It is August 1961, and at the border between East and West Germany there is twenty-eight long miles of barbed wire(Heaps 1964). Hence, the Berlin Wall was born. Even though its background is sometimes overlooked, the Berlin Wall is still an interesting landmark representation of history. The Cold War was the main reason the Berlin Wall was built, Berlin being the “center stage.” At the beginning, the Allies (who won World War II) divided Germany into four zones of ownership(History.com Staff 2009). The Cold War started with mistrust and with people not agreeing with communist ideas. The sides were mainly the side that supported communism -- the Soviet Union -- against the side that supports democracy(America, for example)(History.com …show more content…
After so many people started emigrating from East Berlin, which supported communism, to West Berlin, which supported democracy, East Berlin leaders were getting very tired of it. East German President Walter Ulbricht suggested a wall to stop the flow of people moving. His partners were hesitant at first, but then agreed(Bornstein and Brandt 1990). Over time, the police force, volunteer construction workers, and the East German Army would build the wall, and in two weeks the wall was completed. If someone were to pass through the wall, there were only three possible points to escape: Helmstedt, checkpoint “Alpha,” Dreilinden, checkpoint “Bravo,” and checkpoint “Charlie,” or Friedrichstrasse. The wall was twelve feet tall and four feet wide. There was a very large pipe on top of the wall so escapees couldn't climb over the top. Behind the wall, On the East side, people called the area the “Death Strip.” This is because they had a gauntlet of sand to show footprints, trip-wire machine guns, floodlights, patrollers who shot anyone who seemed to be escaping and dogs(History.com Staff 2009). One side of the wall with painted white, while the other side had lots of graffiti on it(Bornstein and Brandt …show more content…
One woman made her friends Soviet uniforms. She hid under the front seat of a vehicle while her friends passed through the wall. A wooden cable spool provided protection for four people to escape. Someone even shot a cable over and slid across the Berlin Wal. People also made hot air balloons and flying machines run by bicycles(Bornstein and Brandt 1990). People jumped out of windows, crept through sewers, climbed over barbed wire, and ran through weak spots in the wall with a vehicle(History.com Staff 2009). One really effective way to escape was by building tunnels. One tunnel rescued twenty-one adults and five children. One man escaped through a tunnel, but turned back to rescue his family and was unfortunately shot and killed. The longest tunnel was five hundred feet long, and in 1964 it got fifty-seven people into West Berlin(Bornstein and Brandt
The main reason why the Berlin Wall caused the USSR to lose the Space Race to the United States was because the USSR was a communist nation, and therefore so was East Germany. The East Germans did not like living in a communist society. This caused hundreds of thousands of East Germans to flee to the West to live in a democracy (Burgan 14). With this being the case, the USSR had no civilian support in Germany, and often had to stop East Germans from fleeing west to freedom. This caused the USSR to employ more border control, which cost the government more money, and therefore hurting the economy of East Germany, as well as in the USSR. In addition to no civilian support, Communist Germany was not granted Marshall Plan (Burgan 32). Marshall Plan was the economic aid provide...
My first reason why it was not worth the costs is the wall actually did not keep people out. It was not very protective. The wall affected so many things. It affected life styles, people's daily routine. It also affected families. (Doc. E). The wall was not one big long wall. It stretched three hundred miles to the west and there was a watchtower beyond the wall end. But there were still places that were not protected by the wall. The Xiongnu could just walk around the wall and them come in and invade. People may think that they are fine because the wall is protecting them but they need to be aware that there are spots that are not protected by the wall. They would spend so much money on this wall to protect people when it really does not protect them that well (Doc. D). One of the most important reasons is that they had to pay the Xiongnu to stay out and not invade them. They paid them with Silk Thread and Silk Fabric. The amount they gave them from the year 51 BCE to one BCE they almost tripled the amount! It increased a lot. If they had to pay them to stay out them that proves that the Great Wall does not work.
In the year 1961, the building of the Berlin Wall called upon disasters in Germany. The United States controlled the west of Berlin while the German Democratic Republic held the East. Being stuck under the rule of day-to-day terror, people from East Berlin were making their way to the West Berlin. West Berlin is a safe spot and a free checkpoint in the middle of terror. To stop the movement of East Berliners, the East German government decided to build a barrier that limited and halted the East Berliners from leaving.
Berlin and West Berlin but was located deep inside the Soviet controlled zone. Then, in 1961, the Soviet government built a wall which separated the two halves of the city. It was not until the 1980s that cold war tensions eased. through the glasnost (openness to public debate) policies of soviet leaders. Mikhail Gorbachev.
The conflicting U.S. and Soviet aims in Eastern Europe led to the Cold War. The Berlin airlift, the formation of NATO, and the Truman Doctrine all relate to this policy of containment. At the end of WWII, the United States, Great Britain, and France occupied the western zone of Germany while the Soviet Union occupied the east. In 1948, Britain, France, and the U.S. combined their territories to make one nation. Stalin then discovered a loophole. He closed all highway and rail routes into West Berlin.
The borders were strict and guarded by strict government soldiers and if anyone were to pass the would get killed right away, at least 171 people were killed trying to pass. In order to pass through with consent they had to go through 1 of 3 checkpoints; Checkpoint Charlie, Alpha, or Bravo. The wall splitting East and West Germany almost started a world war 3 but President John F Kennedy convinced The Soviet Union to back down. In 1989 the political view of the Soviet Union changed and it was agreed that the wall shall be taken down, all of it. East and West germans climbed on top of the wall and started hammer down on the wall to prove their soon to be freedom. It was a very emotional time as families were separated and finally reunited. For Example my father's family from Germany was separated for all of this time and were so happy to see eachother again they called all the family from around the world to come and
How far only the people of Berlin were responsible for bringing down the wall is
The end of World War II was the beginning of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviet Union had control over East Berlin, which was governed by a communist government and the United States had control over West Berlin, which was regulated by a democratic government. Both countries wanted full control over Berlin, so the Soviet Union set up a blockade on the West but was unsuccessful. The Berlin Wall was then built to stabilize the economy of East Berlin, which meant that fewer people could escape the east to live in the west. In the article “The fall of the Berlin Wall: what it meant to be there,” by Timothy Garton Ash, he highlights the feelings of no longer having a “iron curtain” segregating both sides of Berlin.
While reading “The construction of the Berlin Wall,” I found that on August 12th 1961, East Germany’s Council of Ministers said “in order to put a stop to the hostile activity of West Germany’s and West Berlin’s revanchist and militaristic forces, border controls of the kind generally found in every sovereign state will be set up at the border of the German Democratic Republic, including the border to the western sectors of Greater Berlin.” This was to stop East Germany’s population from shrinking and crossing over to the west. On the morning of August 13th, 1961, barriers were set up at the border of East and West Germany. Roads that were used to cross the border were ripped up, and guards closed off the traffic. Eventually the barriers were reinforced with concrete and blocks. People who lived near the border were ejected out of their homes and were remade into border control areas. While reading “Berlin Wall,” I found that the walls were eventually built 12 feet tall and 4 feet wide. The east side of the wall was called the “Death Strip.” On the “Death Strip” there was watch towers, machine guns, soldiers, guards, and even german shepherds. There were at least 171 people killed trying to get across the Berlin Wall. From 1961 to 1989 there were over 5,000 East Germans who some how managed to get across. People would jump from buildings, climb over the wall, fly over in hot air balloons, and crawl under through sewers, or even drive through weak parts of the wall. The construction of the wall helped stop a number of deflections enormously, and played a large role on the
The Berlin Wall, built in August of 1961, was s physical symbol of the political and emotional divisions of Germany. The Wall was built because of a long lasting suspicion between the Soviet Union on one side and Western Europe and the United States on the other. For 28 years the Berlin Wall separated friends, families, and a nation. After WWII was over Germany was divided into four parts. The United States, Great Britain, and France controlled the three divisions that were formed in the Western half and the Eastern half was controlled by the Soviet Republic. The Western sections eventually united to make a federal republic, while the Eastern half became communist.
In the last fifty years the German Democratic Republic has been a nonstop changing country. In Germany, the terms “East” and “West” do not just represent geographically regions. It runs much deeper than that, and there is still a large gap in the way of life, and political and social conditions of the whole country. While most German’s were sleeping on the night of August 13, 1961, the East German government began closing its borders. In the early morning of that Sunday, most of the first work was done: the border to West Berlin was closed. The East German troops had begun to tear up streets and to install barbed wire entanglement and fences through Berlin. Between 1961 and today, the Berlin Wall saw many changes, and so did the people that it entrapped.
On Sunday, August 13th, in 1962 the Eastern German government began construction of the Berlin Wall (“Berlin Wall”). The Berlin Wall was built to divide the post World War II communist ran East Germany with the democratic West Germany. On that day families in Berlin were awaken to military machinery, barbed wire coils, and armed guards. The families that had crossed the newly made border the night before to visit friends and/or family were greeted to a wall and closed transit systems (“Berlin Wall”). For them this meant they were no longer going to be able to go home and be with their family however long this division of the country would last. As the day went on some government officials in East Germany feared that the citizens would start an uprising. However, contrary to their fears the streets of East Berlin stayed eerily quiet. Almost thirty years after that day the wall still separated friends and family only miles away. The wall was a physical division between the two superpowers of the time: the East controlled by the communist regime in the Soviet ...
Before the wall got built in1961, East German peoples could travel to West Berlin to visit there family’s. On May 8th, 1945 the World War II ended. June 24th, 1948 the Soviet Military started the Berlin Blockade. Germany was divided in four different parts after World War II. Each part was controlled by a different part of a country. Twenty- eight years and “Iron curtain” East and West Berlin got divided in the heart of Germany.
The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 by the GDR (German Democratic Republic - (East Germany) under the pretext of keeping out the fascist enemy infiltrating from West Germany. In actual fact, the wall was built to keep in the population of the GDR, many of whom were fleeing to a better life in West Berlin and other European Countries. Armed border guards were sworn to protect East Germany however they knew that a better life existed on the other side of the wall. The photographer, Peter Leibing, captured the moment in history, when the first GDR Border Guard , Conrad Schumann, finally got the courage to desert his post and leap over the barricade (at that point still a barbed wire fence).
“The Berlin Tunnel Operation Gold (U.S.) Operation Stopwatch (U.K.)” coldwar.org, The Cold War Museum, n.d. Web 19 April 2014 < http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/berlin_tunnel.asp#bt2>