East Berlin Wall Destruction

The Berlin Wall did avert a vast number of East Berliners from trying emigrate to the West, but it didn’t prevent everyone, almost over 5,000 people successfully made it to East Berlin safely. Many of the Successful attempts were safe like climbing over the wall; others were dangerous and full of destruction by striking into the wall. Unfortunately, while many of East Berliners made it over without any problems, about 100 to 200 died attempting to get across the wall to West Berlin, trying to regroup with relatives, or trying to seek a better future for their families. The reason for these deaths were because, East German guards were permitted to shoot at anyone who tried to get across without any warning of some sort. One of the most famous
failed attempts was on August 17, 1962, two 18 year old East Germans ran to the wall with the intention of climbing it. The first of the two men go to the Berlin wall and climbed over it with no problems and climbed it. The second man, Peter Fechter wasn’t so lucky, when a guard opened fire, he continued to climb the wall until he reached the wall and was so exhausted that he jumped back onto the East side of the wall. The reason for this was so he could shock the world that he was just left there without any aid, until he bled out and eventually died.