The Berlin Wall explained in 500 words
Thirty years ago, the world watched as the Berlin Wall fell. The physical divide between East and West Berlin, the wall was also a symbolic divide in a country that had been torn in two and divided up by the victorious western allies and the Soviets at the end of the Second World War.
Here’s all the background you need to know in 500 words:
A divided city within a divided country
Despite falling entirely within the boundary of Soviet-controlled East Germany, at the end of World War II the administration of the German capital was divided into four separate zones, with one each being controlled by Britain, The United States, France and the Soviet Union.
Less than a year later, fundamental differences between the communist and capitalist systems resulted in the agreements breaking down. As a result, the western powers moved to combine their three zones into a single, centrally administered western zone, and on 23 June 1948, the West introduced a new currency into their combined zone.
