151. Who built the Berlin Wall?

Answer options

1. Great Britain
2. the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)
3. the GDR (German Democratic Republic)
4. the United States of America (USA)

Explanation

The Berlin Wall was erected on 13 August 1961 by the authorities of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), led by the Socialist Unity Party (SED), with the approval of the Soviet occupying power, to halt the mass exodus (“Republikflucht”) to the Federal Republic and West Berlin. The official label “anti-fascist protective wall” concealed the fact that the border regime—including a shoot-to-kill order—systematically violated the right to leave one’s country protected in Article 13 of the UDHR and later Article 12 of the ICCPR. From the West German constitutional perspective there remained one German nation; in its 1973 Basic Treaty decision (BVerfGE 36, 1) the Federal Constitutional Court acknowledged the GDR’s statehood in international law yet maintained the Basic Law’s mandate for unity and the Four-Power rights concerning Berlin. The Wall’s fall in 1989 paved the way to unification via former Article 23 of the Basic Law and the 1990 Unification Treaty.