How Did The Berlin Wall Collapse

The Berlin Wall was the most visual symbol of the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States. The wall stretched a total of 96 miles, but only 27 of those miles separated the East side and the West side of Berlin. The rest of the wall separated West Berlin from East Germany's countryside. After a long 28 years, the wall finally came crumbling down in November of 1989. The Berlin Wall fell because the military buildup of the United States and NATO backed down the Soviets successfully bankrupting them, also the extended empire the Soviets were running became too much to handle and it collapsed from its excessive weight and dysfunctionality therefore the Soviets were not able to control everything so the wall came down and lastly

One of those ways was in a hot air balloon. In the year 1979 eight people flew over the Berlin Wall in a homemade air balloon. The the families of Hans Strelczyk and Gunter Wetzel collected small pieces of cloth over time to make the top of the air balloon. The east side started to control the purchases of lightweight cloth after this happened. They thought that it would stop people buy getting over, but the West Berliners came up with many other unique ways to get over the wall. Another way many people got across was through underground tunnels. Most tunnels took months to build. More than 70 tunnels have been discovered 20% of which were successful and reached the other side of the wall. In 1962 around 12 senior citizens dug a tunnel and escaped from West Berlin to East Berlin. It was led by a 81 year old man the tunnel was then called the senior citizens tunnel. Some people even used air mattress to get to escape from West Berlin. They would get to the Elbe river and swim to safety. Another way people got from side to side was with a diplomatic passport. From afar a playboy membership card looked a lot like the diplomatic passports. Because of this guards occasionally waved people across not realizing that is was actually a playboy membership card. On August 13, 1961, the day the wall was built, Karin and Karl-Heinz Albert saw trouble ahead and came to the conclusion that they had to leave as soon as they could. So they decided to sneak across the border through an underground sewer. In the end around 100 people crossed into the west side by going through the sewage systems. In 1961 a man by the name of Harry Deterling drove a train through the Berlin Wall at full speed. This act was called the “Last Train to Freedom”. The train stopped in West Berlin in the district of Spandau. Deterling stayed in the west with his family though man of the other families on the train went back to the