Situation Report The Berlin Wall 1961 1989 Intelligence

Situation Report: The Berlin Wall 1961 -1989

Intelligence Brief • The Wall was built nearly overnight in 1961. The goal of the die Mauer was to keep East Berliners from escaping to West Berlin. • To us, it was a symbol of Communist oppression

Intel Continued • The wall followed a path that cut through not only city streets, but residential neighborhoods and even a cemetery. • In total, the wall covered close to 100 miles.

Connection to the Cold War • The Wall became a focal point of the Cold War when JFK visited Berlin in the summer of 1963. He was met by cheering crowds as he spoke out against not only the wall, but the powers that put it there. • JFK - I am a Berliner

Connection Continued • By the 1980 s, economic hardships were becoming more commonplace in the USSR and her satellites. East Germany was no different. President Ronald Reagan made another famous speech at the Wall demanding that Soviet Premier Gorbachev “tear down this wall”

Contrasting Views Taken in 1984, the foreground shows the Western side, colorful and coated in art. The Eastern side, however was only to be approached by guards on patrol

Escape • More than 10, 000 people tried to escape East Berlin in the years of the wall. Close to 200 were killed at the wall. • At the end of the year in 1989, East Germans began defection though neighboring countries. The numbers were hard to ignore.

An Order Misunderstood • Initially, Party officials wanted to relax some regulations regarding travel from East to West. When an East German leader read the hastily drawn and ill explained new rules, East Germans took it as a sign that they could just leave. And leave, they did. On the night on 9 November, 1989 throngs of people showed up to the checkpoints that once split the city.

At first, guards tried to turn people away. They soon realized that it was futile to resist the waves. The Fall Almost immediately, people began to tear down the wall that stood for decades as the symbol of their repression. Though the fall of the Berlin Wall did not end the Cold War, it was a major metaphorical nail in its coffin.

Informants • JFK Library - The Berlin Wall • Wikipedia- The Berlin Wall