What Goes Up Must Come Down

Following World War II, the Allied forces divided Germany into four zones: one each for France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Same thing for Germany’s capital city of Berlin, which was located entirely in the Soviet zone.

However, cooperation between the Soviet Union and other Allied forces deteriorated quickly. Germany eventually became East Germany (Soviets) and West Germany (Western Europe). The Allied-controlled portion of Berlin became an island of democracy, with freedom and a thriving economy. As for East Berlin and East Germany as a whole — not so much.

The Soviet Union’s fancy was not tickled by this stark contrast. They wanted West Berlin absorbed into the East, with Allied forces exiting. In 1948, they blockaded West Berlin. The U.S. and Britain valiantly airlifted supplies to the besieged city for a year, until the blockade was lifted in 1949. Continued threats and counterthreats, which included nuclear weapons, were commonplace.

Meanwhile, East Germans could freely enter West Berlin for employment, social events, and family visits. Between 1949 and 1961, more than 2 million East German citizens — many of them skilled laborers and professionals — fled for Western Europe via West Berlin. This population and workforce drain prompted the East to erect the Berlin Wall in the dead of night on August 13, 1961.

The wall was 96 miles long, surrounding the entirety of West Berlin — concrete posts/slabs, barbed wire, steel girders to prevent wall-scaling, watchtowers, snipers, trip-wire machine guns, guard dogs, anti-vehicle trenches, and minefields.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan implored Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!” Following this succinct request, internal Soviet political change and external pressures brought the wall down in 1989.