How Did the Construction of the Berlin Wall Begin Essay Example

of their citizens and for that reason, the construction of the Berlin Wall started on the 13th of August in 1961. The barbed wires, watchtowers, and bunkers that were used to prevent migration lowered the rates significantly from 1962 onwards in comparison with the precedent years.

Few people actually received legal access to move westwards: through 1961 to 1988 only 100 thousand obtained said permit. A border pass agreement —Passierscheinabkommen— allowed East Berliners to travel to West Berlin between the 18th of December 1963 and January 5th, 1964. 730,000 West Berliners took this opportunity and traveled to visit their families and friends. However, a less privileged group, that doubled the size of legal migrators, had to rely on illegal or secret migration as their only way of getting away from the totalitarian regime that got ahold of their city. In return of paid “ransoms” by the Allied powers, around 250 thousand civilians were allowed by the GDR to move to West Germany; this granted East Germany access to the desired west currency flow. Although at first sight this move might have seemed like a step towards an improvement in the economy, the “ransoms” favored the Allies and the GDR continued to lose workers.

Half of the 10 thousand migrators that headed to West Berlin succeeded in their attempts at illicitly jumping through the fence, whereas the other half failed. People were taking extreme measures to strive a chance at getting to the other side, although they were a small percentage, their ingenious and physically drastic methods were the greatest reason to believe their urge of escaping the East city. Six hundred (12%) out of the five thousand

runaways were GDR border guards and one hundred (2%) out of the attempted runaways ended up dead at the border. The Berlin passage became the most dangerous crossing to be pursued.

Through the 70s and 80s, the tensions seemed to diminish and a glimpse into a consolidated future for Germany in sight. The Ostpolitik, proposed by Willy Brandt, former Minister of International Relations from the GFR, sought to help manage the relations between countries, in special interest with the GDR and the USSR. They aspired to improve flexible relations and better communication between countries. During this period of progressive advancements, the wall was continuing to stand tall, a symbol of embarrassment that endured for the GDR.

Many movements started mobilizing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the citizens of West Berlin were also implicated in this matter. In August of 1986, 3,500 demonstrators marched in protest for the Berlin Wall. They carried wooden crosses bearing the names of the ones that were killed trying to cross the border. Then, over 200 protesters went through Checkpoint Charlie and crossed to the other side of the city, tearing down from a pole the flag from East Germany. The words of Richard Burt, former ambassador, who encouraged these actions were remarkable: “We cannot and we must not take this unnatural division for granted”. He continued: “Someday, the wall will be nothing more than one of history’s bad memories.”

Under the supervision of Mikhail Gorbachov, the Soviet general secretary of the USSR in 1985, proposed two measures to further encourage the liberalization of the communist countries. One of the measures was the Glasnost (1986) that aimed to loosen up the censorship

and open discussion of political and social issues.

The second measure was the Perestroika that requested a reconstruction of the Soviet system due to the dissatisfaction of the Soviets with the regime and how things were being handled. Gorbachev wrote in his Perestroika statements how at that moment the Soviet Union was not achieving socialism in its full potential. He wrote that “a new political thought is indispensable” and sincerely wanted a improve the relation with the United States fearing a future nuclear crisis: “Driven by this awareness, we sincerely endeavor to polish Soviet-American relations, and we wish to achieve even the minimum of mutual understanding indispensable to resolve the issues on which the destinies of the world depend.”