What Was The Fall Of The Berlin Wall Essay

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At the end of World War II, the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union divided Germany and the capital of Berlin into four separate zones. The United States, Britain, and France eventually united their zones into a single entity known as the Federal Republic of Germany. In response to the unification of these countries, the Soviet Union began building a blockade between West Berlin and East Berlin in hopes that the Western Germans would abandon the city, allowing the Eastern Germans to take it over. To their dismay, almost 2.5 million Eastern Germans fled to West Berlin because they were unhappy with the communist system and saw West Berlin as a gateway to democracy. “Many of the refugees that fled to the West were skilled …show more content…

The West Germans became the “Wess Is” and East Germans became the “Os sis.” The wall essentially created the attitudes of West versus East, democracy versus Communism. West Germany created their own currency, elected a new chancellor, and formed a new political system, operating completely as their own country. When the wall was torn down, the new identities were reinforced instead of coming together as one like the governments had planned on. For the most part, West Germany took over East Germany during the reunification process. The West Germans were seen as superior to the East Germans and were treated with way more respect because they had a better economy and political system, which created a source of tension amongst the people. The East German economy was viewed as non-competitive which continued for many years. Critics argue that there might have been a way for these two new identities to have been avoided, but in my opinion, I think that this issue was inevitable. If two groups of people are growing as their own countries separately, they are naturally going to form their own identities and create their own new political systems. They barely had any communication between sides so they couldn’t have even tried to build their political systems off of the same laws and values. The only way that they would not have grown apart is if the wall was never created; which didn’t seem to be an option at the

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