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Historians researching the files of the [[Stasi]] found that in 1961 the secret police devoted virtually all of their resources and their 50,000 staff solely to stopping people leaving the country. Anyone thought likely to flee was forcibly moved away from border areas. Other people were encouraged to spy on their friends, neighbours and colleagues and inform on them if they were considering an escape.<ref>''Scale of East German exodus revealed'' op cit</ref>
Historians researching the files of the [[Stasi]] found that in 1961 the secret police devoted virtually all of their resources and their 50,000 staff solely to stopping people leaving the country. Anyone thought likely to flee was forcibly moved away from border areas. Other people were encouraged to spy on their friends, neighbours and colleagues and inform on them if they were considering an escape.<ref>''Scale of East German exodus revealed'' op cit</ref>
==Fall of the Wall==
In the late 1980s, increasing political pressure was placed on the East German regime to relax its repressive policies and allow greater freedom of movement. The most famous instance of this was Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech, delivered at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, while Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, pursuing his programs of [[perestroika]] and [[glasnost]] to introduce more individual freedom to the Soviet Union, privately urged Erich Honecker, East German General Secretary, to follow suit. Nonetheless, through early 1989 the regime maintained its brutal policies at the Berlin Wall. Chris Gueffroy, an East Berliner, was shot and killed trying to cross over the Wall on February 5--the last person to be deliberately murdered while attempting to flee across the barrier.
However, the democratic revolutions happening elsewhere in Eastern Europe during 1989 steadily undermined the East German regime. On November 9, the government decided to lift its travel barriers, including over the Berlin Wall; that very night, crowds successfully pressed border guards to open checkpoints in the Wall, allowing them free access to West Berlin for the first time since 1961.
==After the reunification==
==After the reunification==