Editing Berlin Wall (section)

===Emigration westward in the early 1950s===
{{Main|Eastern Bloc emigration and defection|Eastern Bloc}}
After the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, the majority of those living in the newly acquired areas of the [[Eastern Bloc]] aspired to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave.<ref name="thackeray188">{{Harvnb|Thackeray|2004|p=188}}</ref> Taking advantage of the zonal border between occupied zones in Germany, the number of GDR citizens moving to West Germany totaled 187,000 in 1950; 165,000 in 1951; 182,000 in 1952; and 331,000 in 1953.<ref>{{lang|de|[http://www.stmas.bayern.de/migration/aussiedler/aussstat.pdf Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Arbeit und Sozialordnung, Familie und Frauen, Statistik Spätaussiedler Dezember 2007]}}, p. 3 (in German)</ref><ref name="loescher60">{{Harvnb|Loescher|2001|p=60}}</ref> One reason for the sharp 1953 increase was fear of potential further [[Sovietization]], given the increasingly paranoid actions of [[Joseph Stalin]] in late 1952 and early 1953.<ref name="loescher68">{{Harvnb|Loescher|2001|p=68}}</ref> In the first six months of 1953, 226,000 had fled.<ref name="dale17">{{Harvnb|Dale|2005|p=17}}</ref>