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

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Wiesel, Elie. Night. Hill & Wang, 2006.

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“Berlin Wall.” Berlin Wall - History, Dates & the Fall | HISTORY, 15 December 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall. Accessed 19 May 2023.

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Swift, Taylor Allison. Love story. 15 September 2008.

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Film trilogy.(2015). Hunger games. Roma.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E

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"The Berlin Wall" by History.com Editors

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"The Berlin Wall" by History.com Editors

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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.

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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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The five subtopics in this article range from the end of the cold war to the construction of the conflict to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall separating East and West Berlin was built by the German people in the month of August of 1961. When the wall fell on November 9, 1989, the German Communist Party of the East declared that individuals might enter the border. More than 10,000 persons were allowed to flee East Berlin after June. Between 1961 and 1989, almost 171 individuals were killed trying to cross the border due to the Berlin Wall. However, after 1989, about 5,000 East Germans managed to flee.

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Escape from East Berlin offers two stories of Daring's attempts to escape the Eastern Wall that are set decades apart and told from varying points of view. Both stories were inspired by actual events. This study of the early and closing days of the Berlin Wall combines triumph and sorrow. The main characters Marta, Kurt, and Franz experienced many troubles throughout this book. Kurt and his brother Franz are living in East Berlin while their parents are in West Berlin. Overall, many families have been separated because of the Berlin Wall.

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“Somewhere in Kreuzberg, his parents are going about their day. He wonders if they’re thinking of him right now” (Marino 54).

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The song "Love story" by Taylor swift, is a love song about Romeo and Juliet. She sings about how she feels about her Romeo. The relationship affects her emotionally and she goes against her dad because she believes that her love is real. She compares her relationship with Romeo and Juliet, which is a Shakespeare play about two forddien lovers. When shes with her Romeo, its an escape from all her problems, but she also feels like her parents are controlling her feelings and goes againt everyone to be with him,she says, "Romeo, save me, they're tryna tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real" (Swift).

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The experiences of the protagonists in the book are accurate to the period of time. Marta's brother died while he was trying to escape to the other side. Many families were separated becuse they were on different sides of the wall. This relates to the real events, because many people were separated from their families and lost their lives. Overall, many challenges the protagonist faced was similar to the period of time.

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“This is why he and Lina are best friends. He knows her mind is churning as she sits in silence, studying him-several moves ahead, always”(Marino 69).

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The novel Night relates the tale of Eliezer Wiesel, an astute Orthodox Jewish youngster who was sent to Auschwitz during the early 1940s while residing in Hungary. Eliezer battles to hold onto his faith while observing the other prisoners' loss of humanity and faith in Auschwitz. The novels Night by Elie Weisel and Escape From East Berlin by Andy Marino have numerous points in common and distinct variances. One similarity between the two stories is that the characters in both struggle to reunite with their family after having been separated from them. For instance, Eliezer is separated from his family when he is brought to the concentration camp. Families are divided by the Berlin Wall in the book Escape From East Berlin. Some of the distinctions include the fact that Marta's family is not tortured but rather killed if they attempt to flee from their side of the wall, in the other novel whereas Eliezer's family is tortured and killed in Night. Although both books discuss relationships with family and friends, they differ and are similar in distinct ways.  Overall, the author shows many of the experiences of the people in concentration camps.

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Katniss Everdeen is selected to compete in the Hunger Games in the film The Hunger Games. She is cut off from her family and has no choice but to travel there, yet, she is unsure about her chances of surviving the Hunger Games. As Katniss has been cut apart from her family and is now working with her district partner Peeta Mellark, it relates to the major topic of "How do relationships affect people?" They didn't get along at first, but with time, they started to get along better and now they work well together. They get so close that they refuse to kill one another in order to win, and as a result, they win together. These are only a few of the many similarities between this movie and how relationships affect people.