Inner German border

The inner German border was 1,393 kilometres long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia. It was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of former Nazi Germany. Built by East Germany in phases from 1952 to the late 1980s, the fortifications were constructed to stop the large-scale emigration of East German citizens to the West. The border was not completely abandoned until 1 July 1990, exactly 45 years to the day since its establishment.

About Inner German border in brief

The inner German border was 1,393 kilometres long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia. It was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of former Nazi Germany. Built by East Germany in phases from 1952 to the late 1980s, the fortifications were constructed to stop the large-scale emigration of East German citizens to the West. About 1,000 of whom are said to have died trying to cross it during its 45-year existence. The border was not completely abandoned until 1 July 1990, exactly 45 years to the day since its establishment, and only three months before German reunification formally ended Germany’s division. Its route has been declared part of the European Green Belt linking national parks and nature reserves along the course of the old Iron Curtain from the Arctic Circle to the Black Sea. Several museums and memorials along the old border commemorate the division and reunification of Germany and, in some places, preserve elements of the Fortifications. The Inner German border originated from plans by the Allies of World War II to divide a defeated Germany into occupation zones. Their boundaries were drawn along the territorial boundaries of 19th-century German states and provinces that had largely disappeared with the unification of Germany in 1871. Three zones were agreed on, each covering roughly a third of Germany: a British zone in the north-west, an American zone in the south and a Soviet zone in the East. The division of Germany was put into effect on 1 July 1945. An East German who escaped or was released to West was automatically granted the right to work, work and residence in the West, and was automatically eligible to apply to the EEC.

In October 1949, the three western occupation zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany with a freely elected government under communist rule. From the outset, East Germany was deemed a communist faiti without a freely or fairly elected government without a powerful incentive to move to West, where they were deemed to be more powerful. The East German government announced the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. Over the following days, millions of East Germans poured into the West to visit. Hundreds of thousands moved permanently to West in the following months as more crossings were opened, and ties between long-divided communities were re-established as border controls became little more than a cursory formality. The better-known Berlin Wall was a physically separate, less elaborate, and much shorter border barrier surrounding West Berlin, more than 155 kilometres to the east of the innerGerman border. It caused widespread economic and social disruption on both sides; East Germans living in the region suffered especially draconian restrictions. The West German government did not allow East Germans to leave the East until the end of the Second World War, when they were allowed to emigrate to the United States and other Western countries. The German Democratic Republic was established in 1949 and became the German Federal Republic in October 1949.

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