The Berlin Wall was a significant structure that divided the city of Berlin during the Cold War. It was built by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1961 in order to restrict movement between East Germany and West Germany. While the wall circled West Berlin, it did not completely surround West Germany as a whole. Let’s explore the details of the Berlin Wall and its impact on the divided city.
Understanding the Berlin Wall
It was not a continuous wall but a several-yards wide complex of concrete walls, barbed-wire fences and watchtowers with armed guards. This language, guided the construction of the Berlin Wall which circumscribed West Berlin from East Berlin and the Eastern Bloc. It would keep those in East Germany from escaping to the democratic western part of the country.
It should be observed, though, that the Berlin Wall was never continuous around the border of West Germany. West Germany also referred to as Bundesrepublik Deutschland was an eastern European country comprising western Germany consisting of the capital Frankfurt, Hamburg among others and Munich. These areas were not like the inner-city areas and hence did not experience the presence of the Berlin Wall physically.
The Impact on West Berlin
Despite the fact that West Germany itself did not border on the ‘wall,’ West Berlin was entirely surrounded and sealed off by the barrier. West Berlin was completely ensconced within the East Germany and as such was surrounded by communism in the best sense of the word. This featured left an enormous impact in the lives of the inhabitants of West Berlin.
Even movement between East and West Berlin became negligible with only a few dozen authorized check points. The people of the country lost their kin and kindred; children and their parents, husbands and wives, siblings and relatives and friends were separated and many people could not cross the wall to visit their kith and kin on the other side. The wall also had a meaning, though; it was emblematic of the divided world during the Cold War with ‘Order’ and ‘Freedom’.
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The division of Germany is better explained when one talks not only about the physical barrier in form of Berlin Wall but also symbolic border as well. It was constructed after the relations between the Soviet Union and Western Allies worsened soon after the Second World War. The wall symbolised the iron curtain that divided communism and capitalism countries up until its construction.
The fall of the Berlin Wall on November, 9th 1989 was a memorable event. It was due to the peaceful revolution that had taken place in East Germany. The symbol of the wall breakdown represented the opportunity to leave the Cold War and to continue German reunification in 1990.
Conclusion
Although unlike general West Germany, the Berlin Wall surrounded only the isolated city of West Berlin, it certainly played a rather important role. The wall could act only as the symbol of the once existing political and economical split of two societies during the Cold War era. When it began to crumble, it promised hope, unity and the reunification of a divided Germany.