Berlin Wall?

Question

So apparently 4 years before I was born, the Berlin Wall was knocked down. What was it for, and why did it get knocked down?

Please please PLEASE explain this to me in simple words (i'm special :)
Just kidding, but I was born Italy and haven't really learned about much history other than italian history. I like small words!

Answer 1

The Berlin wall was knocked down in 1989. But it was not as simple as people getting sick of corruption, a police state and the food shortages in Communist East Germany.

Originally intended to keep people in and segregate the Soviet Union controlled part of Germany after World War 2,
the Berlin wall failed to restrict access of those Germans wanting to escape East Germany when in August 1989, Hungary opened up its borders with Eastern Germany.

By opening up its borders, Hungary allowed East Germans then to escape to Austria, and then on to West Germany. After this, the Berlin wall became useless as any type of preventative measure to stop people escaping.

With East Germans now able to escape via Hungary, communism in East Germany collapsed, and communism as a political system collapsed throughout Eastern Europe.

Answer 2

At the end of World War II, Germany's borders were changed, and running the new Germany by the occupation forces was divided among the British, the American, the French, and the Soviets. This was true for the country as a whole, but a smaller version of the same divided Berlin, although it was well within the area otherwise administered by the Soviet Union.
The western powers consolidated their administrations and eventually turned their areas over to the Germans themselves, and the country of West Germany was born. The Soviets kept a tighter rein on their sector but it became East Germany. Berlin divided into West Berlin and East Berlin. Part of the agreements from the end of WW II was that West Berliners were allowed free access across East Germany to get into West Germany. You may want to read about the Berlin Airlift to see some of the politics of the Cold War era.
The worker's paradise of the east was such that it was pretty common for Osties to "visit" in West Berlin and defect, finding their way out of communist domination. This was politically embarrassing to the communists, so in 1961 the wall was put up. The collapse of communism and the freedom that ensued were exemplified by the destruction of the wall.

Answer 3

You might not understand all of it.

The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the divide that existed between West's Capitalism and Soviet Communism.

It was a symbol of the cold war that existed between these two ideologies.

German people broke the wall out of their desire to unite and the USSR collapsed soon after. Communism weakened.

The fall of the Iron Curtain, as it is sometimes called, had huge effects. China and India became strong economies within a decade after moving towards Capitalism after the Fall.

All of a sudden 3 billion people from the east started competing with the West. The result is what you are seeing now--- Globalization.

Answer 4

Get to your history book and read, girl!!!
The Wall was put up in 1961 to ostensibly show the division of East and West; that is, the US vs the USSR. It heralded a low point in the Cold War that lasted until 1989, when the USSR was dismantled, and the Wall came down.
An extremely important phenomenon in modern history, and one you should be aware of!
Go Read!