Allied occupation of Germany

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 87. Chapters: Berlin Wall, Potsdam Agreement, Spandau Prison, Berlin Blockade, Allied Control Council, Forced labor of Germans after World War II, Allied-occupied Germany, Stalin Note, Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union, American food policy in occupied Germany, Checkpoint Charlie, Dutch annexation of German territory after World War II, Bizone, Tear down this wall!, British Frontier Service, Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, Berlin Brigade, Wolf children, British Army of the Rhine, Greater Hesse, British Forces Germany, Bonn-Paris conventions, Petersberg Agreement, Four Power Agreement on Berlin, Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor, Interzonal traffic, Soviet occupation zone, Checkpoint Bravo, Tränenpalast, State of Hanover, London and Paris Conferences, Forces Françaises à Berlin, Berlin Air Safety Center, Post-World War II demobilization strikes, Line of contact, 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade, Allied High Commission, Occupation statute, Norwegian Army Command Germany, Mixed Service Organisation, Four-Power Authorities, Berlin Declaration. Excerpt: The Berlin Wall (German: ) was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Soviet-dominated Eastern Bloc officially claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. However, in practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked 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" (German: ) by GDR authorities, implying that neighbouring West Germany had not been fully de-Nazified. 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) that demarcated the border between East and West Germany, both borders 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 million East Germans circumvented 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. During this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between 100 and 200. In 1989, a radical series of political changes occurred in