The Berlin Wall, built after World War II and divided Germany, is a famous symbol of the social and political debates that formed the Cold War. The Soviet Union and the United States mostly fought over their different plans for Europe after the war after Nazi Germany was defeated. Germany, at the center of the fight, came to represent democracy against communism. This piece will focus on the causes of Germany's separation after World War II and how the Berlin Wall was built as the result of the Cold War battles between democracy and communism. It will look at the wall's meaning as a symbol of the larger separation between Eastern Bloc communism and Western democracy, along with its actual meaning as a wall dividing East and West Berlin. After …show more content…
Berlin, the capital of Germany, was also divided into East and West sections, because of their differences. The Western Allies governed West Berlin, while the Soviet Union ruled East Berlin. The Berlin Wall symbolized Germany's political and physical divisions. It was made out of concrete walls, barbed wire, watch towers, and other supplies to keep East Germans from escaping to Western countries. The Berlin Wall symbolized the Iron Curtain, which divided the communist Eastern Bloc from the capitalist West. It represented the powerful division between two disagreeing views and was a powerful symbol of suffering and prison for those living under communist control. East Germany's freedom of speech, movement, and job possibilities were severely impacted during communist control. Citizens suffered controls, monitoring, and limited access to everyday goods. West Germany had democratic rights, financial freedom, and membership in Western Europe. Citizens have more political rights, economic opportunities, and access to everyday goods. The Berlin Wall was built in 1961, mostly to prevent the huge migration of East Germans to the
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
The Cold War was a prolonged period of political and military tension between countries on the side of democracy and those on the side of communism, the major players being the United States belonging to the former and the Soviet Union belonging to the latter (Westad). While the Cold War was known as such because there were no direct wars between the two major powers, there was large scale fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam War (1954-75) is thought of as a historical consequence of the Cold War and hence a proxy war between the socialist and capitalist blocs, although many historians provide a second perspective, which is that the war was simply a nationalist struggle for national independence and reunification. While the latter argument acknowledges that external factors played a part, it states that the deciding factor that led to the Vietnamese people fighting for their independence was their nationalism and patriotism (Marr). However, it is clear that from the moment after the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was recognized by communist powers China and Soviet Union and America’s subsequent direct intervention in the war in Vietnam that the Vietnam War was no longer a nationalist fight against the French colonialists’ re-conquest, but had become a part of the Cold War.
Communism is defined as a political and economical doctrine, the aim which is to abolish private ownership of property and for-profit enterprise and to replace these with public ownership and control of industry, agriculture, and resources (“Communism”). The product of this government is supposed to be a society free of class ranking based on wealth, property, and political power. The Soviet Union was the first country to test these governmental strategies and it did not take long for the regime to collapse. The inevitable collapse of communism led to the fall of the Berlin Wall; this started the domino effect of freedom that ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
It is impossible to accurately describe the major events that occurred during the cold war without mentioning the war in Vietnam. From its start, this war has been very controversial concerning its purposes and effects on the countries involved. Both sides of this war lost a great number of soldiers and most of these men and women were not even sure why they were fighting. To this day, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the events that took place during this heated time in south Asia. One of the biggest questions raised is why the United States felt it was their responsibility to ever got involved and what were they trying to gain by sending in their troops. A look at the history of the cold war and its relation to the Vietnam War can answer a lot of these uncertainties. Many of the decisions made by the officials involved in this war would not have been made if it were not the cold war and its effects on the countries involved.
Fighting the Vietnam War dramatically changed the lives of everyone even remotely involved, especially the brave individuals actually fighting amidst the terror. One of the first things concerned when reading these war stories was the detail given in each case. Quotes and other specific pieces of information are given in each occurrence yet these stories were collected in 1981, over ten years following the brutal war. This definitely shows the magnitude of the war’s impact on these servicemen. These men, along with every other individual involved, went through a dramatic experience that will forever haunt their lives. Their minds are filled with scenes of exploding buildings, rape, cold-blooded killing, and bodies that resemble Swiss cheese.
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.
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.
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.
Outline THESIS: From research and historical analysts, we can conclude that in many cases the people of Germany have been affected socially and economically by the building and construction of the Berlin Wall. & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; I. Background A. Beginning construction B. Closing borders C. Pre-Berlin Wall II. History A. Cold War B. World War II C. Economy III. Post- Berlin Wall effects A. Economic examples B. Political examples & nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;Conclusion In the last fifty years the German Democratic Republic has been a nonstop changing country.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 precipitated the Reunification of Germany in 1990. Negotiations and talks between East German’s Lothar de Maiziere and West German’s Helmut Kohl and the four occupying powers of United States, United Kingdom, France, and Soviet Union resulted in the Unification Treaty or the “Two plus Four Treaty” recognizing the sovereignty of the newly unified German state. The five states of German Democratic Republic or East Germany united with Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany and Berlin became a unified city on October 3, 1990 marking the die wende or Turning Point. “By early 1991, however, not much more than a year after the barricade surrounding the Brandenburg Gate was actually removed, most Germans, East and West, were asking themselves whether the Wall’s absence was, by itself sufficient to bring the nation together again” (McAdams 199).” Zealous attempts to restructure East Germany’s economy after reunification in 1990 led to massive debt and high taxation, sparking disillusionment and frustration among German citizens, which resulted in a divided and unequal economy.
A common mistake among the general public is to talk about the Vietnam War. Technically, it never was declared a war; President Johnson never asked for a declaration of war. It was called the Vietnamese Conflict. He instead only asked for a resolution that would give him the authority to take "all necessary measures to repel any armed attack" against U.S. forces and "to prevent further aggression" (Dougherty). So, with this kind of all-powerful resolution, was there even a necessity for declaring war? Some believe there was a necessity, and that there should have been a declaration of war; others would disagree and say there was no need for a declaration of war. But who really knows the right answer? That question can only be answered on an individual basis. And before anyone can make a decision on these issues, the context must be understood.
Before the wall was built, the city was split, given no notice on Sunday, and “overnight brutally severed streets” (Heilbrunn) became known as ‘Stacheldrahtsonntag’, barbed wire Sunday. Shortly after, the creation of the concrete wall began. During the construction of the wall, there was outrage in West Berlin over the new barbed wire wall that ran through their city. There was outrage in East Berlin as well but it was quickly controlled by their secret police who made many arrests for any who did not want to follow the communist rule and spoke out about it. Unlike other walls built around the world to keep enemies out, this wall was designed by communists to keep people in. 11-13 feet high and was a total of 28 miles long the wall encircled East Berlin. Surrounded by “towers, guards, and dogs stood watch over a barren no man's land. A pipe, too large in diameter for a climber's grip, ran along the top of the wall.”(“Newseum:Berlin Wall”) Aside from the wall construction, there was other damage to East Berlin, “Buildings...were demolished, and the wide open area became known as "no man's land" or the "death strip," wh...
Leading into the 1960s, many skilled East German workers such as engineers, technicians and professors were escaping across the inner German border to West Germany, where they saw increased economic prosperity. Walter Ulbricht, the leader of East Germany saw this development, and closed the inner German border in 1953. However, residents were still able to escape through Berlin into West Berlin, where they could take a short flight into the GDR. Khrushchev viewed Berlin as a “malignant tumor”, and ordered the Allies to withdraw. The Allies refused, leading to the construction of the Berlin Wall, a barrier made out of barbed wire and concrete that separated East and West Berlin, and surrounded the outer portion of West Berlin.
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.
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.