The separation of Berlin began in 1945 after the collapse of Germany. The country was divided into four zones, where each superpower controlled a zone. In 1946, reparation agreements broke down between the Soviet and Western zones. Response of the West was to merge French, British, and American zones in 1947.

The West wanted to revive the German economy and combine the three western zones into one area. Soviet Union feared this union because it gave the one combined zone more power than its zone. On June 23, 1948, the western powers introduced a new form of currency into the western zones, which caused the Soviet Union to impose the Berlin Blockade one day later. After Germany was divided into two parts, East Germany built the Berlin Wall to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the west. The wall physically divided the country into eastern communism and western democracy. Many East Germans tried to escape to the west because it was economically prosperous and granted its citizens more freedoms.

The Berlin Wall is the climax to the separation of Berlin. It was built on the night of August 12 with barbed wire entanglements that stretched along the thirty mile line that divided Berlin.

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