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Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

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Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor

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In the book, Escape from East Berlin by Andy Marino, one of the main characters name was Marta. Marta had a brother named Stefan and he was swimming in the water with his friend, Johann. Stefan got shot by the border guards because he sacrificed himself to save his friend. Because of her brother getting shot, Marta doesn't trust and believe in the government so she wants to get out of East Berlin with her family to the West, so they can reunite with the rest of her family. Once the family started the plan the border guards caught them and start to shoot.

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Kurt lives with his brother, Franz. Kurt's parents are in West Berlin and he is in East Berlin. Since Kurt's parents are in West Berlin, he wants to escape with his friend, Lina. But, Lina's parents are in the East, so she wants to stay. Kurt wants to go to West Berlin, but he also wants to be with Lina.

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The Book Address Unknown follows two characters, Max, a Jew living in San Francisco, USA running an art gallery, and his business partner Martin who recently moved with his family back to Germany. It follows the two men as they correspond through letters. Similarities the book shows is that perspectives change, for example, Martin's view on the Jewish people changed as the war progressed and Hitler started his rise to power, Simulaly, Marta's perspective changed by the way she saw the society of East Berlin after her brother was killed. Max's perspective also changes by how he sees Martin, at the beginning he sees Martin as a friend, but then later he looks to enact revenge upon him. A difference between the books is that Kurt's perspective stays the same and is fixated on escaping and uniting with his parents. Another difference is that in Address Unknown we get to see how living in Germany deeply changes Martin's views on the Jewish people and how he talked about Jews in his letters to Max. One thing we can take away from all 4 of these characters is the similarity that society helps to shape the person, but also the motivation of the people as well.

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“‘I’m sorry,” Helmut says. ‘I mourned him. It was a brave thing he did.’      ‘It was a stupid thing,’ Marta says. A flash of anger, red and raw: Who is this strange man to mourn her brother, to call what he did brave, when what he did took him away from her family forever? Helmut is not the one who has to live with Stefan’s absence. He doesn’t walk past the silent museum-room with its paperback books and swim trunks draped across the dresser, held in place with snow globe paperweights from Latvia. Sure, brave. Easy for him to say.” (Marino 34 and 35).

"‘Don’t do it, Kurt. Please. I don’t want you to go. Even if they don’t kill you or arrest you, even if you make it–you’ll be in the West, and I’ll be in the East. Forever.’              'So come with me,’ he says.            'Your parents are already in the West. Mine are still here! I can’t just leave.’” (Marino 70)

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https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall

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Table of 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 so-called 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

Berlin's Animal Arms Race

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.

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.

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.

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 during the " Space Race " 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 John F. Kennedy conceded that "a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.") Almost two years after the Berlin Wall was erected, John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most famous addresses of his presidency to a crowd of more than 120,000 gathered outside West Berlin's city hall, just steps from the Brandenburg Gate. Kennedy's speech has been largely remembered for one particular phrase. "I am a Berliner."

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.

HISTORY Vault: Declassified: Rise and Fall of the Wall

Mine formerly guarded vaults and archives around the world to reveal untold stories about the brutal life and catastrophic death of the Berlin Wall, a central symbol of the 20th century's longest and deadliest war.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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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.

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During the month of August, year of 1961 the German people created the wall between East and West Berlin. The German Communist Party of the East announced that the people could cross the border on November 9th of 1989 when the wall came down. After the Month of June, more than 10,000 people were able to leave East Berlin. The Berlin Wall, during 1961-1989, nearly 171 people got killed because they were trying to cross the border. But past 1989, around 5,000 East Germans were able to escape

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I think that the book, Escape from East Berlin by Andy Marino, is pretty accurate because when we researched the main part of the book which is the Burlin Wall, It pretty much says what was said in the book. In the article, it says, "In all, at least 171 people were killed trying to get over, under, or around the Berlin Wall" (Berlin Wall). In the book, it talks about how people get shot/killed by crossing the border.

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What shapes a person and their perspective? 

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What shapes a person and their perspective? 

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Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (Novel form) Steven Spielberg (Film form)

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Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (Novel form) Steven Spielberg (Film form)

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Summary of how this piece of media connects to your essential question

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Summary of how this piece of media connects to your essential question

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In the movie Jurassic Park, The scientists played around with science and cloned dinosaur DNA. On an actual island, they have made a dinosaur park that became a big problem. They have let people get into the island so they can know how amazing dinosaurs were. But when things started to backfire perspectives began to change. A few paleontologists disagreed with changing the ecosystem by bringing back dinosaurs from the start.

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In the show, Invader Zim, Zim wants to take over Earth because he thinks taking over Earth is a special mission. He thinks this because his leaders, The Tallest told him it was. Taking over Earth wasn't really a special mission, The Tallest just wanted to get rid of Zim. This is a great example of modern storytelling addressing the essential question of what shapes a person and their perspective. In the episode The Most Horrible Christmas Ever, Zim discovers how much people like Santa Claus and decides to dress up like Santa as an attempt to take over the world.

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Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

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Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger

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Summary of how this piece of media connects to your essential question

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The protagonist Sophie Foster is an elf. She is whisked away from the only home she has ever known, Earth. When she goes to the lost cities home of the elves and other magical beings, she notices things others do not because of her upbringing. She was raised a human. She still thinks like a human which helps her to see things about this world know one believes. She is having trouble adjusting to this new and so called better world. Where her human ways continue to shadow over her, wherever she goes in her new home.

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Marino. Andy. Escape from East Berlin. Scholastic, 2022.

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Taylor, K. Kathrine. Address Unknown. HarperCollins, 2021.

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“Berlin Wall - History, Dates & the Fall.” History.Com, 20 Apr. 2023, www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall.

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Invader Zim. Created by Jhonen Vasquez, Nickelodeon.

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Jurassic Park. (n.d.). Universal Pictures.

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Messenger, S. (2012). Keeper of the lost cities. Aladdin.