/berlinwall/faq/!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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the Berlin wall was built by the communist east Germany after WWII to keep the nasty west Germans out of east Berlin!.!. and to keep defectors from having easy access to west Germany!.!.!.

after WWII all of the area around Berlin was part of the communist east Germany!.!.!.!. Berlin itself however was split in half!.!. east belonging to the DDR <communist Germany> west belonging to west Germany

it was torn down as a symbolic gesture of the reunification of Germany into one country instead of two!.!.!. it was a large restoration of German pride to again be one united country instead of two separate ones!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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Watch some vids of it, along with written material!. Get a better sense of it!.
http://www!.encyclomedia!.com/video-berlin!.!.!.
http://news!.bbc!.co!.uk/onthisday/hi/dates!.!.!.
http://www!.cnn!.com/WORLD/europe/9911/09/!.!.!.
http://www!.brianrose!.com/lostborder/link!.!.!.
http://www!.videosift!.com/video/Moments-o!.!.!.
http://www!.youtube!.com/watch!?v=EcFPPIkdt!.!.!.
This one includes President Reagan's famous "Mr, Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!"
http://www!.youtube!.com/watch!?v=WuYgIDzZd!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier separating West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany!. The longer 'inner German border' demarcated the remainder of the East-West German border between the two states!. Both borders were part of the Iron Curtain!.
The wall separated East Berlin and West Berlin for 28 years, from the day construction began on August 13, 1961 until it was dismantled in 1989!. During this period at least 133 people were confirmed killed trying to cross the Wall into West Berlin, according to official figures!.[1] However, a prominent victims' group claims that more than 200 people had been killed trying to flee from East to West Berlin!.[2] The GDR/East German government gave shooting orders to border guards dealing with defectors; such orders are not the same as shoot to kill orders which GDR officials have denied exist!.[3]
When the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that visits in West Germany and West Berlin would be permitted, crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere!. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest of it!.
The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990!.
After the end of World War II in Europe, what territorially remained of Nazi Germany was divided into four occupation zones (per the Potsdam Agreement), each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers: the Americans, British, French and Soviets!. The old capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the city lying deep inside the zone of the Soviet Union!. Although the intent was for the occupying powers to govern Germany together inside the 1947 borders, the advent of Cold War tension caused the French, British and American zones to be formed into the Federal Republic of Germany (and West Berlin) in 1949, excluding the Soviet zone, which then formed the German Democratic Republic (including East Berlin)!.
Divergence of German states
West Germany developed into a western capitalist country with a social market economy ("Soziale Marktwirtschaft" in German) and a democratic parliamentary government!. Continual economic growth starting in the 1950s fuelled a 30-year "economic miracle" ("Wirtschaftswunder")!. Across the inner-German border, East Germany established an authoritarian government with a Soviet-style planned economy!. While West Germany became rich, many East Germans wanted to move to West Germany!. The East Germans constructed the Berlin Wall to stop East Germans from fleeing!. However, East German soldiers allowed West Berliners to cross into East Germany!.
Barrier between East and West Germany
On 1 April, 1952, East German leaders met the Soviet leader Stalin in Moscow; during the discussions Stalin's foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov proposed that the East Germans should "introduce a system of passes for visits of West Berlin residents to the territory of East Berlin [so as to stop] free movement of Western agents" in the GDR!. Stalin agreed, calling the situation "intolerable"!. He advised the East Germans to build up their border defenses, telling them that "The demarcation line between East and West Germany should be considered a border – and not just any border, but a dangerous one !.!.!. The Germans will guard the line of defense with their lives!." [4]
Consequently, the border between East and West Germany was closed, and a barbed-wire fence erected!. The border between East and West Berlin, however, remained open, although traffic between the Eastern and the Western sectors was somewhat restricted!.
On June 15, 1961, two months before the construction of the Berlin Wall started, First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and Staatsrat chairman Walter Ulbricht stated in an international press conference, "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" (No one has the intention to erect a wall)!. It was the first time the colloquial term Mauer (wall) had been used in this context!.
August 12, 1961, the leaders of East Germany attended a garden party at D?llnsee!. Construction of 156 km (97 miles) around the three western sectors began early on Sunday, August 13, 1961 in East Berlin, of which 43 km (27 miles) actually divided West Berlin and East Berlin!. The zonal boundary had been sealed that morning by East German troops!. The barrier was built by East German troops and workers, not directly involving the Soviets!. It was built slightly inside East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point!. Some streets running alongside the barrier were torn up to make them impassable to most vehicles, and a barbed-wire fence was erected, which was later built up into the full-scale Wall!. It physically divided the city and completely surrounded West Berlin!. During the construction of the Wall, NVA and KdA soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect!. Additionally, the whole length of the border between East and West Germany was closed with chain fences, walls, minefields, and other installations!.
Immediate effects
The last readily accessible option for travel or emigration to West Germany had been closed for the vast majority of East Germans, many families were split and East Berliners were cut off from their jobs and from chances for financial improvement; West Berlin became an isolated enclave in a hostile land!. West Berliners demonstrated against the wall, led by their mayor Willy Brandt, who strongly criticized the United States for failing to respond!. Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees, but the main candidate for its location was around the perimeter of the city!.
John F!. Kennedy had acknowledged in a speech on July 25, 1961, that the United States could hope to defend only West Berliners and West Germans; to attempt to stand up for East Germans would result only in an embarrassing downfall!. Accordingly, the administration made polite protests at length via the usual channels, but without fervour, even though it was a violation of the postwar Potsdam Agreements, which gave the United Kingdom, France and the United States a say over the administration of the whole of Berlin!. Indeed, a few months after the barbed wire was erected, the U!.S!. government informed the Soviet government that it accepted the Wall as "a fact of international life" and would not challenge it by force!. US and UK sources had expected the Soviet sector to be sealed off from West Berlin - it appeared to be the best option the GDR and Soviet powers had, but were surprised how long it had taken for a move of this kind!. They also saw the wall as an end to concerns about a GDR/Soviet retaking or capture of the whole of Berlin, i!.e the wall would have been an unneccessary project if such plans were afloat!. Thus the possibility of a military conflict over Berlin decreased!. [5]
The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "anti-Fascist protective rampart" ("antifaschistischer Schutzwall") intended to dissuade aggression from the West [6]!. Another official justification were the activities of western agents in Eastern Europe [7]!. A yet different explanation was that West Berliners were buying out state-subsidized goods in East Berlin!. Most of these positions were, however, viewed with skepticism even in East Germany, even more so since most of the time, the border was only closed for citizens of East Germany travelling to the West, but not for residents of West Berlin travelling to the East[8]!. The construction of the Wall had caused considerable hardship to families divided by it, and the view that the Wall was mainly a means of preventing the citizens of East Germany from entering West Berlin or fleeing was widely accepted!.
An East German propaganda booklet published in 1955 outlined the seriousness of 'flight from the republic' to SED party agitators:
“ Both from the moral standpoint as well as in terms of the interests of the whole German nation, leaving the GDR is an act of political and moral backwardness and depravity!.
Those who let themselves be recruited objectively serve West German Reaction and militarism, whether they know it or not!. Is it not despicable when for the sake of a few alluring job offers or other false promises about a "guaranteed future" one leaves a country in which the seed for a new and more beautiful life is sprouting, and is already showing the first fruits, for the place that favors a new war and destruction!?
Is it not an act of political depravity when citizens, whether young people, workers, or members of the intelligentsia, leave and betray what our people have created through common labor in our republic to offer themselves to the American or British secret services or work for the West German factory owners, Junkers, or militarists!? Does not leaving the land of progress for the morass of an historically outdated social order demonstrate political backwardness and blindness!? !.!.!.
[W]orkers throughout Germany will demand punishment for those who today leave the German Democratic Republic, the strong bastion of the fight for peace, to serve the deadly enemy of the German people, the imperialists and militarists!.[9]
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Secondary response
It was clear both that West German morale needed lifting and that there was a serious potential threat to the viability of West Berlin!. If West Berlin fell after all the efforts of the Berlin Airlift, how could any of America's other allies rely on it!? On the otheWww@QuestionHome@Com

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