The Soviet tanks shot into the crowds of people killing many, and injuring others, they even shot into the crowds in West Germany that were rioting. The people of East Germany saw that they were trapped in East Germany, and if they wanted to get out they would have to risk their lives. In the late 1950's there were 8,000 to 10,000 people from East Germany left and each day they would move further into the west. The people were from East Berlin, and the government of East Germany knew that they couldn't loose all of these people. Their economy was suffering already, and with the loss of so many people the economy would be hopeless. Many of the people that left were skilled trades men. There were many escape tunnels dug under the wall. The tunnel system was an unexpected resistance movement dug by hundreds of East Berlin students with thousands more willing to help. The first successful tunnel was in a East Berlin Graveyard. Mourners brought flowers to a grave and then went into the tunnels. More than half between 1949 and 1961 were under the age of 24. The Legal processes was lengthy and difficult, and they were eventually successful in talking the young people from out of leaving the country.East Germany did not have any ideas on how to stop all the people from leaving in groups, until a person came up with an idea to build a wall so high, and so booby-trapped that no one would try to get over the wall. .
This idea, thought up by some unknown person, became the infamous Berlin Wall. Winston Churchill named this barrier the Iron Curtain. Walter Ulbricht, who was a German Communist leader under the command of Stalin, organized the construction of a large wall to be built in order to keep illegal emigration from the East to the West. They tore up the streets to use the paving stones to build the wall. It stunned people from both East and West Germany. The Berlin Wall was 96 miles long.