1. The Berlin Wall

2. What Was the Berlin Wall?
●
The Berlin Wall was a barricade
raised by the German Democratic
Republic in 1961 all the way up to
1989.
●
●
The Berlin Wall divided Berlin into
two sides east and west.
The east side of the wall was under
the control of Soviet Russia while
the west side was divided into 3
parts controlled by the US, Britain,
and France.

3. Life Before the Wall
●
●
●
Shortly after the war had ended the
living conditions in east and west
Germany were vastly different.
From the help West Germany got
from its allies it was able to set up
a capitalist society which resulted
in an economic boom known as the
“economic miracle”.
On the opposing side of Germany
the economic and overall situation
was nearly opposite.
●
●
East Germany was pillaged by the
Soviets and the supply's taken
would be brought back to Soviet
Russia.
East Germany became a
communist society under the
influence of the Soviets.

4. Why Was it Built?
●
●
●
●
In the late 50's people in East
Germany were getting dissatisfied
with the life style they lived.
The East Germans were poverty
stricken and under the communist
rule had less rights then those of
the Western Germans.
●
●
Overtime people in East Germany
took their opportunity and moved to
West Germany and West Berlin.
The massive emigration resulted in
2.5 million people moving out of
East Germany by 1961.
●
With the appalling amount of
people leaving East Germany to go
to West Germany the soviets were
desperately in need of a way to
decrease the amount of people
leaving.
East Germany’s biggest issue with
the emigrations was that East
Germans had easy access into and
through West Berlin.
In desperation the Soviets decided
to build a wall blocking
transportation in and out of West
Berlin to reduce the amount of
people emigrating out.

5. Life During the Wall
●
●
●
Once the Berlin Wall was
constructed no one was able to
come and go from West Berlin
without going through checkpoints
and following and passing the
procedures or else they would run
the risk of being shot at and killed.
The Wall caused many families to
become divided and unable to see
each other.
It also caused employees in East
Berlin to be unable to go to their
jobs in West Berlin.

6. East Berlin
●
●
●
●
Life in East Berlin was rough, many people
who already were going through the
misery’s of poverty now were also unable to
visit family in West Berlin.
The people in East Berlin were restricted in
the communist life style they lived in
compared to their capitalist counter part
West Berlin.
In East Berlin under the communist rule
people could not own land, buy or sell any
as well.
Other restrictions from the communist rule
was that people would only be given what
they needed not what they wanted and
everyone would have to work together for
the country as best as they can.
●
●
Those living in East Berlin also did not
have the rights to freedom of speech,
and were also under heavy
surveillance.
Under the communist rule everyone
had the same wages so their was no
incentive to work hard or to try to be
better at things.

7. West Berlin
●
●
●
●
●
Those living in West Berlin were under
a capitalist rule.
They had the rights to own, buy, and
sell land and property’s.
People had more privacy in Western
Berlin as well as freedom of speech.
Those living in West Berlin were highly
restricted of being able to leave and the
only form of communication with the
western world was through air traffic.
Anyone who tried to escape would be
shot on sight no matter if you were a
man, women, or children there was a
zero tolerance policy.

8. Contrasting the Two
●
West Berlin
●
●
●
●
Overall West Berlin had more civil
rights and was safer as long as you
didn’t try to escape.
The economy was much better in
West Berlin.
●
East Berlin
●
●
You were not being motorized as
much and had more privacy.
●
Most people were restricted from
leaving and entering.
●
Life in East Berlin wasn’t as safe
with this side of the city under strict
military control.
The economy was poor and most
people wanted to leave and go to
West Germany.
You had very little privacy and
couldn’t enter West Berlin.
Under the communist rule you
couldn’t own, sell, or buy property.