When was the Berlin wall built?

During the early years of the Cold War (a period after World War II with tension between powers in the Western Bloc and powers in the Eastern Bloc), West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. It was thrown up overnight, on August 13,1961.

The Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) actually built a barbed wire and concrete wall (Antifascistischer Schutzwall or anti-fascist bulwark) between East and West Berlin in 1961.

More Info: www.history.com

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10 Comments

Lawanta

Coral Harvey, that's mostly what I heard about on the news when I was in grade school and junior high.

Vicki Taylor

A West German radio news show interviewed the mayor of East Berlin in 1960 and asked him what he was going to do about the thousands of East Berliners who had fled to West Berlin. He replied, "We're not sure yet, but we're not going to build a wall." No one had mentioned a wall yet.

teacherchicky

People think that it rose immediately after the end of WWII but it was actually the rise of communism that caused Berlin to be divided!

Coral Harvey

I remember my parents discussing the iron curtain when I was about five.

Karin Johansson

Ben, it was builr fast in secret. From almost one Night to another.

Ben

Why would the US together with the UK allowed the wall to be build by east German government. It would separate a lot of families in the process. Especially germany had already suffered a lot during and after the fall of Adolf Hitler.

Richard D. Boyle

Donald McBurney, The GDR started to build the wall on 13 August 1961. I was there in the late 1950s and there was no wall. Give me your source for your statement.