...Berlin is Impact on European History The city of Berlin is central to twentieth century European History. It has been the grounds for many historic events that have shaped the way things are in Europe today both for good and bad reasons. Berlin played a significant role in European history though the sequence of events from 1945 to the late 1990`s that were end of World War Two, through the rise and fall of the Berlin wall, and the birth of the Eurozone. The events covered during this time all interlinked with each other and where the cause for what Europe looks like today. At the end of World War two the USA, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union gathered together to see how Europe should be divided after the war. After it was all divided it came out that the Soviet Union should get most of the countries that Nazi Germany controlled, which were the eastern part of Europe. The division gave East Germany to the capitalist states, and West Germany to the socialist, with Berlin also divided into the two sides. Berlin was on the western side claimed by the USSR, but the city was divided into east and west just like the country had. This division of the capital happened pretty much over night and many were separated from their families and friends. The USSR built the Berlin Wall that would separate all contact with the east side. This forced a Socialist way of living that in the long run created many conflicts of Socialism against Capitalism. The Berlin Wall was eventually torn...
Words: 1857 - Pages: 8
...Once the proud capital of Germany Berlin was divided by a barrier that was patrolled day and night by armed soldiers and guard dogs. On August 13, 1961 shortly after midnight police and soldiers in the Communist controlled Berlin moved quickly to set up barriers. Berliners woke to find their city divided into east and west sectors. A communist nation led by the Soviet Union was in control of East Berlin. While West Berlin was controlled by a democratic nation led by the United States (Epler, 1992). The Berlin Wall known as Berliner Mauer in German (Rosenberg, 2016). It was a symbol of the Cold War. Trying to cross the Wall meant risking one’s life. One side of the Wall people were free to do all the normal things. While the other side of the wall people’s freedom was being taken away. Imagine that your best friend lives a mile away. You have been pals since first grade. You do everything together: school, soccer games, sleepovers. One day, men come and put up a barbed-wire fence between your house and your buddy’s house. Later, they replace it with a very long, very tall concrete wall. Each slab weighs 6,000 pounds, and many of them are topped with sharp wire. When they finish, you stare at the giant wall that has split your home town in two. On your side the wall is ugly but not too scary. On the other side, rattling tanks, soldiers with machine guns and growling dogs keep people from trying to cross the barrier. The wall stands 12 feet high. Your friend...
Words: 6813 - Pages: 28
...The two speeches that were discussed in Germany about the berlin wall are similar but also different from each other. John f. Kennedy’s speech focuses on how he has never heard of a wall being put up to keep the people of Germany a divided continent. He also states that his people in his country take pride in being able to meet the people of West Berlin. To add on he also says “I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin”. With that statement it lets people know that berlin is a strong and determined country. John demands freedom and in one of the lines from his speech he says “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.” To me that is a strong statement because not only is West Berlin closing in the people but they are a divided country and not known as a country as a whole. Ronald believes that if they take the wall down, that Germany will be the great continent of Europe, and to live in peace and prosper. Ronald Reagan’s speech focuses more on the history of Germany and how they have come so far and still manage to be a strong country. He then makes a greeting to East Berlin by saying “To those listening in East Berlin, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this...
Words: 824 - Pages: 4
...The rise of the Berlin Wall physically began the morning of August 13th 1961, but the separation of East and West Germany began years before. The life span of the wall lasted until November 9th 1989, just a mere 28 years later. The purpose of the Berlin wall was to separate the East and the West sides of Germany. The result of WWII divided Germany into zones; those zones were given to Great Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union. The rise and the fall of the Berlin Wall were key moments in our global history, as it was a series of events that shaped a country. World War II was a success in conquering Germany; The Potsdam Agreement officially broke up Germany into 4 zones. The furthest South was the United States territory, the Southwest territory belonged to the French, the British were in control of the Northwest Territory and Soviets had the East. This division was eventually broken down into a division of the West and East Germany, the West part of Germany was called composed of the United States, France and Great Britain, and was also known as the Federal Republic of Germany. The East side of Germany was the Soviet Union’s portion after the Potsdam Agreement; this side was also known as the German Democratic Republic. The West side of the berlin wall was very different than the East. The west side was the one that sought after to live in by the people of the East side. After the war and the separation of Germany between the four countries West Germany...
Words: 2246 - Pages: 9
...The Fall of the Berlin Wall The Fall of the Berlin Wall is book on a popular symbol of communist oppression during the Cold War, that of the Berlin Wall erected in Eastern Germany in 1961. From the politics that motivated it construction to its eventual destruction, author William F. Buckley Jr. gives the readers a comprehensive overview of the history of the Berlin Wall, as well as the origins and end of the Cold War between Western and Eastern Powers. Author Buckley displays several strengths throughout this book. A particular strength that a reader may find is that this book is well researched and offers a detailed chronological account of the events that would lead to the wall being constructed to keep East Berliners from escaping to West Berlin. The book highlights and explains steps that would lead to the wall construction such as post World War II Russia imposing its form of government on its designated sectors of occupancy, or Walter Ulbricht’s, the ruler of Eastern Germany’s and a devoted communists desire to prevent any further...
Words: 657 - Pages: 3
...Berlin Welcome Card' Berlin Bus Tours / Walking Tours / Boat Tours German State Opera House / Berlin Philharmonic Hall Alexanderplatz Brandenburg Gate, 'Story of Berlin' Exhibition Potsdamer Platz Television Tower (Fernsehturm) Schloss Charlottenburg Berlin Cathedral Pergamon Museum Old Museum Bode Museum National Gallery Church of Sophie Cemetery for the Parishes of Dorotheenstadt andFriedrichswerder Potsdamer Platz and the New Centre Unter den Linden Jewish Centre Oranienburger Strasse Spandau Citadel Checkpoint Charlie Museum (Military attraction or museum; Photo collection, exhibit) Brandenburg Gate,Berlin Commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II in the 1700s to represent peace, the Brandenburg Gate is nothing short of an iconic symbol of the city. Originally built as a customs post, the gate was an integral part of the Berlin Wall and remained locked for the duration of the Communist rule. When the wall that was once the boundary between East and West Berlin was knocked down, the gate became an important symbol of German reunification and it is the only one out of 18 such gates that now remains. Designed in 1791 by Carl Gotthard Langhans, a detailed sculpture of the beautiful goddess Victory resides at the top of the structure. When Napoleon occupied Berlin in 1806 he stole this statue and took it back to Paris, but it was returned to its rightful home again in 1814. When the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 the tor became...
Words: 1108 - Pages: 5
...HIST-410 | The Berlin Wall | [Type the document subtitle] | | Alina Nazar | 12/4/2014 | | The fall of the Berlin Wall has triggered much controversy and plays a major part in the shaping of the modern political ideology and beliefs. The specific date of the descent of the Berlin encasement wall was the 10th of November, 1989. The wall took 3 hours to fall and between 125-206 people died trying to cross the wall. There were many tourists participating who could hire axes to hit the wall and contribute to the atmosphere. The fall of the Berlin Wall occurred when the people of East Berlin had had enough. The fall of the Berlin Wall also marked the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new life for the Germans. Border crossing points all along the wall were opened to anyone who wanted to cross on 9 November 1989 which ended the conclusion of an international press conference in East Berlin when greater freedom of travel was announced for people of the German Democratic Republic. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a key movement in the history of Europe as it was the symbol of the end of the Cold War. The European Union and NATO were able to expand in pace when Europe was no longer divided into East and West. The power in the world changed when the Cold War ended. A truce between the nuclear threats of two superpowers the USA and the Soviet Union was created as soon as the Berlin Wall fell also preventing both superpowers from dominating the world. Europe...
Words: 579 - Pages: 3
...Fall of the Wall Fall of the Wall The Berlin Wall was a physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. After World War II, the Allied powers divided Germany into four zones, each occupied by the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union. Berlin, Germany’s capital, was also divided. As the liaison between the Soviet Union and the other three Allied powers abruptly broke up, the new relationship turned Germany into West versus East, in other words, democracy versus Communism (Rosenberg, n.d.). The demolition of the Berlin Wall and the global market revolution that followed liberated millions of people, and two decades later the world has gained significantly from the democratic and economic incorporation. The destruction of the Berlin Wall is one of the most extraordinary political events of history. It set millions of people free and brought to an end a global conflict that threatened nuclear obliteration. For business, far reaching changes in the global economic atmosphere started at that time: The changeover to the market based economies in most Central and Eastern European countries created considerable opportunities for the markets, resources, supplies, and manufacturing. There was a large increase in cross-border trade and foreign direct investments. Almost simultaneously, the materialization of the digital revolution brought a reduction in...
Words: 452 - Pages: 2
...Imagery and Symbolism The poem, Where There’s a Wall by Joy Kogawa uses imagery and symbolism to enhance the theme of war. During this assignment, I will be focusing on the symbolism and imagery relating to war. The author was born in 1935 in Canada, just four years before World War Two (“Joy Kohan Biography”). A great extent of the author’s childhood would have been during World War Two. In addition, Japanese families were mistreated by Canadian government officials during World War Two (“Joy Kohan Biography.”) The poem represents how war can be avoided. The poem used the wall as a symbol of conflict between nations. The poem gives peaceful methods of overcoming the wall, such as, “around, over, or through / there’s a gate.” (3-4) and then nonpeaceful methods, e.g. “there are methods of torture” (11) and “bettering rams” (16), to get the same results. The Berlin wall is an iconic landmark that represents World War Two (“Berlin Wall History”). I believe that Joy Kogawa chose to base the poem around a “wall” rather than a similar obstacle like a “fence” or a “mountain” to symbolize the Berlin Wall and thus associate the poem with war. The poem also used military objects to create an image of war by referring to methods to cross or destroy the “wall.” For example, “Battering rams / armies with trumpets / whose all at once blast / shatters the foundations” (16-20). Lines “16-20” appeal to the senses of touch and hearing. “Trumpets” and “last” are both associated with...
Words: 394 - Pages: 2
...concrete wall between east and west Germany. East Germany was a communist state and didn’t want western Germany fascists coming in and trying to change that. The Berlin wall came to be for the purpose of keeping western Germany fascists where they were. Communist government in eastern Germany tried to keep fascist out before the construction of the wall but had little success. Eastern Germany’s government went to extreme measures to keep their communist government the way it was and thus the Berlin wall was born. The wall was mainly designed to prevent the “brain drain” of smart, educated eastern professionals from high-tailing it to western Germany. People who tried to escape were shot. Families couldn’t visit each other anymore. The wall...
Words: 510 - Pages: 3
...between the US and the Soviet Union, but there was half a century of military buildup as well as political battles for support around the world, including significant involvement of allied and satellite nations in proxy wars. Although the US and the Soviet Union had been allied against Nazi Germany, the two sides differed on how to reconstruct the postwar world even before the end of World War II. Over the following decades, the Cold War spread outside Europe to every region of the world, as the US sought the "containment" of communism and forged numerous alliances to this end, particularly in Western Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. There were repeated crises that threatened to escalate into world wars but never did, notably the Berlin Blockade (1948–49), the Korean War (1950–53), the Vietnam War (1959–1975), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), and the Soviet-Afghan War (1979–89). Direct military attacks on adversaries were deterred by the...
Words: 1085 - Pages: 5
...Erick Fimbo Jan Gane English 1050-028 November 15, 2013 The Fall of the Berlin Wall For twenty-eight years, the Berlin Wall separated friends, families, and a nation. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall was one of the most striking and distinctive features of Berlin. The Berlin Wall was a border security installation built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on August 12, 1961. The Wall was to protect the GDR from aggressive acts by the west. In reality, the Wall functioned as a barrier to stem the huge migration of skilled laborers to West Berlin and the entire Western Germany. During the standing of this Wall, the people from East and West Berlin had no interaction with each other, and this brought pains and poverties in both sides of country because they depend on each other’s activities in order to survive. On the night of November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, the most potent symbol of the Cold War division of Europe, eventually came down, and the fall of this wall was the peak point of the revolutionary changes within the country of Germany and those were involved. According to Ted Kelly article, “Politics, People and the Berlin Crisis: June-August, 1961”. After World War II in 1945, the Allies, who won the war, divided the country of Germany into four sections, each under the control of an ally. The countries who made up the Ally control were the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia. The United States, British, and French sectors combined to form a democratic...
Words: 2232 - Pages: 9
...“Tear Down This Wall!” In 1987, when Ronald Reagan arrived in Berlin, he arrived in a city and country divided. The Berlin Wall took center stage, dividing Berlin into two separate entities. West Berlin was run by the Allies, and East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. The political ideologies of these two also clashed, with East Germany practicing communism and West Germany being more democratic. Reagan, the President of the United States at that time, quickly realized that the situation involving the two countries was doing nothing but harm to both sides. In his “Speech at the Brandenburg Gate”, Reagan presents his theme that Germany would be unified and strong without the Berlin Wall, through use of metaphor and repetition. Reagan...
Words: 674 - Pages: 3
...Conceptions of the Cold War My most informed interviewee was my father. He wasn’t just an expert who could tell me everything I know, but he knew enough to give me the general idea. While speaking with him, I was told that the Cold War was not a war like we would think of now. It was a political war much like we are dealing with now. He referred to it as an “espionage power struggle.” During the interviews, it was obvious; the two directly involved countries were the Soviet Union and the United States. However the US did not become directly involved until the anti-American dictator Fidel Castro seized the vulnerable Cuba in 1959 declaring his commitment to the communist party. Cuba became a threat to the United States during their move to building a closer relationship with Russia. Eisenhower ordered the CIA to arm and train a force of Cubans who had been barred from their home country for an attack on Cuba. There was great tension between the US and the Soviet Union parties. He added five new Army divisions increasing the nations air power and military reserves. Sen. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon both committed themselves to strengthen American military forces and promised a tough stance against the Soviet Union and other international communism. Kennedy blamed and criticized the Eisenhower admin for the permitting the development of a communist government in Cuba. It was feared that the plan would fail. President Kennedy addressed the American people...
Words: 658 - Pages: 3
...by the wall.” In Berlin, the Iron Curtain had many purposes. It was there to protect, to separate and to enforce a way of life for East Berliners. Firstly, The Wall gave meaning to people’s lives in different ways. It defined where they were to go, who they were to see and who they were to be. For the countless Stasi and informers, it gave them a purpose and an importance in society, and after The Wall came down, that purpose was lost and yearned for. Secondly, The Wall and the controlling ways of the Stasi loomed over the lives of East Berliners, and its implementation was just one of many extreme measures to minimalise Capitalism and encourage Communism. Thirdly, although The Wall was taken down in 1989, the detrimental effect of the Stasi regime on those in East Berlin remains to this day. The Iron Curtain “went up overnight” and disappeared without a trace, but the impression left on East Berlin has found to be inescapable. The Wall determined the lives and actions of those in East Berlin. It was the final stage in the Stasi’s attempts to keep people within the “land gone wrong”. It “went up overnight”, and people were instantly separated from their loved ones, their schools and even their jobs. The wall may have been simple for the Stasi to assemble, but for Berliners like Frau Paul, it was difficult to overcome the challenges that it created. When Frau Paul gave birth to sickly Torsten, the only choice was to send him to capable medical facilities over The Wall. Frau...
Words: 1220 - Pages: 5
