The main reason for the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 was to stop the mass emigration and defection of East Germans to West Germany. Following World War II, Berlin was divided into East and West, with East Germany becoming a socialist state under Soviet influence. The Wall was erected on August 13, 1961, to prevent East Germans from escaping to the more prosperous West, which posed a significant challenge to the legitimacy of the East German government. Its construction symbolized the ideological divide of the Cold War and remained a powerful representation of the struggle for freedom and human rights until its fall in 1989.