The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer or Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) was a separation barrier between West Berlin and East Germany (the German Democratic Republic), which closed the border between East and West Berlin for 28 years. Construction on the wall began on August 13, 1961, and it was dismantled in the weeks following November 9, 1989. The Berlin Wall was the most prominent part of the GDR border system and an iconic symbol of the Cold War.
Conceived by the East German administration of Walter Ulbricht and approved by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev[1], it was built during the post-World War II period of divided Germany, in an effort to stop the drain of labour and economic output associated with the daily migration of huge numbers of professionals and skilled workers from East to West Berlin, and the attendant defections, which hurt the Communist bloc economically and politically. It decreased emigration (escapes - "Republikflucht" in German) from 2.5 million between
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