The Berlin stood for nearly 30 years as a symbol of oppression and segregation. One of the first events that lead to the Berlin Wall was the split occupation of Germany after WWII. The Western half was occupied primarily by capitalist America while the Eastern half by communist USSR. This split occupation lead to an obvious separation of east and west Germany. Another event that led to the wall was the Soviet Union's attempt to blockade west Berlin. This was to try to drive out the Allied forces in the city. This attempt was unsuccessful was of the Berlin Airlift. Allied forces airlifted in supplies for over a year. The blockade was then called off. Eventually Premier Khrushchev gave the order to close off the border for good. Life when the wall went up was not for the faint of heart. When trying to escape you were not only faced with a 12 x 4 foot wall, but also: machine guns, soldiers on patrol, guard dogs, and flood lights. Life was not bad in terms of lack of money, it was the distribution of goods that was the trouble.

"Salaries in the East average about 1200 Marks, about $250 a month. Rent for a nice flat is 32 marks. (Say, about six dollars a month.) Money is not the problem, but rather, the lack of goods and decent distribution of the existing goods. People buy houses and fix them up, so that nice interiors sometimes exist in houses that have shabby exteriors. There is a long wait for building materials, years, in fact"

Not only were East Germans having trouble with getting what they needed, they were also being monitored. The secret German police, Stasi tapped into phone called, put cameras in peoples homes, and spied in our so many peoples daily lives. However the wall would not last forever. One of the first events that lead to the fall of the  wall was the Sinatra Doctrine which allowed Eastern Bloc governments to make their own decisions to a greater extent. This event was very important because it lead to another that caused the fall; that being the opening of the Hungarian border. The opening of the Hungarian border allowed for thousands of Germans living in East Germany to flee to the west. At that point many attempt were made to stop this, but they were futile. Finally churches throughout east Germany rallied with peaceful protests that lead to replacement of the leader of East Germany with a more liberal communist.

Sources: http://www.history.com/topics/berlin-wall   http://art.members.sonic.net/unify90/ber6.html
 http://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/berlin-wall5.htm