Berlin Wall


noun
  1. a guarded concrete wall, 28 miles (45 km), with minefields and controlled checkpoints, erected across Berlin by East Germany in 1961 and dismantled in 1989.

Words Nearby Berlin Wall

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Berlin Wall in a sentence

  • The Berlin Wall has fallen and his books, extolling the “economic miracle” of East Germany, are antiquated.

    Must-Read Debuts | Taylor Antrim | October 22, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST

Cultural definitions for Berlin wall (1 of 2)

Berlin wall

A wall that separated West Berlin, Germany, from East Germany, which surrounded it until 1989. At the end of World War II, the victorious Allies divided Berlin, the German capital, into four sectors. The eastern, or Russian, sector became the capital of communist East Germany. The French, British, and American sectors continued as a prosperous Western “island” city surrounded by East Germany. From then until 1961, many East Germans, sometimes two thousand a day, fled to West Berlin, often with nothing more than the clothes they had on their backs. In the summer of 1961, the wall was built, and East Germany forbade its citizens to cross the wall, at the risk of being shot immediately by border guards. In November 1989, the East German government reopened the border and issued visas to East Berliners. The Berliners celebrated by breaking off pieces of the wall at a mass demonstration, which lasted into the next day. The wall has since been demolished.

Notes for Berlin wall

The Berlin wall was one of the most visible signs of the cold war and has become a symbol (see also symbol) of the Iron Curtain and totalitarianism.
Berlin Wall

Fortified concrete and wire barrier that separated East and West Berlin from 1961 to 1989. It was built by the government of what was then East Germany to keep East Berliners from defecting to the West.

Notes for Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a symbol (see also symbol) of the inability of a communist state to keep its citizens from leaving when they have a choice.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.