The Berlin Wall
US and the Soviet Union are two countries always in conflict. After the World War II this conflicts increased due to the political differences, communism versus capitalism. Both countries were fighting to show which system was better, having as a result the Cold War. However, the conflict between them not only was the cause of the War, but also affected the lifestyle of most innocent germans living in Berlin at the time, and, although the conflict ended in the 1990, some differences between the citizens remain in the present. A hand reaches above the broken glass-covered top of the Berlin Wall is a photograph by Paul Schutzer that shows Berliners trying to escape from the east side, where the Soviet Union governed, because of
…show more content…
the political issues. After the World War II in 1945, Germany was divided in four sections: the west for the British, French and Americans; the east for the Soviet Union.
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 …show more content…
1961. The situation in the area under the soviet control was bad, while the allied side of berlin was growing. This made citizens move to the west, fact that made furious the Soviet government. The battered Soviet economy and the flourishing West Berlin made until 1961 almost 3 million people move from East Germany to the growing capitalism (Mendoza). The solution that East Germany found was the construction of the Wall. Instead of offering more opportunities, they just gave fear and kept their communist system. During and after the construction of the Berlin Wall citizens from the east side tried to cross to the west without caring about the cost or consequences. As shown in the picture taken by Schutzer, a hand rises from the east side over the wall covered with broken glasses, which its purpose was to stop people attempts to cross it. However, this hand and a lot more didn't care about this glass, as the new Berlin in the other side offered what they want, it would be worth it. Even though this barrier, people kept trying to achieve freedom; they kept trying to cross the wall knowing that they were risking their lives.
“Between 1961 and 1989 over 5,000 people tried to cross the Wall and over 3,000 of them were detained. Approximately 100 people died trying to escape. The last person shot dead was on 5 February 1989.” (“Berlin Wall”). As show in this article not even half of the people who tried to cross the Wall achieved it, most of them were detained and other died in the attempt, but this fact didn't stop them.
Despite most germans took the risk of crossing the wall, there were others that weren't as braves. Not only because of the fact that there was a wall between their actual life and their dreamed life, but because of the fear of being killed in the attempt. As suggested in the British journal “Times” just when the wall construction started; the east German government had given orders to fire the weapons on first sight at those who try to make a dash of freedom (“More E. German refugees crossing zonal border”). Since the end of the World War II Germany, as well as Berlin, was divided in two sides. People living under the communism of the Soviets tried to escape to the democratic side, fact that infuriated east government. This drove to the Soviet to the creations of barriers: one was the wall, the other one the fear of being
killed. However, they were not only trying to escape because of the political situation. There were other reasons for trying to move from the east to the west. One of them was because they lost or missed what they had in the other side. “The wall divided friends, families and love ones, causing people on both sides to lose their jobs and livelihoods if trapped in the wrong side.” (Dearden) The day of the blockade between west and east, some germans could be in the wrong side, in a side where they own nothing. They could be shopping or doing businesses. Then they weren’t able to return home; to see their families again. Maybe they just lived in a different part of the city than theirs or they lost their jobs located in the other side of the city. The Wall separated two different Berlins back in the 1970s, but the effects of this have lasted longer than many thought. A quarter of a century after the fall of the wall, the differences between the east and the west are still noticeable. “The old border between the GDR and the Federal Republic can still be seen everywhere” the Berlin Institute for Population and Development director Reiner Klingholz said (Salzen). In the study “This is how unity works” it was shown that the percentage of young people is much lower in the east, so there is also lack of people able to start a family. People is moving to the urban cities leaving the farms and rural life (Salzen). Due to the political differences during the cold war the east side of Germany didn’t evolve as fast as the west. There the economy grew during the period because of the capitalism, while the communism didn't allowed that. This has an effect in the present as people move to evolve cities, all situated in the west as the East didn't grow. The Berlin Wall was built to avoid conflict between Us and the Soviet Union, however, it was a lack of freedom for all the citizen of Berlin. They had to deal with this conflict between foreign countries and take the consequences. Most of them risked their lives to find the freedom, but other didn't try because of the fear spread by the government. The environment and political system in the east didn't allow the economy and city to grow. This fact shows differences between sides in the present, which also affects the evolution of the country nowadays. Works cited “Berlin Wall.” By CIVITATIS, 2018, www.introducingberlin.com/berlin-wall. Dearden, Lizzie. “Berlin Wall: What You Need to Know about the Barrier That Divided East and West.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 8 Nov. 2014, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/berlin-wall-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-barrier-that-divided-east-and-west-9847347.html. Mendoza, Abraham O. “Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989.” Home - Credo Reference, Credo Reference, 31 Dec. 2011, search.credoreference.com/content/topic/berlin_wall_berlin_germany_1961_1989?institutionId=8473. “More E. German Refugees Crossing Zonal Border.” Times [London, England]. The Times Digital Archive. 14 Sept. 1961: 10. http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=s0257&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS169173294&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 Salzen, Claudia von. “Study: Effects of German Division Have Endured Longer than Expected.” Euractiv.com, 24 July 2015, www.euractiv.com/section/languages-culture/news/study-effects-of-german-division-have-endured-longer-than-expected/. “The Building of the Berlin Wall - The Cold War (1945–1989) - CVCE Website.” The Creation of the Soviet Buffer Zone - The Cold War (1945–1989) - CVCE Website, 2018, www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/55c09dcc-a9f2-45e9-b240-eaef64452cae/89dde220-957b-4451-ba7b-7d35152163fa.
The feud between the United States of America (USA) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) lasted from the end of World War II until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The fuel that powered their feud was the desire to be the greater superpower. After World War II ended, the USSR gained control of Eastern Germany. On the night of August 13, 1961, a wall was constructed that divided the already separate East and West Berlin. This wall would become what was known around the world as the Berlin Wall. It stood as a barrier to freedom from the East Berliners. The Berlin Wall in Germany caused the USSR to lose the Space Race to the United States in 1969 because the USSR was communist, they alone had control of East Germany, and the United States was tough competition. With the Berlin Wall making tensions high in Germany during the 1960s, the USSR had a lot more business to take care of than they had thought.
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 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
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.
What will you do when you meet a wall that block your way? There are only two ways, either finding a way to go through the wall or staying still. In fact, this is life, when a barrier cut down the road, there comes to two choices, taking an action or doing nothing. In poems ‘where there’s a wall’ by Joy Kogawa and ‘Paxis’ by Sharon. They both talk about the ‘walls’ in their life. On the one hand, in ‘where there’s a wall’ Joy tells about her experience inside the internment camp where there is no freedom. On the other hand, Sharon in ‘Paxis’ observes how human being act meaninglessly under control of outside world. He expresses his sorry and wants to encourage people to fight their own future. Joy and Sharon try to tell people, life can be full
How far only the people of Berlin were responsible for bringing down the wall is
A seventh grader asks his dad about the eighties. Unfortunately his dad can't remember anything about the eighties;and the older sister helps him remember the past. “Berlin Wall Piece,” by Sam Shepard is a story where a small piece of concrete helps a crazy father remember his modern history. A theme for the story would be: how a small piece of history can bring back so many old memories and controversies. When the story first opens up, a seventh grader is interviewing his father for his social studies class. The father is being questioned by his own son or daughter. The story does not reveal the sex of the youngest child. The father is unaware of the past; he can't remember absolutely nothing. The youngest child is confused, and cannot understand why his father can't help him. The father explains to the child that there was nothing important going in the eighties. The most important and significant thing for his father was the birth of his two children and his wife. The rest of it was lies, trash, and insignificant things the world had offered him. The truth was that nothing more matter to him than his children and wife. He had everything in the world he could ever wish for. The young child could not understand his fathers intentions to his answers. It was all a big mystery.
Dowling, Timothy C. “Berlin Wall: Cold War.” World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.
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.
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 most visible aspect of the Cold War was the Berlin Wall. Before the wall was constructed, East and West Germans could travel freely between the two states. The number of East Germans fleeing to West was an embarrassment to the Communists, and something had to be done to pro...
Did you know that something 12ft tall and 4ft wide could separate an entire nation? The Cold War was a war without a war between the US and Soviet Union. There was no real combat or fighting, but there was many arguments about their ideas and words. In this paper, I will write about one event of the Cold War-the Berlin Wall: the events before it was built, the construction of it and the role it played on the people, and the destruction of it and the reunification of the people.
After WWII After WWII, Germany was divided into four zones and occupied by Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Berlin itself was occupied by the western powers; however, it was surrounded by the Soviet zone. Between 1947 and 1948 cooperation between these powers broke down. The west decided to create a separate government in their zones. To prevent this, the Soviet's increasingly harassed the western traffic to and from Berlin. Russia was trying to spread communism, abolish democracies, and spread poverty. Thus creating the Berlin Blockade, which forced America to create the Berlin Airlift. This created a greater controversy between the United States. This controversy's caused spies to enter into the opposition's country.
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.
After World War II, when Germany was defeated, it was divided into four zones, one for each of the Allies. The eastern part went to the Russians. The other Allied Powers, France, Britain and the U.S. divided the Western portion of the city among themselves.