The Berlin wall was a construction established by the captain of Germany, Berlin, whose aim was to separate the city of Berlin from east Germany and contain the flow of people who migrated from east germany to west germany. The Berlin wall was one of the greatest symbols of the cold war and its fall represented the fall of communism on the capitalist rise.
After Germany's defeat during the Battle of Berlin in World War II, Germany lost much of its territorial supremacy and began to be occupied by the British, French, Germans and Soviets. This diversity of different citizens created governmental differences, which caused Berlin and the rest of the German territory to be divided into zones of influence that culminated in the territorial division, which created the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) which became forcefully allied to the USA and adopted capitalist concepts, and the German Democratic Republic (eastern Germany) which became allied with the USSR and adopted communist concepts.
This division was greatly influenced by the rise of the cold war and the conflict between the US and the USSR strongly influenced the construction of the Berlin wall. This is because the cold war disputes stimulated strong competition between the German republics, but West Germany received investments from the USA which made its economy and living conditions highly superior to those observed in East Germany. This caused several citizens of East Germany to migrate en masse to West Germany. In addition, West Germany provided more freedom for its inhabitants, which made migration more intense.
As a result, East Germany suffered a massive loss of labor that put its economy at serious risk and made Communism a bad name. This greatly worried the Soviet and German (eastern) authorities, who discussed for months how to prevent migration. The result of the discussion was the construction of the Berlin wall.
The Berlin wall was a secret project and was built during the dawn between 12 and 13 August 1961. Since its construction, the wall has been watched for 24 hours a day and it is estimated that about 140 people died trying to cross it.
Although the construction of the wall was effective in reducing the migration of East Germans, it was not enough to prevent the population from revolting against its authorities and against the communist system that oppressed, controlled and took away people's freedom. The popular uprising was so great during the 1980s that it caused East Germany to enter a strong political and economic crisis culminating in the complete destruction of the wall by East German citizens at the turn of the 10th to the 11th of November 1989. A year later, Germany was unified.
