What Was The Impact Of The Berlin Wall

Constructed of concrete and brick, topped with a razor sharp barbed wire, the Berlin Wall divided a city, a country, and a world (“Berlin Wall”). Built at the height of the Cold War, the wall symbolized the different political ideologies of the world’s superpowers. The East German government erected a wall to prevent citizens from illegally crossing into the more prosperous democracy of West Germany. The Wall impacted every aspect of German citizens everyday lives, East or West. The Berlin Wall significantly contributed to Germany’s societal issues, political problems, and economical obstacles from the 1960’s through the end of the 1980’s. A societal issue that happened more than once was illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is crossing over a border, disregarding the immigrations laws of the designated country. East Berliners were fleeing over into West Berlin to live, in a way, a more free life. The statistics show that by “...August 1961, approximately 2.2 million citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) had left their country without official permission” (“Berlin Wall”). The communist reign of the GDR was failing with their citizens leaving their country and soon it was on the verge of collapsing. The GDR
Most of the citizens that left East Germany had left because of the strong hold the government had on its people. When the wall fell, the East government had back off and had no role on society. The government provided the people nothin after they back off from society. The citizens had to fend for themselves with money, food, and every other necessity they might need to survive.The wall also stood as a reminder of the different political ideologies. The Berlin Wall was “'collective symbol'...physical embodiment of the political system which made it -- both symbol of tyranny and symbol of liberation from tyranny."”