https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc Beginning to end en-us 2021-05-18 20:20:23 UTC 2026-01-23 03:04:52 UTC hello@padlet.com 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537419401 On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifaschistischer 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.]]> 2021-05-18 20:21:53 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537419401 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537437268 On November 10, 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev demanded that the United States and its allies relinquish their occupation roles in Berlin. He also declared that if they did not sign an agreement to this effect within six months, the Soviet Union would no longer honor their postwar agreement and would enter into a separate treaty with East Germany. The wall was built to completely cut-off West Berlin to East Berlin and East Germany. East Germany was backed by the Soviets at the time, while the U.S. backed West Germany. ]]> 2021-05-18 20:28:19 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537437268 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537449923 In 1989, political changes in Eastern Europe and civil unrest in Germany put pressure on the East German government to loosen some of its regulations on travel to West Germany. The fall of the Berlin Wall was the first step towards German reunification. President Kennedy ordered substantial increases in American intercontinental ballistic missile forces, added five new army divisions, and increased the nation's air power and military reserves.]]> 2021-05-18 20:33:05 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537449923 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537466142 2021-05-18 20:38:49 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537466142 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537491210 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.]]> 2021-05-18 20:48:44 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537491210 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537521750 2021-05-18 21:00:52 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537521750 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537535690 2021-05-18 21:06:30 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1537535690 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1539904270 2021-05-19 14:56:22 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1539904270 1683576 https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1543600547 Germany was reunified, triggering the swift collapse of the other East European regimes. on December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved. President Bush and his chief foreign policy advisers were more pro-active toward Russia and the former Soviet republics after the collapse of the Communist monolith than while it was teetering.]]> 2021-05-20 12:58:39 UTC https://padlet.com/1683576/2tth3mnbkg0g7qwc/wish/1543600547