The Berlin Blockade

The country of Germany had been fragmented and occupied after the Second World War, and between the war and the construction of the wall, cold war tensions rose during the Berlin Blockade and Airlift. As West Germany and East Germany would become their own states and form allegiances, West Berlin would become a bone in Khrushchev's throat. The Berlin Wall was constructed with the primary objective to contain fleeing denizens of Eastern Germany, however, multiple other social, political and economic objectives of varying precedences also motivated the kremlin to order its erection.
The primary motivation for the creation of an ‘iron curtain’ around West Berlin was to contain fleeing denizens of Eastern Germany. West Berlin had acted as an 'escape
hatch' through which two and a half million enterprising or dissatisfied East Germans headed to the west in pursuit of political freedom and a higher standard of living. This loss of skilled workers, professionals and intellectuals was damaging the economic viability of East Germany. Many sources, both primary and secondary are similar in their description of the emigration as being this size and taking such a toll on East Germany, and so this knowledge can be deemed universally acceptable. Through Berlin, Millions of people had ‘fled the republic’ and bled dry the East German economy. Because of the democratic influence of West Berlin, people had been driven to flee not only for economic freedom but also social freedoms in the West. Economic concerns that arose from the location of West Berlin also motivated Khrushchev to order the construction of the wall. Between 1945 and 1961,a variety of sources illustrate that the GDR fell behind in growth as Deutsche Marks were introduced in Western Germany to create purchasing power. Conversations between Ulbricht and Khrushchev also illustrate the extent to which this occurred. Furthermore, The GDR was left out of the free trade zone that encompassed the remainder of Germany, and so the economy of Eastern Germany.In addition, a united Berlin under soviet control would be able to produce more goods to be exported to the Soviet Union, thus the construction of the wall served not only to solve economic problems in East Germany, but to also benefit the Soviet Union In this way the construction of the Berlin Wall gave the German Democratic Republic, as Khrushchev put it "every opportunity to develop its economy in a normal way, just as every other country did."
Both the memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, The Berlin Wall: A World Divided, 1961-1989 written by Frederick Taylor and the remainder of the source gathered allude to the Berlin Wall being built for social and political purposes , as it not only sought to contain the influx of potential emmigrants, but also as it served to curtail the spread of democratic ideas.
West Berlin as an island of democracy in a sea of soviet territory had created major political problems that both Ulbricht and Khrushchev felt needed to be addressed. The Marshall plan had delayed the removal of American forces from Europe, and this left a pocket of them in occupied Western Germany and the occupied section of West Berlin. And so, the wall was built as an extension of the iron curtain in Germany, the telephone lines were cut, the bus and tram service was indefinitely suspended, barbed wire watchtowers and minefields created an uncrossable corridor, a genuine iron curtain. All modes of communicating with the West was cut off, and thus the Berlin Wall became not only a physical barrier, but also a social one. Moreover, the secondary wall on the eastern side, which would come to be patrolled by guards with machine guns would not be directed at keeping people out, but entrapping the denizens like prisoners. Furthermore, it was speculated that the isolation of West and East Berlin could plausibly cause the allies to secede from occupying that zone, leaving all of the capital under soviet control. Moreover, it was thought that Berlin was the spot most likely to trigger a nuclear conflict, and so West berlin became a bone in Khrushchev's throat. The combination of these economic, social and political influences, tied together with the prospects of building an ‘iron ring’ around Berlin to staunch emigration, led up to the construction of the
wall.