Left Picture: http://www.cs.utah.edu/~hatch/images/europe/berlin.buildwall.jpg
Middle Picture: http://berlin-wall.org/bilder/b_mur2.jpg
Right Picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Berlinermauer.jpg

How It Started
    The Soviet Leader of Germany in 1961, Mikhail Gorbahev, was fustrated because people in West Berlin were migrating to either East Berlin or another country. Germans left because they were disgusted with the economic and political failure of communism. If Gorbachev allowed this to continue, soon, Berlin's population would be very low. To fix this problem, Mikhail Gorbachev needed a way to keep people in Berlin. That's when the Berlin Wall was built. The wall at first was not a concrete wall, but a 96 mile barbed wire fence. In 1962, Gorbachev built another barbed wire fence 100 yards further in. The land between the two fences was known as the "Death Strip". Later on, the concrete wall was added in 1965 because the goverment thought the barbed wire fences were not effective enough. With the concrete wall built, the wall was much more sufficient and the chances of people escaping were slim. That is exactly what Gorbachev wanted.


Picture
http://andreas.com/pixs/berlinwall.jpg

Facts

    Even though the Berlin Wall was not good for Germany, it still was very fascinating. The wall was built in 1961, but the concrete wall was not built until 1965. The wall lasted for 28 years and one day. It was also known as the Iron Curtain. The total length of the Berlin Wall was 155 kilometers. The concrete segment was 106 kilometers long while the wire mesh part was 66.5 kilometers. The height of the wall was 3.6 meters high and the border between East and West Berlin was 43.1 kilometers long. About 200 people died trying to cross the wall and get to the other side, most were East Berliners trying to get to West Berlin.