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My on take of the question of how it effects our history ion America.

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Google Docs - create and edit documents online, for free.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Guards trying to prevent people climbing on it

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Guards trying to prevent people climbing on it

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Protesters protesting about the Berlin Wall and the guards not letting them up on it
(picture ciatation: http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/berlin-flag.jpg

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#During the wall was still up
(picture ciatation: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5d/Berlinermauer.jpg/240px-Berlinermauer.jpg )

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(picture ciation: http://elearningexamples.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/before-and-after-widget-Berlin-Wall-anniversary.jpg )

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Picture part of the fall of the Berlin Wall

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Picture part of the fall of the Berlin Wall

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#Fall of the Berlin wall
(picture ciation: http://historycooperative.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/09d756f5-2f5e-49c2-806d-dad7cafebeb6-2060x1236.jpeg )

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(article talks about the time of the Berlin wall)
The wall solved some crises over Berlin. Though didn't stop people from the East side to try to get into the West side. The Russian government put sentries to guard from people to try scaling the wall. Even though it was impossible scaling the wall as it 12 ft. tall and 4 foot wide mass of concrete and supported by interior steel poles. They could tell when someone tried to go over as a strip of sand would show the foot prints. Using barb wires, attack dogs, and sentry towers to shoot anyone who got to close. over at least 171 people were killed trying to get to the west side. Though 5,000 people still were able to get over it somehow

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The Berlin Wall: A City and World Divided

The Berlin wall enclosed West Berlin for 96 miles "like a noose". [1] It was there to separate West and East Berlin, as well as West Berlin from the rest of East Germany, even splitting through areas like cemeteries. There is to this day scattered pieces of physical evidence of the wall that was erected overnight on August 13, 1961 [2] and even more cultural evidence. East German officials claimed that the reason for the wall was to protect East Germany from the West, but the real reason was due to the masses of people fleeing the communist regime to the democratic West. The estimate this article gives is that 136 people were killed along the Berlin Wall. Most of these were shot by German guards, but some casualties were from people killing themselves trying to cross. It is believed that at least 100,000 people tried to cross from East to West Germany up and down the border, with 600 of them losing their life in the effort. The wall was eagerly torn down in 1989 and now there are several museums and tours, educating tourists about what occurred there. They even have markers showing where historic events took place, including the death of the last man trying to cross the wall.

The Berlin Wall was constructed over night, making life extremely difficult for West Berlin, but not as tough as in East Berlin. There, the citizens were just trying to flee their own government and way of life. the construction was unexpected and shocked the world when it went up. Many countries didn't want to be caught in the cross fire between the two super powers, so their impact was minuscule and in the grand scheme of things. Tension around the Berlin Wall were the most intense to ever exist between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This was the single most important event of the Cold War and had the biggest impact on people's lives. It would define the relationship between Super Powers and reveal how the United States as well as democracy are superior.

Beginning with World War II, it was inevitable that Berlin would become a center point in the struggle between East and West. "Rooted in Geographic and embedded in diplomatic shufflings since World War II the real issues of Berlins suggest no easy solution." [3] Before the conclusion of the war, the U.S. was pondering the idea of a full scale invasion of Berlin. However, General Eisenhower went to the military police, who estimated that an attack of that scale would result in 100,000 casualties in the final days of the war. This figure ended up being highly over estimated. Regardless, this left "... Berlin isolated 110 miles inside the Soviet Zone with no written guarantee of right of access." [4] When Britain, the U.S., and the Soviet Union split up Berlin, it left the West's controlled sector in Soviet territory surrounded on all sides. This created a loophole in the geography of Europe. East Germans could now escape communist East Germany to democratic West Germany and beyond, creating a problem for the Soviets. In response, on August 13th 1961, the people of West Berlin awoke to a wall.

Fig. 1 The Wall being constructed in August, 1961. After completion, it was continually fortified throughout its existence. Other images of the wall.

In an issue of The Times from 1961, the damage the Berlin Wall has already caused is outlined to the British people so they can realize the severity of the issue. A month had gone by since the Wall went up and it had already become a center for violence as well as suffering. By August 13, the Federal Minister for All-German Affairs, Herr Lemmer, had an estimate "... that at least 10,000 political prisoners are now held in east German prisons." [5] Those who went to prison considered themselves lucky with their sentence, it had been discovered that many of the more recent convicts were being sent to hard labor camps in East Germany. This was only the beginning, by the time it was over thousands more would be imprisoned and hundreds would be killed. The reign of communist terror began to set in. Westerners had been appealing to stop the shooting at escaping refugees in the east, but these appeals were only met with more heavily armed guards. East Germans were beginning to have success crashing their cars through the wall to escape, so men were forced to work under armed police to reinforce the wall and build road blocks. It brings to mind the same regime that controlled Germany just 16 years prior.

Fig. 2 Peter Fechter, a young brick layer from Berlin, was one of the first to be shot and killed trying to cross to West Berlin. He laid there screaming for 45 minutes before finally dying. This allowed many people to view his body and it was the first death that caught lots of attention.

People were managing to escape to the West, though. "In spite of these measures refugees keep arriving daily in west Berlin, though in negligible numbers compare with before August 13." [6] From wire cutters, to swimming through canals, people were finding ways early in the life of the wall to escape the grip of the Soviets. Even members of the police who were assigned to help fortify the wall were secretly coming over the wall and escaping. Many Germans had family on the other side of the wall and were trying to be reunited, while others wished for a better quality of life. The British sent out a message to German officials that "Freedom in Berlin must not be betrayed, this would mean betraying not only honour and principles but also the delicate basis of European security." [7] This was not only an issue in Germany, it was affecting all of Europe and continued to involved the U.S. in it's Cold War.

The wall became very disruptive to those living within its boundaries. "For some it meant the end of visits to relatives and friends in the East ..." [8]Many people even lost their jobs, as well as businesses losing employees. "... approximately 50,000 East Berliners commuted regularly to jobs..." [9] Although it opened jobs in West Berlin, it to some degree affected everyone living in the city. Whatever inconveniences those in the West experienced were minor compared to what was happening in the Eastern GDR. Due to the millions of Eastern Germans who had fled west, the GDR was desperately trying to hold on and control their population. They employed tactics to accomplish this, which was carried about by the Stasi. They were tasked with controlling the citizens and identifying internal enemies of the state. If people were caught resisting the GDR, they were promptly arrested and faced varying degrees of punishment. The Stasi had thousands of full time employees and millions of collaborators which allowed them to surveil everywhere and pry their way into everyone's daily lives. It wasn't only open resistance that caught the attention of the Stasi, breaking social norms such as growing long hair, wearing clothes from the West, or listening to Western music was enough to get on their radar. They had files on almost all of the population.

Reactions to this wall were resoundingly negative. Although Western powers did not condone the actions of East Germany, they were walking on thin ice in regards to what could be done about it. The citizens of West Berlin were not happy with this, they "... were angry people-angry with the Western Powers for yielding on Berlin, angry with the Bonn Government and angry with the Communists across the barricaded borders of Berlin." [10] They felt terribly abandoned and frustrated. The reaction on a more global scale was one of a shock. The United States had never expected this wall to be built, so it took time for them to react. Some newspapers in West Berlin recognized this and felt that the government "... should have prepared Germans for the fact that, without risking war, the West could not counter Eastern action in Berlin." [11] John F. Kennedy voiced that the United States would not intervene militarily, but gave a speech supporting West Berlin, giving hope as well as challenging the Soviet rule. Another war was the last thing that the United States wanted and it had only done more to divide Germany. Together, "Diplomats in Washington and London were convinced that the tensions over Berlin would be removed in one way or another at the conference table and not on the battlefield." [12]

"If Germany was the major stage upon which the Cold War drama was enacted, it was Berlin that occupied centre stage." [13] Centered around the wall was the standoff between the two super powers, the U.S. and the Soviets. This is where they were closest in physical proximity, and were partaking in a chess match of force. Both were there with military force, seeing each other face to face. The GDR wanted to be recognized as a normal nation, and the "waxing and waning in intensity, the crisis brought the two superpower blocs to the brink of a nuclear war..." [14] The actual building of the wall was East Germany's attempt to stop the flow of people to the West, but they also knew that it wouldn't bode well with U.S. and that there was little they could do without escalating into conflict. This further fueled the Americans in their fight to eradicate communism because the wall is such a physical embodiment of the Cold War. The stark contrast between the two sides of the wall situated so close together perfectly demonstrates the difference between the two political and economic ideals. Using what the communists were doing to the free capitalists was an image that the United States wanted to promote because of the way it framed communism.

Fig. 3 A propaganda cover of a magazine, depicting the U.S.'s belief that communism would be "the iceberg to sink America". They saw the Berlin wall as the line between communism and capitalism, supporting West Germany in their struggle against communism.

Almost 30 years later, in 1989, the GDR decided to open its its border to the West. The Cold War was coming to a final close and people were ecstatic in Germany. "... Berliners from both parts of the city as well as Germans in general were delirious with joy when they witnessed the unexpected opening of the Berlin Wall and the German-German border..." [15] It was a huge victory for freedom and democracy, putting an end to 3 decades of oppression. However, the mood slowly faded into the realization of how much work was to be done "... Largely as a result of the dismal state of the East German economy and the resulting social tensions and psychological stresses." [16] The economy had to be saved and the reunification and a painfully slow rate. Although the physical border had been torn down, years of ideological differences had separated the two sides as well and continue to affect East and West. Life in Berlin rapidly improved after that day in 1989, but never will the wall be forgotten. So many had lost family, jobs, and even their lives in those years. It is a very rich part of Germany's history, and it is important that people are educated on what occurred in hopes that something of the sort will be prevented in the future.

[1] Dits, J. (2011, Aug 13). Memories of the Berlin wall. South Bend Tribune Retrieved from http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:2182/docview/883420028?accountid=14902

[2] South Bend Tribune (2011, Aug 13)

[3] Keller, John W. Germany, The Wall and Berlin: Internal Politics During an International Crisis. New York: Vantage Press, 1964, 17.

[4] Keller, Germany, the Wall and Berlin:Internal Politics During an International Crisis, 18.

[5] "Total Of 10,000 In Prison." Times [London, England] 14 Sept. 1961: 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

[6] The Times (1961, Sept 14)

[7] The Times (1961, Sept 14)

[8] Merritt, Richard L., and Anna J. Merritt, eds. Living With the Wall. Duke University Press, 1985, 191.

[9] Merritt, Living With the Wall, 191.

[10]Keller, Germany, the Wall and Berlin:Internal Politics During an International Crisis

[11]Keller, Germany, the Wall and Berlin:Internal Politics During an International Crisis

[12]Keller, Germany, the Wall and Berlin:Internal Politics During an International Crisis

[13] Gearson, John P.S. "The Berlin Wall Crisis: Perspectives on Cold War Alliances." International Affairs 79, no. 2 (March 1, 2003): 449-50. Accessed February 25, 2016.

[14] Gearson, "The Berlin Wall Crisis: Perspectives on Cold War Alliances

[15] Mews, Siegfried. "After the Fall of the Berlin Wall: German Writers and Unification." South Atlantic Review, May 1993, 1-19. Accessed March 26, 2016. JSTOR.

[16] Mews, "After the Fall of the Berlin Wall: German Writers and Unification"

Illustrations

Figure 1. Construction of the Berlin Wall, 1961 http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/02__GIC/GIC/05/08-Mauerfall25/02-Timeline/Feature__1/Timeline__Gallery__B.html

Figure 2. Peter Fechter's dead body, 1962 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Peter_Fechter

Figure 3. Propaganda Communist Iceberg, 1960. http://www.designer-daily.com/examples-of-american-cold-war-propaganda-2918

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The Berlin Wall: A City and World Divided The Berlin wall enclosed West Berlin for 96 miles "like a noose". [1] It was there to separate West and East Berlin, as well as West Berlin from the rest of East Germany, even splitting through areas like cemeteries.

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On November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall finally fell. As the German people rejoiced of being able to see there families and reuniting the people of Berlin in general. markings the symbol of the ends of the Cold War. It was described as a celebration like New Years except something that wasn't celebrated in a long time.
#Fall of the Berlin Wall

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Before the wall the debates and occupations of what Berlin needs or wants showed in the video here.
#Berlin #Before the wall

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Berlin After World War 2 | Berlin Before the Wall | Documentary | 1961

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★ CHECK OUT OUR T-SHIRTS: https://bravestgeneration.com/collections/all ✚ Watch our "Cold War" PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaGAbbh1M3InG7eUTlNMA3mX-1KvDYz8V ►Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheBestFilmArchives ►Google+: https://plus.google.com/+TheBestFilmArchives ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/BestFilmArch This film (originally titled as 'Journey Across Berlin') is a 1961 documentary produced by the United States Information Agency (USIA) about the capital city of Germany, Berlin after World War 2.

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The construction of the Berlin Wall was created to keep refugees from coming out the East Side by the Russians. It was do to some falling out relations of the U.S with Russia. As the wall was built it blocked all points of entry and outs from west to east of Berlin. The U.S was planning to tear it down when it was up but gave up do to Russia bringing in armored units that protected the wall. The wall from its construction became the physical symbol of the Cold War between the west democratic and the east communists.
#Symbol of the Cold War

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In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin. Construction of the wall caused a short-term crisis in U.S.-Soviet bloc relations, and the wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War.

Throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, thousands of people from East Berlin crossed over into West Berlin to reunite with families and escape communist repression. In an effort to stop that outflow, the government of East Germany, on the night of August 12, 1961, began to seal off all points of entrance into West Berlin from East Berlin by stringing barbed wire and posting sentries. In the days and weeks to come, construction of a concrete block wall began, complete with sentry towers and minefields around it. The Berlin Wall succeeded in completely sealing off the two sections of Berlin. The U.S. government responded angrily. Commanders of U.S. troops in West Berlin even began to make plans to bulldoze the wall, but gave up on the idea when the Soviets moved armored units into position to protect it. The West German government was furious with America's lack of action, but President John F. Kennedy believed that "A wall is a hell of a lot better than a war." In an attempt to reassure the West Germans that the United States was not abandoning them, Kennedy traveled to the Berlin Wall in June 1963, and famously declared, "Ich bin ein Berliner!" ("I am a Berliner!"). Since the word "Berliner" was commonly referred to as a jelly doughnut throughout most of Germany, Kennedy's improper use of German grammar was also translated as "I am a jelly doughnut." However, due to the context of his speech, Kennedy's intended meaning that he stood together with West Berlin in its rivalry with communist East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic was understood by the German people.

In the years to come, the Berlin Wall became a physical symbol of the Cold War. The stark division between communist East Berlin and democratic West Berlin served as the subject for numerous editorials and speeches in the United States, while the Soviet bloc characterized the wall as a necessary protection against the degrading and immoral influences of decadent Western culture and capitalism. During the lifetime of the wall, nearly 80 people were killed trying to escape from East to West Berlin. In late 1989, with communist governments falling throughout Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall was finally opened and then demolished. For many observers, this action was the signal that the Cold War was finally coming to an end.

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East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall - Aug 12, 1961 - HISTORY.com

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In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin. Construction of the wall caused a short-term crisis in U.S.-Soviet bloc relations, and the wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War.

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Russia goal to keep out "fascists" a.k.a the democratic parties of the west. That way Russia could spread communism within Germany. So they blocked supplies in the west side of Berlin to try to starve and drive out the other Allies forces. It didn't work as the Allies just dropped off supplies from the air for a whole year. The blockade ended from Russia in the year 1949.
(picture citation: http://theberlinblockade.weebly.com/uploads/6/7/7/8/6778465/8626517.png?290 )
#Russia #Blockades #tryingtostarvepeople

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(the article gives a good timeline of the Berlin Wall)
The Berlin wall was created  in August 13, 1961. As though before it was built it went back to after WWII as Russia started cutting the east side of Berlin in Germany off to keep out the democratic side of Western Europe and the United States.
#BerlinWall #ColdWar #WestvsEast

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Contents

1. The Berlin Wall: The Partitioning of Berlin

2. The Berlin Wall: Blockade and Crisis

3. The Berlin Wall: Building the Wall

4. The Berlin Wall: 1961-1989

5. The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall

On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete "Antifascistischer Schutzwall," or "antifascist bulwark," between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western "fascists" from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War.

The Berlin Wall: The Partitioning of Berlin

As World War II came to an end in 1945, a pair of Allied peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam determined the fate of Germany's territories. They split the defeated nation into four "allied occupation zones": The eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union, while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and (eventually) France.

Did you know? On October 22, 1961, a quarrel between an East German border guard and an American official on his way to the opera in East Berlin very nearly led to what one observer called "a nuclear-age equivalent of the Wild West Showdown at the O.K. Corral." That day, American and Soviet tanks faced off at Checkpoint Charlie for 16 hours. Photographs of the confrontation are some of the most familiar and memorable images of the Cold War.

Even though Berlin was located entirely within the Soviet part of the country (it sat about 100 miles from the border between the eastern and western occupation zones), the Yalta and Potsdam agreements split the city into similar sectors. The Soviets took the eastern half, while the other Allies took the western. This four-way occupation of Berlin began in June 1945.

The Berlin Wall: Blockade and Crisis

The existence of West Berlin, a conspicuously capitalist city deep within communist East Germany, "stuck like a bone in the Soviet throat," as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev put it. The Russians began maneuvering to drive the United States, Britain and France out of the city for good. In 1948, a Soviet blockade of West Berlin aimed to starve the western Allies out of the city. Instead of retreating, however, the United States and its allies supplied their sectors of the city from the air. This effort, known as the Berlin Airlift, lasted for more than a year and delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and other goods to West Berlin. The Soviets called off the blockade in 1949.

After a decade of relative calm, tensions flared again in 1958. For the next three years, the Soviets-emboldened by the successful launch of the Sputnik satellite the year before and embarrassed by the seemingly endless flow of refugees from east to west (nearly 3 million since the end of the blockade, many of them young skilled workers such as doctors, teachers and engineers)-blustered and made threats, while the Allies resisted. Summits, conferences and other negotiations came and went without resolution. Meanwhile, the flood of refugees continued. In June 1961, some 19,000 people left the GDR through Berlin. The following month, 30,000 fled. In the first 11 days of August, 16,000 East Germans crossed the border into West Berlin, and on August 12 some 2,400 followed-the largest number of defectors ever to leave East Germany in a single day.

The Berlin Wall: Building the Wall

That night, Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good. In just two weeks, the East German army, police force and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barbed wire and concrete block wall -the Berlin Wall-that divided one side of the city from the other.

Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely: They crossed the East-West border to work, to shop, to go to the theater and the movies. Trains and subway lines carried passengers back and forth. After the wall was built, it became impossible to get from East to West Berlin except through one of three checkpoints: at Helmstedt ("Checkpoint Alpha" in American military parlance), at Dreilinden ("Checkpoint Bravo") and in the center of Berlin at Friedrichstrasse ("Checkpoint Charlie"). (Eventually, the GDR built 12 checkpoints along the wall.) At each of the checkpoints, East German soldiers screened diplomats and other officials before they were allowed to enter or leave. Except under special circumstances, travelers from East and West Berlin were rarely allowed across the border.

The Berlin Wall: 1961-1989

The construction of the Berlin Wall did stop the flood of refugees from East to West, and it did defuse the crisis over Berlin. (Though he was not happy about it, President Kennedy conceded that "a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.") Over time, East German officials replaced the makeshift wall with one that was sturdier and more difficult to scale. A 12-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide mass of reinforced concrete was topped with an enormous pipe that made climbing over nearly impossible. Behind the wall on the East German side was a so-called "Death Strip": a gauntlet of soft sand (to show footprints), floodlights, vicious dogs, trip-wire machine guns and patrolling soldiers with orders to shoot escapees on sight.

In all, at least 171 people were killed trying to get over, under or around the Berlin Wall. Escape from East Germany was not impossible, however: From 1961 until the wall came down in 1989, more than 5,000 East Germans (including some 600 border guards) managed to cross the border by jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying in hot air balloons, crawling through the sewers and driving through unfortified parts of the wall at high speeds.

The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall

On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin's Communist Party announced a change in his city's relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country's borders. East and West Berliners flocked to the wall, drinking beer and champagne and chanting "Tor auf!" ("Open the gate!"). At midnight, they flooded through the checkpoints.

More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, "the greatest street party in the history of the world." People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall-they became known as "mauerspechte," or "wall woodpeckers"-while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. "Only today," one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, "is the war really over."

The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of East Germany began to build a barbed wire and concrete "Antifascistischer Schutzwall," or "antifascist bulwark," between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep Western "fascists" from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West.