Immediately after World War II came to a close, the Allied victors were confronted with the question of what to do with Germany. The decision was made to divide it into four military zones each controlled by one of the Allies. Eventually Great Britain, France, and the United States combined their zones to form West Germany and the Soviet Union’s zone became East Germany. They did the same setup with the capital of Berlin. The division was initially supposed to be temporary, but it soon became apparent that it was much more. The Cold War soon ascended and with it the Iron Curtain formed putting an even larger strain on the unstable nations around the world. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s there was a massive exodus of refugees escaping the oppression of the Soviet Union (History.com Staff). About 2.7 million people left East Germany through West Berlin from 1949 to 1961 (“The Construction of the Berlin Wall”). There was an estimated 200,000 people that made the move from East Berlin to West Berlin in 1960 alone (“The Construction of the Berlin Wall”). Due to the massive exodus of people from East Germany and East Berlin, the German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany, …show more content…
Thick concrete slabs were laid between steel girders and concrete posts (Burkhardt). A sewage pipe was also attacked to the top of the wall making it nearly impossible to climb (Burkhardt). In 1975 the fourth generation Berlin Wall replaced the previous generation (Burkhardt). About 45,000 new concrete sections were laid which were much more resistant (Bates). It was also topped with the sewage pipe (Bates). When completed the fourth generation Berlin Wall stood 11.8 feet high and 4.9 feet wide (Bates). All of these components added up to make a wall that was nearly impossible to pass, but it was also patrolled at all times by soldiers given the order to shoot at anything that moves