Museum Collections

The Berlin Wall was a concrete partition erected in 1961 by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) to divide the capital city of Berlin. The origins of the wall date to 1945 immediately after World War Two. After defeating Hitler, the Allied powers (United States, Soviet Union, and Britain – and later joined by France) divided Germany and Berlin into zones intended to prevent the country from unification and achieving unbridled power. Great Britain, the United States, and France controlled the three zones that became West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany); the Soviet Union controlled the fourth, East Germany. The capital city of Berlin, although physically located in East Germany, was also divided: the Soviet Union controlled East Berlin, while the Allies controlled West Berlin. This is a fragment of that wall, which was demolished in 1989.