East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall - History.com This Day in History -... - 0 views
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the communist government of East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin.
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wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War.
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Throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, thousands of people from East Berlin crossed over into West Berlin to reunite with families and escape communist repression
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the government of East Germany, on the night of August 12, 1961, began to seal off all points of entrance into West Berlin from East Berlin by stringing barbed wire and posting sentries.
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President John F. Kennedy believed that "A wall is a hell of a lot better than a war."
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sealing off the two sections of Berlin.
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Commanders of U.S. troops in West Berlin even began to make plans to bulldoze the wall,
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concrete block wall began, complete with sentry towers and minefields around it.
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attempt to reassure the West Germans that the United States was not abandoning them, Kennedy traveled to the Berlin Wall in June 1963, and famously declared, "Ich bin ein Berliner!" ("I am a Berliner!").
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Since the word "Berliner" was commonly referred to as a jelly doughnut throughout most of Germany, Kennedy's improper use of German grammar was also translated as "I am a jelly doughnut."
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meaning that he stood together with West Berlin in its rivalry with communist East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic was understood by the German people.
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the Berlin Wall became a physical symbol of the Cold War.
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During the lifetime of the wall, nearly 80 people were killed trying to escape from East to West Berlin.
