Event · Twentieth century · Germany
Berlin Wall
1961–1989
Barrier sealing West Berlin from East Germany, built 13 August 1961, opened 9 November 1989. Built to stop emigration; shoot-to-kill orders governed escape attempts.
Facts
- Built
- Night of 12–13 August 1961 (Operation Rose).
- Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Berlin Wall
- Opened
- 9 November 1989, after Schabowski's press conference and crowds at the checkpoints.
- Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Berlin Wall
- Deaths at the Wall
- At least about 140 deaths associated with the Wall regime, including roughly 101 escapees shot or killed in the attempt (research counts vary slightly by definition).
- Source: Berlin Wall Memorial research
The record
Before the Wall, millions had left East Germany through Berlin. Ulbricht denied plans to build it while wire and concrete were prepared. The death strip, towers and Schießbefehl made escape lethal.
The opening in November 1989 came from botched travel rules, crowds, and border officers unwilling to order a massacre. Reunification followed in 1990. Filed with Germany and the Stasi.
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Links in both directions: what this page points to, and what points here.
Articles
Desk pieces that belong with this record.
The StasiEast Germany did not maintain control through a heavy armed presence on every street corner. Instead, it constructed a state apparatus built on files, covert listening devices, and formal pledges of cooperation.Read 
The Berlin WallThe story of totalitarian power is never purely about abstract political doctrine, it is a visceral, bloody tally of human lives sacrificed to an all consuming ideological idol.Read
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