It happened quickly. Soldiers began tearing up the roads leading into West Berlin almost immediately and actually stood with weapons at the border with orders to shoot anyone who tried to cross.
Before long there were barbed-wire fences. Then concrete walls. Then dogs. Guard towers. And even anti-tank obstacles.
Of course, the East German government told people that the wall was for their protection, ostensibly to keep out rapists and thieves.
They said that there were too many foreigners coming in to East Berlin who unfairly bought up state-subsidized goods.
They also warned people of the looming threat of fascist invaders, and even went as far as to call the wall an “Anti-fascist protective rampart”.
As a child of the ’80s (I was born at the tail-end of the Carter administration), I remember how the Berlin Wall was a symbol of tyranny and oppression.
And from the steps of the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Ronald Reagan told the world in a now-famous speech from 1987, “The advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace,” before demanding, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
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