Editing Berlin Wall (section)

===Brain drain===
The emigrants tended to be young and well-educated, leading to the [[Human capital flight|"brain drain"]] feared by officials in East Germany.<ref name="thackeray188"/> [[Yuri Andropov]], then the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] Director on Relations with Communist and Workers' Parties of Socialist Countries, wrote an urgent letter on 28 August 1958 to the Central Committee about the significant 50% increase in the number of East German intelligentsia among the refugees.<ref name="harrison100">{{Harvnb|Harrison|2003|p=100}}</ref> Andropov reported that, while the East German leadership stated that they were leaving for economic reasons, testimony from refugees indicated that the reasons were more political than material.<ref name="harrison100"/> He stated "the flight of the intelligentsia has reached a particularly critical phase."<ref name="harrison100"/>

By 1960, the combination of World War II and the massive emigration westward left East Germany with only 61% of its population of working age, compared to 70.5% before the war. The loss was disproportionately heavy among professionals: engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers, and skilled workers. The direct cost of manpower losses to East Germany (and corresponding gain to the West) has been estimated at $7&nbsp;billion to $9&nbsp;billion, with East German party leader [[Walter Ulbricht]] later claiming that West Germany owed him $17&nbsp;billion in compensation, including reparations as well as manpower losses.<ref name="dowty122" /> In addition, the drain of East Germany's young population potentially cost it over 22.5&nbsp;billion marks in lost educational investment.<ref>Volker Rolf Berghahn, ''Modern Germany: Society, Economy and Politics in the Twentieth Century'', p. 227. [[Cambridge University Press]], 1987</ref> The brain drain of professionals had become so damaging to the political credibility and economic viability of East Germany that the re-securing of the German communist frontier was imperative.<ref name="pearson75">{{Harvnb|Pearson|1998|p=75}}</ref>

The exodus of emigrants from East Germany presented two minor potential benefits: an easy way to smuggle East German secret agents to West Germany, and a reduction in the number of citizens hostile to the communist regime. Neither of these advantages, however, proved particularly useful.<ref>{{harvnb|Crozier|1999|pp=170–171}}</ref>

{{anchor|Construction}}