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Berlin Wall
wall, Berlin, Germany
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External Websites
- Office of the Historian - The Berlin Wall Falls and USSR Dissolves
- Humanities LibreTexts - The Berlin Wall as a political symbol
- Imperial War Museums - What was the Berlin Wall and how did it fall?
- Academia - Berlin Wall
- Alpha History - The Berlin Wall
- United States History for Kids - Fall of the Berlin Wall
- Khan Academy - The Berlin Wall as a political symbol
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Top Questions
Why was the Berlin Wall built?
When did the Berlin Wall fall?
What was the “death strip”?
Does the Berlin Wall still exist?
How tall was the Berlin Wall?
Berlin Wall, German Berliner Mauer, barrier that surrounded West Berlin and prevented access to it from East Berlin and adjacent areas of East Germany during the period from 1961 to 1989. In the years between 1949 and 1961, about 2.5 million East Germans had fled from East to West Germany, including steadily rising numbers of skilled workers, professionals, and intellectuals. Their loss threatened to destroy the economic viability of the East German state. In response, East Germany built a barrier to close off East Germans’ access to West Berlin and hence West Germany. That barrier, the Berlin Wall, was first ...(100 of 341 words)