At the end of WW2, the allies had Germany split into two. The Capital of Germany, Berlin had been separated into two cities, West Berlin and East Berlin. East Berlin was a Communist society while West Berlin was a Democratic society. Upon having Berlin split, Germany was also split in two. West Germany was formed because of USA, Britain, and France and East Germany was formed from Soviet Union. After separation, West Germany became a Capitalist society. West Germany became an industrialized type of country and East Germany was a communist nation, that was becoming very impoverished. They barely had enough food, conditions here were terrible. People were starving in East Germany. By the late 1950's East Germany's people were starting to wish and lean towards going and living in West Germany. Some three million people left East Germany to head towards West Germany. On the night of August 12, the building of the Berlin Wall began. One-hundred miles of barbed wire slightly inside the East Berlin border. The wire was soon replaced by a six-foot-high, 96-mile-long wall of concrete blocks, complete with guard towers, machine gun posts and searchlights. This wall would surely be impassable. Soon after, the fourth and final version of the Berlin wall was made in 1975. New concrete blocks and segments were used, which were easy to build up and more resistant to breakthroughs and to environmental pollution. The Soviet Union built all of the Berlin Wall, West Germany didn't do any of it. The attempts to escape from East Germany were all illegal and very life-threatening because if you were caught, chances are you were shot. Before the Berlin Wall was built, East Germans fled by crossing the border. When the Berlin Wall was built, the escape attempts were from going out of the country and around, which was a very long and tough process. Only a couple hundred attempted to escape through the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989. 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.