Ms.

Background

After the end of World War II in Europe, what territorially remained of pre-1945 Germany had been divided into four occupation zones (thanks to the Yalta Conference), each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers: the Americans, British, French and Soviets. The old capital of of the Allied Control Council, was itself similarly subdivided into four zones. Although the intent was for the occupying powers to govern Germany together inside the 1947 borders, the advent of Cold War tension caused the French, British and American zones to be formed into the Federal Republic of Germany (and West Berlin) in 1949, excluding the Soviet zone which then formed the German Democratic Republic (including East Berlin) the same year.

Divergence of German states

From 1948 onwards, West Germany developed into a western capitalist country with a social market and a democratic parliamentary government. Prolonged economic growth starting in the 1950s fuelled a 30-year "economic miracle". Across the inner-German border, East Germany established an authoritarian government with a Soviet-style command economy. While East Germany became one of the richest, most advanced countries in the Eastern bloc, many of its citizens still looked to the West for political freedoms and economic prosperity. The flight of growing numbers of East Germans to non-communist countries via West Berlin led to Germany erecting the GDR border system (of which the Berlin Wall was a part) in 1961 to prevent any further exodus.

Massive emigration

From 1949 to 1961, huge numbers of professionals and skilled and qualified workers migrated daily from East to West Berlin вЂ" earning the name "GrenzgÐ"¤nger" вЂ" frequently because of lucrative opportunities connected with rebuilding Western Europe funded by the Marshall Plan. Furthermore, many West Berliners traveled into East Berlin to do their shopping at state-subsidized stores, where prices were much lower than in West Berlin. This drain of labour and economic output threatened East Germany with economic collapse. This had ramifications for the whole Communist bloc and particularly the Soviet Union, because East Germany's economy was being subsidised by the Soviet government, and simultaneously, the now-threatened East German production was responsible for all war reparations to Poland and the Soviet Union.

Proposed barrier

The impetus for the creation of the Berlin Wall came from East German leader Walter Ulbricht, approved by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, but with conditions imposed. Ulbricht's proposal for a second air blockade was refused and the construction of a barrier was permitted provided that it was composed at first of barbed wire. If the Allies challenged the barrier, the East Germans were to fall back and were not to fire first under any circumstances.

Immediate effects

Many families were split. Many East Berliners were cut off from their jobs and from chances for financial improvement; West Berlin became an isolated enclave in a hostile land. West Berliners demonstrated against the wall, led by their mayor Willy Brandt, who strongly criticised the United States for failing to respond. Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees but the main candidate for its location was around the perimeter of the city.

The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "anti-fascist protection barrier" ("antifaschistischer Schutzwall") intended to dissuade aggression from the West, despite the fact that all of the wall's defenses pointed inward to East German territory.

Thus, this position was viewed with skepticism even in East Germany; its construction had caused considerable hardship to families divided by the Wall and the Western view that the Wall was a means of preventing the citizens of East Germany from entering West Berlin was widely seen as being the truth.

The fall, 1989

On August 23, 1989, communist Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria, and in September more than 13,000 East German tourists in Hungary escaped to Austria. Mass demonstrations against the government in East Germany began in the autumn of 1989. The leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, resigned on October 18, 1989 and was replaced by Egon Krenz a few days later. Honecker had predicted in January of that year that the wall would stand for a "hundred more years" if the conditions which had caused its construction did not change.

Meanwhile the wave of refugees leaving East Germany for the West had increased and had found its way through Czechoslovakia, tolerated by the new Krenz government and in agreement with the still communist Czech government. In order to ease the complications, the politbureau lead by Krenz decided on November 9 1989 to allow refugees to exit directly through crossing points between East Germany and West Germany, including West Berlin. On the same day, the ministerial administration modified the proposal to include private travel. The new regulations were to take effect on November 10. GÐ"јnter Schabowski, the East German Minister of Propaganda, had the task of announcing this;