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esssay about the berlin wall
the signifiance of the berlin wall
Berlin Wall analysis
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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. …show more content…
Garton Ash says you cannot recreate the liberation and emotional intensity of those that watched the wall fall. If you did not live on the East side of the Berlin Wall you cannot begin to understand what it felt like to see and know the there was no longer a wall. If you were not present at the time, you cannot recover those memories of liberation or recover what people did not know at the time. Garton Ash says that people say they foresaw the fall of the Berlin Wall, but they did not know when and how it was going to happen. Garton Ash said the only person he knew that said the Berlin Wall would fall was Ursula. The women he lived with when he moved to Berlin in 1978. Ursula had a dream that just for one night the wall would …show more content…
Those who were born in 1989 in East Berlin were lucky because they did not have to live a life where they did not have the freedom they wanted. The thought of being stuck behind a wall makes you feel confined and as if you are in a prison cell with no freedom to do anything or go where you want. The 1989 generation needs to learn from the past generations and ensure their mistakes are not repeated. If the 89ers do not make an effort to change Europe, then the fall of the Berlin Wall would essentially be for nothing because people will again be trapped and states will become controlling, taking away the freedom of others. We do not want to live in a state or governed by a government where we are being deprived our freedom. The reason Garton Ash made his comment about the 1989 generation at the end of his article is because he wants them to be involved and make a difference. There is a group called the 1989 Generation Initiative who has a proposal called “the Redefinition of the European Mission” to do what Garton Ash hoped the 1989 generation would do, to define a political generation and how they will act and react in situations. Garton Ash’s main goal is to redefine Europe and soon have other individuals from the 1989 generation
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
Ronald Reagan's BRandenburg Gate Address was not only Reagan's first trip to Berlin as president but a speech that went through every heart and mind in Berlin, Germany. Throughout most of the speech Reagan is talking about the Berlin wall that for over 2 decade separated the communist East germany from the free west germany. In August 1961 during the Cold War, East Germany built a 100 mile long wall separating the soviet union part of Berlin from the UN part of Berlin. Berlin was originally all part of the soviet Union because of the separation of Germany it self, but it was agreed to share Berlin. The soviet Union did not want the West Germany’s fascist ways to get in the way of their communist government. On August 15, 1961 East Germany was no longer allowed to go into West Germany for food, work, or even shopping.
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 ...
This speech “Tear down That Wall” written by Peter Robinson, focuses on Ronald Reagan’s speech to the Soviet Union on tearing down the wall which is the barrier to East and West Germany. The author believes that tearing down the wall would be the end of two different political philosophies. As the Great Wall of China, the Berlin wall divides people who love and hate each other and also provides “protection”. It's going to be hard to tear this wall down because people are so used to the division and when the residents are joined together you don’t know what could happen. Such as the reading Pyramus and Thisbe the wall could be a form of protection from one and another. You can’t think of a physical or social wall as something
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.
Notably, before the walls creation, Germany was a political mess. It was a mess for many reasons, but the main being that “West Germany (governed by the Allied powers- the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) and East Germany (governed by the Soviet Union)” (“Cold War”). Of course, the Allied Powers and the Soviet Union were polar opposites; the Soviet Union was Communist while the Allies were anything but, and despised the very idea of Communism. Therefore, The Wall was constructed in 1961 by the East German government. The walls main purpose was to stop the emigration of East German citizens, because in “1953, the number of refugees doubled- more than 400,000 people left”, all of whom were heading to West Germany (Dowling). They wanted to stop the “skilled workers and professionals”, which were in high demand at this time, from leaving (“Berlin Wall”). These young men were valuable to the economy, because of the various products and services they could provide. However, they were trapped against their will in East Berlin;...
Also this post war period was a competition between this to last countries. They were the most important mundial powers at the time. They tried to show which one of them was better according to their political system, american capitalism or soviet communism. This political differences had a stronger impact in Berlin where this countries were separated by a road. “For the Communist Government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), West Berlin was a constant provocation, as it was an easy escape route for many East Germans who wanted to flee the country.” (“The building of the Berlin Wall”). In order to stop this mass exodus, which weakened Soviet economy and position in the War, they built the Berlin Wall and made the passage impossible in
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan visited the Brandenburg Gate in Germany’s capital of Berlin. In 1987, Berlin was celebrating its 750th anniversary and was host to the most dramatic symbol of the cold war, the Berlin Wall. After World War II, the Allies divided Germany among the victors, the western half under democratic control and the eastern half under communist control. Berlin too was divided just as Germany into east and west sectors and the Soviet Union erected a physical barrier in 1961 in order to quell the rampant migration of defectors to the democratic West. From the 1940’s to the 1980’s the United States and the Soviet Union had been staunch political adversaries embraced in a contest for democracy and communism (History.com Staff, 2009).
Many great words have been spoken towards the Berlin Wall and the issues that surrounded it. The speeches and incredible words spoken by both John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan brought a new light to those uses and the conflict with the separation of Berlin, Germany. In their inspiring words they used countless uses of rhetoric al strategies such as anaphora, imagery, and the use of their addressers language to enhance and emphasize their words and appeal to the people and in doing so it soon brought the city of Berlin back together. Their uses of rhetoric were indeed similar to each other and the way they addressed the people of Berlin, and the Russian Chancellor, and their purpose both the same as well, to bring down the Berlin Wall, and the parting between whole communities, families, and friends be closed.
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.
The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall by Mary Elise Sarotte explains the causes and events leading up the opening of the Berlin Wall. By first describing the state of Eastern Europe, Sarotte leads the reader into descriptive chapters about the people and events that lead up to November 9, 1989. The story of the opening of the Berlin Wall, or the Iron Curtain as some call it, is compellingly told by using a profusion of sources and actions from this historic, watershed event.
At this point in time, seniors at Mira Costa feel trapped, as if they can't get out of Mira Costa and Manhattan Beach soon enough. Imagine being physically trapped in their city, surrounded by nothing but a big concrete wall holding them hostage. The Berlin Wall kept half a city hidden behind, what was known as, the iron curtain. The wall was “...a symbol of oppressive and divisive government, not only to the East Germans it contained, but to the rest of the world as well.”("Transitional Justice.") The people of Germany were separated from their jobs, their loved ones, and were forced to live under communist rule.
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.
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.