In the middle of the night, on August 13, 1961, the Communist government of East Berlin had made a decision that would change not only East Berlin, but the rest of the world. That decision was to put up a barrier between them, their people and the rest of the world. The barrier would be constructed of barbed-wire fencing, stretched over seventy-nine miles, and separated the people from their friends and families. There would be those who opposed and never gained their freedom, and those who made it out alive. Either way, the next twenty- eight years were going to be the toughest that it had ever been for East Berlin (“Millington, Richard”). The decision to create the Berlin Wall was very unsettling for Eastern Berliners. The reason that the Berlin Wall was created rested on the economic failings due to the unhappiness of the people. The Berliners looked for a more Democratic government, where their thoughts would be heard …show more content…
presidents in their hearts and minds. The clock was ticking for the government and they did not know how much time that they had before populace would riot (“Berlin Wall …show more content…
Officially, on November 9th, 1989, the government of East Berlin announced to its people that they were free to travel anywhere in Western Europe with a visa. As soon as the news was heard, people had begun to run out of their houses and towards the Berlin gates, flooding the guards. With many people running pass the guards, they had no time to check for visas. Therefore, people were getting out either way. Some chose to stay and take part of a celebration of their own. Multiple people chose to stand on top of the Berlin Wall and chisel it away to send a message to their government, that they were prisoners no more (“Berlin Wall
In the year 1961, the building of Berlin Wall called upon disasters in Germany. United States controlled the west of Berlin while 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 was a safe spot and freedom checkpoint in the middle of terror. To stop the moving of East Berliners, the East German government decided to build a barrier that limited and halted the East Berliners from leaving. But the battle to control Berlin between, the United States and the Soviet Union, had been taking place since after the division of Germany. The German Democratic Republic wanted better control over its people to spread its communist ideas
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 ...
The people of East Berlin were choosing democracy over communism. This lead West Berlin to build a wall that would stop ideas and people from influencing their communist ideals. The two sides that made up Berlin had different approaches to government, which ultimately escalated, into the Cold War. The Soviet Union ended up ultimately losing Germany. When East and West were reunified in 1990. The German people with the help of the Western Allies. Fought communism and ultimately won the right to the democratic government that they have today. The Building of the Berlin Wall was also significant because it was the first time that the Soviet Union showed that they feared Western
The Berlin Crisis reached its height in the fall of 1961. Between August and October of that year, the world watched as the United States and the Soviet Union faced off across a new Cold War barrier, the Berlin Wall. In some ways, the Wall was Khrushchev’s response to Kennedy’s conventional buildup at the end of July, and there were some in the West who saw it that way. However, as Hope Harrison has clearly shown, Khrushchev was not the dominant actor in the decision to raise the Wall, but rather acquiesced to pressure from East German leader Walter Ulbricht, who regarded the Wall as the first step to resolving East Germany’s political and economic difficulties. The most pressing of these difficulties was the refugee problem, which was at its height in the summer of 1961 as thousands of East Germans reacted to the increased tensions by fleeing westward. But Ulbricht also saw the Wall as a way to assert East German primacy in Berlin, and thus as a way to increase the pressure on the West to accept East German sovereignty over all of Berlin.
As the wall rose, mass panic caused many Germans in East Berlin to flee in hopes of evading the chains of communism. Those who didn’t cross into West Berlin were trapped, forced to live the Nazi way of life, separated from freedom. With Berlin dwindling from the previous war, the people were neither strong nor weak, but their fears grew. The fear that the Nazis would soon consume all of Berlin plagued the people of West Berlin (Widmer 2013).
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.
Second of all the Berlin Wall was built was because of before it all started East Germany’s leader Erich Honecker demand the wall to be built because of many events happen. Also is because Erich Honecker wanted to cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and East B...
The Berlin Wall oppressed people and literally trapped them in Eastern Germany with little to no freedoms. Many people risked their lives trying to escape Eastern Germany in a multitude of ways. Berlin was a main access point for people attempting to cr...
For many, the fall of the wall proved the triumph of capitalism over communism. East German communist leaders were forced out of office. Negotiations began for the complete reunification of Germany. West German Chancellor H. Kohl assured the world that a united Germany would be no threat to peace. In October 1990, he became the first Chancellor of a reunited Germany. The construction of the Berlin wall in Germany between the 13th of August 1961 – 1989 increased tensions to a significant extent as it was a sign of dominance portrayed by the USSR, was a follow up from the Bay of pigs and U2 spy plane crisis and the US were trying to combat the USSR by setting up the Berlin airlift and demanding peace in the east. The Berlin Wall was arguably the greatest source of tension during the Cold War due to the many significant events happening before and after the construction of the wall. Finally, the construction of the Berlin Wall created significant tensions between the two superpowers, USSR and the USA, which developed into other tensions arising in the Cold War Period. I have analysed the topic ‘To what extent did the construction of the Berlin Wall increase tensions during the Cold War period’ and developed 3 strong body paragraphs that support my
In conclusion Berlin Wall was an important milestone in the growth of the Cold War. It was the expansion that represented the thinking of a determined Communist system. Western Capitalism, which was more powerful, eventually defeated the system. The massive wall that did so much harm to a country was finally destroyed, and the people of Germany could now live the way they all wanted to live. They could live the life of freedom. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall East Germany has went through a lot of changes, and it still is not easy for all of the people in East Germany. But no matter how hard it is for the people of East Germany now, it is better than being alone and separated from their families, friends and rest of Europe.
On August 13, 1961, the communist government of East Germany built the Berlin Wall to divide the East and West Berlin. Building the wall caused a short term crisis in U.S. Soviet blockade relations, and the wall itself began to symbolize the Cold War. Throughout the 1950s and into the East Berlin crossed over into West Berlin to reunite with families and escape communist oppression. The government of East Germany on the night of 1961 began to seal off all points of entrance into West Berlin from East Berlin by putting barbed wire and guarding it. The Berlin Wall succeeded in sealing off two sections of Berlin. This angered the U.S., and West Berlin began to make plans to bulldoze the wall, but failed when Soviets had armored units into position
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).
While The Berlin Wall symbolized the Cold War division of Germany, the east side of Berlin they were treated wrong. That's why they were always trying to flee to the west side. On the west side you were given more freedom to do what you wanted; the east side are communist while the west are capitalist.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall changed Western Europe as we know it today. The Iron Curtain which had split Europe had ascended and the once divided germans were reunited under one common nation. The causal factors which resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall were internal — communism imploded upon itself—. Gorbachev attempted to reform communism through Glasnost and Perestroika, which were supposed to incorporate economic reforms and transparency, however, history illustrates that increased liberty is incompatible with communism. Dr. Schmidtke argued that structural deficiencies led along with poor economic growth which led to the collapse of communism in Europe, and consequently the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The alienation of intellectuals and the authoritative nature of communist regimes further contributed to the failure of communism in Europe. However, the collapse of the Berlin Wall would not have occurred had it not been for Gorbachev’s Glasnost, Perestroika, and the end of the Brezhnev Doctrine. Along with German official Schabowski whose actions were the catalyst for the mass exodus of persons from the GDR into West Germany. The Collapse of the Berlin Wall would not have occurred so swiftly had Gorbachev not tried to implement reforms to communism.
THESIS: From research and historical analysts, we can conclude that in many cases the people of Germany have been effected socially and economically by the building and construction of the Berlin Wall.