...The Fall of the Berlin Wall The berlin wall was built in nineteen sixty one. While the country was split in half because of the issues that was going on the East side of Germany and things was going down hill. They wanted to escape so they wouldn't have to deal with all the bad things that was going on. But during the Cold War that was raging on West Berlin was a get away place the East side of Germany fled to the west side. Because of that issue the West side built a wall to keep out the East side Germany. The article and the video states they wanted to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. Both statements said that they were happy and felt more free that the Berlin Wall fell and they had more access to people and more ability to go...
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...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...
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...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...
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...delivered their Berlin ultimatum, demanding that the western allies should withdraw their troops from West Berlin and that West Berlin should become a "Free City" within six months. On 1959-02-17, the threat of settling a separate peace treaty between the USSR the GDR followed. The meeting between US President Kennedy and the Prime Minister of the USSR, Khrushchev, on 1961-06-03/04 in Vienna ended without any noticeable results. Generally, measures of the government of the GDR were expected with the aim of preventing people from leaving the GDR. At an international press conference on June 15, 1961, Walter Ulbricht (the leader of the east German communist party, SED, and President of the Privy Council) answered to the question of a journalist: "I understand your question as follows: there are people in West Germany who want us to mobilize the construction workers of the GDR to build a wall. I am not aware of any such plans... No one has the intention of constructing a wall." Construction of the Wall Early in the morning of Sunday, August 13, 1961, the GDR began under the leadership of Erich Honecker to block off East Berlin and the GDR from West Berlin by means of barbed wire and antitank obstacles. Streets were torn up, and barricades of paving stones were erected. Tanks gathered at crucial places. The subway and local railway services between East and West Berlin were interrupted. Inhabitants of East Berlin and the GDR were no longer allowed to enter West Berlin, amongst...
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...Global Trade. This report depicts the sequences of Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall, erected November 13, 1961, served to separate communist East Germany from Western influences. Intended to "protect" East Germans, the wall actually was erected to prevent them from leaving the country. The Wall finally came down August 13, 1989, reuniting families and symbolizing the end of the cold war was near. The initial plans for Allied occupation of Germany were prepared in 1944 in London by the European Advisory Commission. In this agreement, Germany would be divided into four occupational zones governed by Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin, which would be in the Soviet occupational zone, would be divided among the four powers as well. By the time of the blockade, there was a major contrast between the East and West Berlin. West Berlin was a thriving democratic, capitalist city, while East Berlin was in drab poverty. Trying to escape the forced collectivization of goods and agriculture, numerous shortages, and a police state, many fled to West Berlin. To maintain the stability of the communist regime, the East German leaders felt that these floods of people had to be stopped. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………..….3 1.1 Summary of the Berlin Wall…………………………………….……..3 1.2 Background…………………………………………………………...
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...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...
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...History of the Berlin Wall Eastin Bartholio Modern History Dr. Mallon May 6, 2013 The construction of the Berlin Wall was an actual feature that split Berlin into two parts: East and West Berlin. East Berlin had a communistic ruling and West Berlin had a democratic ruling enabling the West to get stronger. When the wall fell it freed East Berlin allowing them to join together with their other half, West Berlin. The building of the wall physically separated Berlin making it weaker, but with the wall falling it allowed Berlin’s halves come together making their future much brighter. Even before the wall was built East and West Berlin were separated. They were separated because after WWII. Germany’s land was given up to the two superpowers: The Unites States of America and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union got the east and the United States got the west. Giving part of Berlin to each of these superpowers caused separation because the U.S.A is democratic and the Soviet Union is not. As John F. Kennedy said, “There are many people in the world who really do not understand-or say they don’t-what is the great issue between the free world and the communist world. Let them come to Berlin!” Unfortunately when the land was given away it split Berlin in half creating their separation before it was physically separated. Yes, before the wall was built there was conflict between East and West Berlin, but at least the border between them was open to all people...
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...To what extent was the fall of the Berlin Wall a result rather than a cause of the end of the Cold war? The dismantling of the Berlin Wall in Nov 1989 was one of the most symbolic acts of the Cold War. It was a symbol of the changes that had swept through Europe in 1989 and of the end of the divisions that had marked the essential character of the CW: the ideological split between capitalism and communism. In 1989, the DDR was 4o years old and the East German leadership was prepared to celerbraite its anniversary. At what should have been an event to consolidate the country, the tide was turning against the regime. Gorbachevs reforms had important consequences for the existence of E germany as a separate country. The DDR was a product of Cold War tensions, which had prevented the unification of Germany after WW2. Without these tensions there seemed little reason for Germany to remain divided. Honecker recognized that the DDR could still have a reason to exist if it remained socialist and therefore different from W Germany. Honecker was not in favour of any reform, but the E german population could not be isolated from events in the rest of euope. Large numbers of East Germans had fled from the counrty via Hungary during the summer of 1989, but even more serious for the government were those who were staying put. Gorbys reforms of communism in the Usr had encouraged many E Germanys to push for change. Political groups were formed with huge crowds of demonstrators shouting...
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...The Berlin Wall was built by the communist government of East Berlin in 1961. The wall separated the East Berlin and the West Berlin. It was built in order to prevent people from East Berlin to get out from East Berlin. The Berlin Wall started after the World War II when the country of Germany ended up dividing into two countries. East Germany became a communist country under the control of the Soviet Union and at the same time, West Germany was a democratic country and allied with Britain, France and the United States. Berlin was the capital of Germany. Even though it was located in the eastern of the country, the city was controlled by all the four dominant powers which is the Soviet Union, the United States, the Great Britain and France....
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...Living in West Berlin vs East Berlin: Thesis Paper The Berlin Wall was built in the August of 1961, when the East German soldiers constructed more than thirty miles of a barbed wire barrier through the center of Berlin, Germany. The citizens of East Berlin not allowed to pass into the Western side. Soon, concrete would take the place of this barbed wire. (Taylor, 458) East German authorities thought that this wall would protect their citizens from the influence of the capitalist system that was occurring in the west. In the west of the world, the Berlin Wall was just like a symbol of communist oppression. The Berlin wall was the biggest boundary separating two worlds; the totalitarian...
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...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...
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...almost neo-colonization after the fall of the Wall by West Germany. After the Wall came down, Germany embarked “on a nationbuilding process, integrating two radically different and inherently unequal geographical entities into one political, economic, and cultural system”. This was prompted by the new government’s sole focus on making a bid for Berlin to host the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. The city started to change physically as construction began in areas like Potsdamer Platz. East Berliners felt they could not influence the process at hand and must simply adapt to the current environment created by the new political decisions. Unemployment and competition in the open market increased for everyone, creating feelings of insecurity and inferiority for the unemployed and from some of the employed that feared losing their jobs. As those in East Berlin were unaccustomed to a free market economy, some people fell into depression and long-term instability. Now operating as a single and united Berlin, there was the need to eliminate the duplication of city services such as police, fire, and postal, as reunification rendered the separate systems redundant. These actions were duplicated in Berlin’s cultural sphere. During the Cold War Eastern and Western parts of the city competed for international recognition of their cultural facilities, as it was a direct representation and showcase of the success of each respective economy. When the Wall fell, there was an extraordinary density of duplicate...
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...You’ve probably studied on the Berlin wall, maybe heard your grandparents talking about it, or at least head Ronald Reagan’s famous quote “Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall!” A powerful quote defining freedom and liberty, but why? Many people today don’t truly know the power of that simple line, boldly defying the oppression in Berlin that personally affected tens of thousands of people. But why? You may ask, What’s so bad about dividing a city? Well, below are just a few examples of some things that would be faced by normal people during the occupation of Berlin. One of the first things you could have faced was being separated from your family. As unthinkable as it sounds today many people were separated from the rest of their families, sometimes permanently. The wall was put up over night, with no warning, the ban on travel was effective immediately. That meant if you lived on the east side of the wall you wouldn’t be able to cross the wall, even to visit you family. Technically their were ways to get a visa to temporally cross the boarder, however the likelihood of you actually getting one was very slim. I previously mentioned that the Berlin wall was a symbol of tyranny,...
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...building of the Berlin Wall. Compare and contrast the description in the documentary to the primary document “1962 Brochure Defending the Berlin Wall.” The brief understanding people could learn from the documentary is that the life in East Berlin was pretty hard. As in the early years, the east section of Berlin was under Stalin’s control. It turns out that currently East Berlin was governed under communist. The primary document “1962 Brochure Defending the Berlin Wall” is more like a self-defense from the German Democratic Republic. By answering ten questions, it gives us a view about how German Democratic Republic was seeing their action, which was built up the Berlin Wall. After the Berlin Airlift, two different parties were formed. They were the German Federal Republic, represented the western allies, which was better known as the West Germany; and the German Democratic Republic, which was the response given by Soviet Union, better known as the East Germany. While the West Berlin always has better living condition and much more freedom, people from East Berlin were trying to escape all the time. These people, who escaped from East Berlin, were highly qualified workers which worth nothing to West Berlin but were very important to East Berlin. As this population flow happened all the time, German Democratic Republic decided to take an action. At the summer of 1961, German Democratic Republic decided to shut off the border between West and East Berlin. They were trying...
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...With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Germany became reunified after over forty years of physical and ideological division. Discuss the costs and benefits of German unification Despite the fact that there are few remnants left of the Berlin Wall and nowadays, it is widely seen as a popular tourist attraction, it is still very much present in the mind-set of the Germans as a bitter reminder of when the families, friends and the entire nation were divided in 1961. After the Second World War, Germany was split into four occupation zones with the Soviet Union taking control of East Germany and France, the United Kingdom and United States taking control of parts in West Germany. Similarly, Berlin was split into 4 sectors despite the fact that it was located deep in the Soviet zone. It soon became apparent that there were extreme political divisions between the Soviet Union and the other three occupying powers; whilst West Germany was developed into a capitalist democracy with financial help from the Marshall Plan, East Germany became a communist, socialist republic. In East Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic, the indoctrination of Marxism-Leninism was introduced as a compulsory part of school curricula and the media became completely controlled by the state’s communist government in order "to direct the thinking of the people into correct political lines.” The East German population were becoming increasingly repressed under these economical and political...
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