An iron curtain separated Germany and Berlin for over 28 years, destroying East Germany's freedom, and democracy and the people could do nothing about it. This curtain was the Berlin Wall. It was several miles long and heavily fortified. The wall symbolized communist rule, which had taken over Eastern Europe after World War II. Life as troubling and internationally everyone was surprised at its sudden construction. The Berlin wall not only lead to many deaths, but the unfair imprisonment of East Berlin ( east German ) citizens from the people, communities, and culture of West Berlin.
Germany, the losers of World War II, were forced to live under Allied rule as punishment for its crimes in the 1960’s. On the western side the British, American, and French forces ruled, and on the East, communist Soviet Union (now Russia) ( Grant 4). In East Germany lied a city, a once great
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Also the standard of living of living was so much higher, there were better paying jobs, and money was worth more (Epler 43). Over (blank ) million East Berliners/Germans left for the West (citation). The population was declining so much that Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader at the time, gave orders to build the wall. On August 13, 1961 (in the late evening) chisel and hammer-wielding workers got to work on setting up small concrete barriers with some barbed wire. Around midnight, telephone lines were cut, soviet troops filled Berlin (armed with machine guns) and train lines were stopped at 2 a.m. (Epler 52,53). The Berliners awoke to a wall crudely cutting across roads and parks. Although not that extensive at first , it cut off customers, schoolchildren, friends, employees, families, churchgoers, and so on (Grant