The Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a wall in that divided East and West Germany. East Germany started building the wall on August 13, 1961 and finished within a year. The Soviet Union controlled the East side of the wall and the Western powers dominated the west side. The wall had guards armed with guns on towers every few miles on the Eastern side on the Eastern side. The Berlin Wall was 96 miles long(155km) with concrete and had a height of 11.8 ft. The wall also prevented immigration and emigration to both sides. The U.S defended the west Berliners while the Soviets defended the eastern side. The fall of the wall began in August 19, 1989 when 13,000 East German tourists escaped from Hungary to Austria. The East Germaners' refused to return to the east and stayed in West Germany. In Czechoslovakia the East German allowed their citizens to cross to the West. The leader of East Germany, Egon Krenz demanded that the wall should be demolished when he replaced Erich Honecker. Gunter Schabowski announced that East Berliners were able to cross the wall legally on November 9, 1989.