The Berlin Wall was erected for one main reason: to keep East Berliners from escaping to West Berlin. After WWII, Berlin, the capital of Germany, was a ruined city. The WWII victors, the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, divided Germany and Berlin in fou

Ironically, the fall of the Berlin Wall had begun with building of it in 1961, and it fell for the same reason it was built: too many East Germans were escaping to the West. However, it took about three decades until the wall was torn down. In 1989, the first free labor union was founded in the Communist Poland, which meant the end of the communist system had begun. The Soviet Union still controlled their satellites, but with the new leader Gorbatshov their politics changed in 1984. Gorbatshov reformed the stalinistic system, but didn’t replace the communist system completely. These reforms had major effects on other communist countries, especially Poland and Hungary. On August 23, 1989 Hungary opened the “iron curtain” to Austria. East German tourists used this chance to escape, and more than 13,000 of them did within three days. This was the first major exodus since the erection of the Berlin Wall. After this huge evacuation, mass demonstrations against the government and the system in East Germany began at the end of September and lasted until November 1989. This forced Erich Honecker, East Germany’s head of state, to resign in October of 1989. The new government that formed prepared a new law to lift the travel restrictions for East German citizens. A member of the new East German government was asked at a press conference when the new East German travel law comes into effect. He answered that it comes into effect immediately. When East Germans heard this, thousands flocked to the border crossings. They demanded to open the border and at 10:30 P.M. the first border, Bornholmer Strasse, was opened. At that moment i

Some topics in this essay:
East Berliners, Soviet Union, Berlin Wall, East Germans, East German, Iron Curtain, Mayor Brandt, West German, Curtain” Understanding, Consequently Germans, berlin wall, east german, “iron curtain”, soviet union, east berliners, east germans, west berlin, german democratic republic, 1961 berlin, “the wall, west berliners, 1961 berlin wall, 1948 soviet union,