Construction of the Berlin Wall and the Events that Led to Its Construction - Research Paper Example

The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 in an attempt to prevent the crème da crème of East Germany from going to West Germany. It was built post World War II and inaugurated on the 16th August of the same year. The eastern sector of Berlin was under the control of the Soviet Union and the western sector under the United States, France, and Great Britain. Technically and officially East Germany also known as German Democratic Republic (GDR) was a communist state. It existed for around forty-one years under Soviet control spanning it through the 1949-1990 eras.

Soviet sector constituted all the major hubs including Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, and Lichtenberg; it was also the biggest o the spot and the whole idea was to prevent an imminent brain drain, departure of the well educated talented elite from East Germany. It also aimed at keeping at bay various spy centers and other organizations from intruding. It was then when a threat of yet another Great Depression engulfed Europe and Germany constituted the league of those severely affected.

A majority of German city had been effaced while the transportation system remained shanty. Seldomly, refugees from the East would be seen moving to the west in search of a sound society ready to work for some measly money in this bid. The move aimed at assuaging the economic crisis and was popularly called the Marshall Plan. It was named after the then U.S Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the first one to make the call for the reconstruction of Europe apparently. In another move, in July 1958, the East Germany Congress announced all agricultural products be collected and distributed at wholesale prices.

The move aimed at improving industrial output and formed the basis of the seven-year economic stimulus which was originally meant to bring the PPC of East Germany at par with that of West Germany.