Berlin Wall

The Soviets could not do anything else to stop people from leaving the East and their economy could not handle it anymore, so the East Berliners built the Berlin Wall in 1961. The wall was taken down in 1989, when Mikhal Gorbachev officially declared the end of the Berlin Wall. During the Cold War, the Soviets encouraged the building of the Berlin Wall to shore up the East German economy and to maintain their communist government. .
             One major reason for the Soviets to build the Berlin Wall was the economic distress they suffered. The years between 1954 and 1960 were known as the "brain drain- period for East Germany. 4,600 doctors, 15,885 teachers, 738 university teachers, 15,536 engineers and technicians moved from East to West Germany during that period. That comes out to a total of 36,759 people with academic and professional qualifications and 11,705 students who left East Germany in search of a better life. These qualified people were educated at the expense of East Germany, but at the end, the west gained great benefit from the east's investment in education. There was noting that the Soviet Union could do to stop these people from moving to the west, and being in the state that the east was in, they needed these educated people badly to help re-build the country after the destruction of World War II. .
             Another way the economy of East Germany was hurt was the use of school. School was free in the east in order to have more educated people to build up the economy again, but education cost money in the west. Many German students went to East Germany for their free education, and then returned back to West Germany where they could earn a lot more money and live a better life. Between the years of 1949 and 1961, more than 2.6 million East Germans traveled and moved to West Berlin or West Germany, while the total population of East Germany was about 17 million at the time.