The Berlin wall was built on August 16, 1961 splitting Germany in two. The West side was run by the Allies under Democratic rule. The East side was a run by the Central Powers and was under Communist rule. My grandparents were in East Germany before the wall went up. They were planning to get married, but decided to be married sooner when they found out the wall was being built. The married and left the East to live in West Germany.
The purpose of the wall was to stop people from fleeing from the East side to the West. The wall was built in 24 hours. This version was not made of concrete, but made of 96 miles of barbed wire. However, too many people were able to climb over the fence. So, in 1962 a second fence was built. Then in 1975 the concrete wall was built. It consisted of 45,000 sections of reinforced concrete. For the duration of time the wall was up, 5,000 people reached the other side, and 100 people were shot dead trying to escape. Communism began to weaken in the 70s and 80s. It was only a matter of time until the wall was torn down.
While the wall was up many artists saw it as "the world's largest canvas which had to be painted." It soon had a great deal of graffiti on it. Many political slogans, words, and images were painted on the wall.
On November 9, 1989 the Berlin wall was demolished. People celebrated the collapse of the wall. This was the start of the reunification of Germany. I hope that there will never be a wall to divide a country again. It caused more harm than good.
http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/art/index.htm
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1867.html
http://www.berlin-life.com/berlin/wall
http://www.galerie-noir.de/ArchivesEnglish/walleng.html
EV
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