Wasn't the Berlin wall built to keep people out?

Already great answers here, I just want to add some more hints of the purpose of the Berlin Wall to keep the east Gemans in. read more

So the wall was built to keep people in, while it stood, it also kept people out, but that was more an idealistic aspect. read more

It was built to keep the people in. Berlin was until the Wall was built, a popular place for East Germans to elope to the West. The wall divided Berlin in that by crossing over it, or tunneling under it, people of East Germany could escape into the 1/2 of the city governed by France Great Britain and the US. read more

Berlin, the longtime capital, was also divided into East and West, even though it was located entirely within Soviet borders. The barrier that was eventually erected on the city's East/West border stood for nearly three decades. On November 9, 1989, East and West Germans converged on the Berlin Wall, successfully breaking through die Mauer. read more

In the two and a half months prior to the wall going up, more than 67,000 people defected to the West, many of them doctors, teachers, students, and engineers. Roughly half were younger than 25. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev lamented this “brain drain,” and on August 13, 1961, the GDR closed the border between the two sides. read more