P407 - Germany - Berlin Wall (1961-1989)

Berlin Wall (1961-1989), 20 years after the wall came down, Berlin, Germany

The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a concrete barrier built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) that completely enclosed the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The Wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses.

The separate and much longer Inner German Border (the IGB) demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.
Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans had avoided Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and escaped from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin. From West Berlin, emigrants could travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. During its existence from 1961 to 1989, the Wall stopped almost all such emigration and separated the GDR from West Berlin for more than a quarter of a century. After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between around 100 and 200.

During a revolutionary wave sweeping across the Eastern Bloc, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protection Wall" (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) by the communist GDR authorities, implying that the western countries controlling West Berlin were fascist. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the Wall of Shame, a term coined by Willy Brandt.

林墙（德语：Berliner Mauer），东德称此墙为“反法西斯防卫墙”（Antifaschistischer Schutzwall），柏林墙约155公里长，约3至4米高。于1961年开始建造，一开始以铁丝网为材料，后才被换成更为坚固耐久的砖墙。

德国首都柏林在第二次世界大战以后被分割为东柏林与西柏林，东德为了隔绝东德人民投向西德，于是沿着边界在己方的领土上建立围墙，将西柏林整个包围起来。柏林墙的建立是二战以后德国分裂和冷战的重要标志性建筑。1989年11月9日，屹立了28年柏林墙倒塌，两德重归统一。

References sources : wikipedia