A Role and Functions of Iron Curtain

The Berlin Wall was built to separate East and West Germany in 1961 to help stop the Cold War from becoming a bigger war than necessary.

By 1961, around 2.5 million people from East Germany moved to West Germany every day. These people who moved to the west were skilled laborers, professionals, and intellectuals. So to save the economy of East Germany, Soviet leader, Nikkta Khrushchev recommended to East Germany officials that to close off access between East and West Berlin would be the best idea. The officials agreed, not knowing that Khrushchev had other motives. When Khrushchev got the okay on the overnight of August 12-13, 1961 Khrushchev gathered as many German Soldiers and volunteers to lay down more than 30 miles of barbed wire through the heart of Berlin. Khrushchev thought that this would be best because he could now make everyone in East Germany fall under his command of communism.

East Berlin citizens were soon forbidden to go into West Berlin and the same went for the West into the East expect though the few of the check points that were left open. Eventually no more checkpoints were open expect 3, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie. It was this way because Khrushchev didn’t want to lose any more people from the East, and he didn’t want the West to have any more influence on the East of different views.

On August 15, 1961 Khrushchev started to replace the barbed wire with concrete blocks to ensure that the East and the West would be separated forever. Khrushchev told the East Germans that the wall was supposed to protect them from the West because the West was a bad influence. The people in West Germany and others parts of the world viewed this wall as a sign of communist oppression. Even though the wall was in no way a good thing, the president of the United States said that having a wall to separate East and West Berlin was way better than having a war going on, and that it was a simple solution for it.

Some of the East Germans didn’t care about the way or they had no idea that it was going to cut them off from the West for good until it was too late to do anything about it. But while the wall was being built more than 5,000 East Germans escaped across the wall to the West to be free from the newly found slavery. But there were still thousands that tried to escape over the wall but got caught in the process and almost 200 were killed while trying to escape into the West.

The Berlin Wall grew in size and scope. It became two concrete walls reaching the height of 15 feet and a width of 4 feet, and it was topped with barbed wire and a pole that was large in width to prevent anyone from coming or going. In between these two massive walls there was soft sand so foot prints could be seen, buried land mines, armed watch towers, army personal with loaded weapons told to shoot on site, and dogs trained to stop anything that moves. This made it almost impossible for anyone to pass over or through the wall without permission. But still people tried to escape to the West.

The Berlin wall is now known as the Iron Curtain of Berlin. It is still massive in size and power, but in 1980 it started to crumble.