The Berlin Wall was built because of the refugee problem East Germany was suffering from. West Germany had a good economy and capitalist state, whilst the communist East had very poor standards 
of living. Nobody wanted to live in the East, so people started crossing to the West. By 1958, three million East Germans crossed to the West. The problem was that many of the people who crossed were professionals such as technicians, engineers and teachers, who were need in the East to help the problem with the economy.
On the 12 of August 1961, German troops built a barbed wire fence around the borders of East and West Germany. They then began to add concrete, mines, and guards. These mines were between two walls-one facing East, the other facing West-that stretched through 165 kilometers of Berlin. This area was called no mans land. Even though it was now almost impossible to escape to the West, people still tried. One woman through her mattress from her building window into West Berlin, and jumped onto it. She died from her injuries. The guards were instructed to shoot anyone that crossed, so, in August 1962, when to workers ran across the border one of them was shot. The other made it across, but the other lay dying for forty-five minutes. The guards took the body away when civilians started to yell ‘murderers’ across town. It was taken down in 1989.