What Was The Fall Of The Berlin Wall Essay

1587 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An essay on the Berlin wall

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

Show More
Related

  • The Impact of the Early Crisis in the Development of the Cold War to 1953

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    Following the conferences during World War Two, Germany was split up into two zones. Occupying West Germany and West Berlin was France, Britain and The United States, while the Soviet Union occupied Ea...

    Read More

  • Building The Great Wall Dbq Essay

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Berlin Wall Dbq

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Fall Of The Weimar Republic Dbq Essay

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    The period after World War One was very politically unstable. Many different kinds of governments, such as fascism and communism, were coming up all over Europe. One country that especially faced this political fluctuation was Germany. After the war, Germany was forced into a democracy known as the Weimar Republic, but this government soon collapsed and Hitler’s fascism took over. There were various factors that contributed to the fall of the Weimar Republic, but three major ones were the lack of popular support for the government, the lack of efficiency and internal organization, and the competition of other, more conservative parties such as the Nazis.

    Read More

  • Containment and the Cold War

    536 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the end of WWII, the United States, Great Britain, and France occupied the western zone of Germany while the Soviet Union occupied the east. In 1948, Britain, France, and the U.S. combined their territories to make one nation. Stalin then discovered a loophole. He closed all highway and rail routes into West Berlin. This meant no food or fuel could reach that part of the city. In an attempt to break the blockade, American and British officials started the Berlin airlift. For 327 days, planes carrying food and supplies into West Berlin took off and landed every few minutes. West Berlin might not have made it if it wasn’t for the airlift. By May 1949, the Soviet Union realized it was beaten and lifted the blockade. By using the policy of containment, the Americans and the British were able to defeat the Soviets.

    Read More

  • The Fall of the Berlin Wall and Communism in Europe

    1812 Words  | 4 Pages

    After World War II, Germany was separated into four different sectors assigned to the triumphant Allied forces: the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. (Wolski) The capital was located one hundred fifteen miles into Soviet territory. (Kenny) The Western Allies believed this was unfair because Berlin was the only large city at the time. They agreed to separate Berlin into quadrants as well. (Wolski) The United States, Britain, and France joined their sectors together as a democratic state called the Federal Republic of Germany. (Taylor) Meanwhile, Russia kept their portion separate and it became known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR). However, this caused a problem because the democratic West Berlin was entirely surrounded by Soviet land. (Wolski)

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Fall Of The Berlin Wall

    1057 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Strategy Of Containment: The Policy Of Containment

    917 Words  | 2 Pages

    President Stalin saw the US strategy to rebuild Europe as a way to weaken Soviet influence in that region. This led to the aggressive struggle to take over control of Germany, which led to the divide of Germany. German Capital, Berlin took the hardest hit. The city was divided into the East and West. Soviets were in control of the East while the West was controlled by the Americans, British and French. West Berlin enjoyed more liberal civil and democratic freedom than their counterparts in East Berlin. Again the US and its allies were able to aggressively block any form of communist insurgencies into those areas by providing massive supply of food and other necessities for West Germany in what was known as the Berlin Airlift. This eventually led to the formation of East Germany in

    Read More

  • Significance Of The Berlin Wall

    2168 Words  | 5 Pages

    Even though Berlin lay deep within the Soviet sector, the Allies thought it would be the best to divide this capital. Therefore Berlin was also divided into four parts. Since the Soviet Union was in control of the eastern half of Germany, they made East Berlin the capital of East Germany. The other three counties were each in control of a small part of what was to be West Germany. The Allies decided that they would come together to form one country out of their three divided parts. Those three divided parts formed West Germany. After all the land was divided the Soviet Union controlled East Germany. Just like the Soviet Union, the economy in East Germany was struggling to get back on its feet after the war. While West Berlin became a lively urban area like many American cities, East Berlin became what many thought of as a ‘Mini-Moscow’. In East Germany there was literary almost nothing. The shelves in the stores were practically bare, and what was there was not in very good quality.

    Read More

  • Social Effects of the Berlin Wall

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Germany, the terms “East” and “West” do not just represent geographical 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 install barbed wire entanglement and fences through Berlin.

    Read More

  • Myth Of German Reunification

    1424 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Cold War

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Berlin Blockade

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1947, the Western portion of Germany instituted a government under the watchful eyes of the Western Allies. The Soviet sector followed suit in 1949. During this period, the elaborate governance structure of greater Berlin broke under the strain of Cold War tensions. What emerged was West Berlin, which took up ties with West Germany, known as the Federal Republic of Germany. East Berlin, which comprised the ruins of the old and historic center of Berlin and outlying districts to the East, became the capital of the German Democratic Republic. After World War II, the Americans pumped capital into West Germany through the Marshall Plan, which resulted in one of the world's strongest economies, enormous prosperity and a stable democracy. Germany has been divided ever since and though at every opportunity, lip service was paid by all western nations to its eventual reunification, no one took the matter seriously.

    Read More

  • The Collapse of the Soviet Union

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Soviet Union, which was once a world superpower in the 19th century saw itself in chaos going into the 20th century. These chaoses were marked by the new ideas brought in by the new leaders who had emerged eventually into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union was crumbling at this period both politically and socially, as well as the economy. There were underlying reasons for the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eventually Eastern Europe. The economy is the most significant aspect of every government. The soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1. fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government needs a strong economy to maintain its power and influence, but in this case the economic planning of the Soviet Union was just not working, which had an influence in other communist nations in Eastern Europe as they declined to collapse.

    Read More

  • Collapse Of The Berlin Wall Essay

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about What Was The Fall Of The Berlin Wall Essay

Open Document