WHY THE BERLIN WALL WAS BUILT

The Berlin Wall was built on the night between 12th and 13th August 1961. This is the background to the building of the Berlin Wall.

There were two major reasons for the building of the Wall:

1. Economics. Too many well-educated people moved from East Germany, and some worked in West Berlin and lived in East Berlin (it's cheaper there), so DDR lost money on this.

2. Political. The West side interfered with the East side (the Russian sector).

After the 2nd World War Berlin was divided into 4 sectors. The largest sector was the Russian sector. The Western sectors belonged to France, Great Britain and USA. After Nazi Germany surrendered, the 4 allied countries signed a treaty called "the Potsdam Agreement", which determined the borders for Germany and Berlin.

Between the years 1954 -1960, East Germany suffered a "brain drain". During that period, 4,600 doctors, 15,885 teachers, 738 university teachers, 15,536 engineers and technicians moved from East to West Germany. Altogether this came to 36,759 people with academic and professional qualifications, plus 11,705 students. These highly qualified people were educated at the expense of East Germany (and former Nazi Germany). So West Germany benefited from East Germany's investment. Of course such a situation was untenable for East Germany. Being a new state East Germany needed its educated people to re-build the country after the ravages of the 2nd World War.

There was considerable abuse of the educational system itself. Education was free in East, but it cost money in West. So of course German students went to East German schools to get their education for free, then returned to work in West Germany where they could earn more money.

During the "cold war" of the 1950s and 1960s, the western countries used Berlin as a spy center - to spy on the Eastern block. As long as the border was open - they could also enter the Russian sector. In 1960 there were about 80 spy centers and similar organisations working against the Eastern block. This kind of spy war was also called "The Silence War".

The Berlin Wall was built at the line of demarcation between the eastern sector of Berlin and the western sectors. Before the Wall was built the border was open. On the West side, there were 90 checkpoints on the 45 kilometer border, that is two checkpoints on every kilometer. At the East side there were 78 checkpoints. It was only possible to check about a hundred vehicles that crossed the line of demarcation every day. There were also the buses, U-bahn (subway traffic), and railways, which were hardly checked at all. By 1968 (after the Wall was built) only 19 checkpoints were needed.

At the Eastern sector the border was controlled according the rules (laws) for a state border, with trained border patrols. On the West side it was the same. When the Berlin Wall was built on 13th of August, the military, police and the home guard had to block this line of demarcation, at first with troops and barbed wire. At 15th of August they started to build the actual Wall, and then re-build and make the Wall and the border more effective.

After the Wall was built the East German side made a 100 meter width "no man's land". They removed all buildings (most of these were ruins from the 2nd World War) to get the 100 meter free space to be able to control the border. According to international laws - the control of the Berlin Wall AND the border had to be checked by the International Red Cross, and they had no objections regarding the state border. Also the East German patrols were strongly instructed NOT to fire one single shot across the border (the Berlin Wall here). The border patrols were instructed to shout warning words at first, then warning shots in the event of illegal violations of the frontier. Violators were only shot when they failed to heed those warnings. This is standard routine for controlling any border. The Berlin Wall is a state border between two countries in this context.

Source: The book "Berlinmuren" (=The Berlin Wall) by Fritjof Lager. Fritjof Lager is a Swedish author who wanted to lift the veil of disinformation surrounding the Berlin Wall and explain the facts which led to the Berlin Wall being built.

My comments:
One can add that the western media have used the Berlin Wall and the border as propaganda against the Eastern block. This propaganda has its roots in the Cold War, Socialism contra Capitalism. Two such different systems on each side of the Berlin Wall, where the west side has often been the aggressor. The American Government accepted that the Wall was necessary. They also recognized that an open border between two so different systems wouldn't work. IF the Berlin Wall hadn't been built - it is very possible that there would have been a war between these two states.

This is a comment from a man that served at the border in the 70's:
"When I was stationed in Germany with the US Army, I was assigned to a unit that patrolled the American sector of the border with East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Many times I, with my weapons, looked through binoculars over the Wall to men like myself, armed with binoculars trained on me. It was your beloved Berlin Wall that kept us apart. He kept us from doing violence to each other. I am sure those men were like myself in many ways -- they had families they loved and wanted to protect. They would rather be somewhere else, doing something else than looking at the magnified image of another anonymous armed man. I could feel the strength of the Wall, and many times I was happy he was there."

Politics isn't my major interest, but the Berlin Wall as a being is.
For the rest I suggest you take a look at
9th of November 1989 Tragedy page.
Why I love the Berlin Wall.

Anyone who has pictures, articles or other material on the Berlin Wall, is welcome to contact me. I collect everything on the Berlin Wall.
E-Mail: berlinermauer@berlin-wall.org.

Adress:
Wall W. Berliner-Mauer
Lidenvägen 74
S-860 41 LIDEN
SWEDEN