Editing Separation barrier (section)

==Past separation barriers==

===Germany===
[[File:BerlinWall-BrandenburgGate.jpg|right|thumb|People climb onto the wall near [[Brandenburg Gate]] during the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]], November 1989.]]
{{Main|Berlin Wall}}
The [[Berlin Wall]] was a [[Border barrier|barrier]] that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989,<ref name="Chicago Tribune 1">{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-myths-berlin-wall-fall-reagan-east-west-perspec-1102-20141031-story.html#page=1|title=Untangling 5 myths about the Berlin Wall|author=Chicago Tribune|date=31 October 2014|work=Chicago Tribune|access-date=1 November 2014}}</ref> constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, [[East Germany]]) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off (by land) [[West Berlin]] from surrounding [[East Germany]] and from [[East Berlin]] until it was opened in November 1989.<ref>{{cite video
 | year =1961
 | title =Video: Berlin, 1961/08/31 (1961)
 | url =https://archive.org/details/1961-08-31_Berlin
 | publisher =[[Universal Newsreel]]
 | access-date =20 February 2012
}}</ref> Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thejournal.ie/berlin-wall-anniversary-1762450-Nov2014/|title=In Photos: 25 years ago today the Berlin Wall fell|first=Órla|last=Ryan|website=thejournal.ie|date=9 November 2014 |access-date=21 April 2018}}</ref> The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls,<ref name="Marck">[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/5/2006_5_70.shtml Jack Marck] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829173505/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/5/2006_5_70.shtml |date=2008-08-29 }} "Over the Wall: A Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience" ''American Heritage'', October 2006.</ref> which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "[[bed of nails|fakir beds]]" and other defenses. The [[Eastern Bloc]] claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a [[Communism|socialist state]] in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive [[Eastern Bloc emigration and defection|emigration and defection]] that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.

The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "[[Anti-Fascist]] Protection Rampart" ({{langx|de|Antifaschistischer Schutzwall}}) by GDR authorities, implying that the [[NATO]] countries and [[West Germany]] in particular were "[[fascism|fascists]]".<ref>{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715113028/http://homepage.univie.ac.at/ernst.grabovszki/Handout_Eingemauert.pdf |date=15 July 2011}}</ref> The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the "[[Wall of Shame]]"—a term coined by mayor [[Willy Brandt]]—while condemning the Wall's restriction on [[freedom of movement]]. Along with the separate and much longer [[Inner German border]] (IGB), which demarcated the border between East and [[West Germany]], it came to symbolize the "[[Iron Curtain]]" that separated Western Europe and the [[Eastern Bloc]] during the [[Cold War]].

Before the Wall's erection, 3.5&nbsp;million East Germans circumvented [[Eastern Bloc emigration and defection|Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions]] and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin, from where they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the wall prevented almost all such emigration.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959058,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121211406/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959058,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 21, 2007 |title=Freedom!  |publisher=Time |date=20 November 1989 |access-date=9 November 2009}}</ref> During this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with an estimated death toll of from 136<ref name="Chronik">{{cite web|url=http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Common/Document/field/file/id/45997 |title=Forschungsprojekt "Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer, 1961–1989": BILANZ (Stand: 7. August 2008) (in German) |access-date=6 August 2011}}</ref> to more than 200<ref name="contemporary research">{{cite web|url=http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/593792 |title=Center for Contemporary Historical Research (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam e.V) in German |publisher=Chronik-der-mauer.de |access-date=6 August 2011}}</ref> in and around Berlin.

In 1989, [[Revolutions of 1989|a series of radical political changes]] occurred in the [[Eastern Bloc]], associated with the [[glasnost|liberalization]] of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-[[Soviet Union|Soviet]] governments in nearby [[Poland]] and [[Hungary]]. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the wall; the governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of what was left. Contrary to popular belief the wall's actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992.<ref name="Chicago Tribune 1"/> The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for [[German reunification]], which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990.