History of the Berlin Wall
When WWII ended, Germany was split into a capitalist West Germany that was controlled by the US, France, and Britain, and a communist East Germany that was controlled by the Soviet Union. The same thing happened to the capital, Berlin. The problem for the Soviet Union, though, was that the living conditions in East Germany were terrible, yet the living conditions in West Germany were very good. This led to people leaving East Berlin and migrating into West Berlin in the late 1950s. By 1961, three million people had left. In order to stop this, the East Germans, forced by the Soviet Union and Khrushchev, built a great wall in Berlin between the days of August 12th and 31th of 1961 that stretched 96 miles.
The first stage of the Berlin wall was a simple mass of barbed wire and square concrete blocks, but it eventually grew to so much more. By the time it reached its fourth and final stage, it was a massive wall of over 11 feet tall made of solid concrete and iron. The people of East Berlin did find ways of getting past the wall, though. These included long underground tunnels, sliding along aerial wires, flying in hot air balloons, and traveling through the sewers. Eventually, though, the wall was torn down. When the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, the East Berliners decided it was no longer needed, so a joint effort between the two sides resulted in the destruction of the whole wall.
The first stage of the Berlin wall was a simple mass of barbed wire and square concrete blocks, but it eventually grew to so much more. By the time it reached its fourth and final stage, it was a massive wall of over 11 feet tall made of solid concrete and iron. The people of East Berlin did find ways of getting past the wall, though. These included long underground tunnels, sliding along aerial wires, flying in hot air balloons, and traveling through the sewers. Eventually, though, the wall was torn down. When the Soviet Union lost the Cold War, the East Berliners decided it was no longer needed, so a joint effort between the two sides resulted in the destruction of the whole wall.