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• Berlin Wall
  Berlin Wall

  noun

  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.
• Berlin wall
  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.

Berlin Wall

American  

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.

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Berlin wall ¹ Cultural  

1. 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.

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Berlin Wall ² Cultural  

1. 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.

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Discover More

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.

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Berlin Wall Berlin wall

The story ends shortly after the Berlin Wall begins to go up in the summer of 1961.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine changed that, kick-starting the biggest rearmament effort on the continent since the the fall of the Berlin Wall.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

AfD state lawmaker Daniel Wald, 44, compared the unbridled happiness to the collective joy he remembers witnessing as a child on the day the Berlin Wall fell.

From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026

So did the Soviet Union, which was in the midst of the massive social, economic and cultural upheaval that culminated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

Almost thirty years earlier, East Germany's communist leaders had put up the Berlin Wall to dam the river of emigrants trying to leave the country.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

Property professionals fear the downturn in Germany could prove deeper than the 1990s crash following the dash for property in eastern Germany after the fall of the Berlin wall.

From Reuters ● Sep. 1, 2023

"When they did this it reminded me of the time people started taking the Berlin wall down, it's that moment," Ms Alinejad said.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2022

The book ranges widely from the fall of the Berlin wall to the Zapatista uprising in Mexico, to the invention of Viagra.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 21, 2019

As of yesterday the Berlin wall has been down as long as it was up.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2018

At the end of the second act, a ‘fake’ Berlin wall falls forward from the back of the stage sending a huge roaring wave of dust and thinly shredded plastic bits into the house.

From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2017

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