This allowed East Germans to journey through Austria into West Germany. Since the West German population enjoyed a much higher living standard than that of the East, the East Germans were voluntarily inclined to move into West Germany. Eleven thousand East Germans fled from the strict Communist regime to a more democratic Capitalist rule, which proved there extreme feelings towards anti-communism. This west-ward migration came to a legal end with the collapse of the Berlin wall on the 3rd of October, 1990. As well as denoting and representing the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe this event led to the reunification of Germany.
Imagine living in a world divided, physically and psychologically, where each side viewed each other as the enemy. The Democratic west and the Communist East both had many differences and, instead of putting aside their differences, they put up the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall had not only separated families and friends, but is had caused tension between the two superpowers of the world. However, on June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan had given his “Earthshaking” speech in the heart of Berlin and demanded that Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear Down This Wall!” This is viewed as the start of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Many critical events had led up to the Berlin wall.
Germany now became the prize struggle between enemies. In response to the numbers of people who fled the communist world to the free world, East Germany built a wall that cut across the heart of Berlin. It was an improvised structure, thrown up overnight. In the months and years to follow, it would harden into a massive barrier of concrete blocks, barbed wire, machine gun towers, and minefields. The Wall became 103 miles long, and it was approximately ten to thirteen feet high.
The U.S needed serious support if they wanted the airlift succeed. The massive population of West Berlin gave the most doubt among contemporaries. However, a key component many seem to forget is the fact that Stalin cut off all electricity and transportation through West Berlin, which resulted in jobless Berliners. Stalin’s move proved un-strategic, as jobless Berliners now had time to help support the airlift. Doing jobs such as loading and unloading planes, transporting goods, and other laborious tasks, the people of Berlin provided the much needed support the U.S was looking for.
Shortly after, in June 1948, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, Britain, France and several other countries from all over the world contributed to the "Berlin airlift", which consisted in supplying West Berlin with food and other provisions by daily flights. During almost one year, the world was arguing the ethical reasons behind this situation (or the lack of it). Pressured by the public opinion, in May 1949, Stalin backed down and lifted the
West Berlin was cut from the east. Wall built by eastern communist authorities to prevent people from fleeing. I rate this 7 because there wasn`t any blood on the streets, the government were very different. Soviet government got rid democratic influences on the East berlin. 11 The Cuban Missile Crisis - During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
Breaking Boundaries The Berlin Wall was built to separate the Communist east from the Democratic west. This ominous divider was was twelve feet of concrete that stretched for one hundred miles around West Berlin. The infamous symbol of the Cold War was guarded by electric fences and guard posts stationed along it. This boundary was built in 1961 and fell in 1990, after a decree was put into place by the East Germans to open the wall in 1989. Ronald Reagan’s speech “Tear Down this Wall” was one of the events that lead to the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War era.
In defying the compromise of the Great War nearly twenty-two years prior, Germany remilitarized their country in order to expand their borders, creating political conflict. The Berlin Games caused conflict between countries and races as Hitler defied the compromise of the Treaty of Versailles and started World War Two all under the face of a peaceful, hospitable Germany. The Berlin Olympics were full of controversy and conflict, but before the world could band together it was first threatened to never affiliate in the first place. The Games were awarded to Berlin after the war and before Hitler came to power (Smith). The Olympics were the biggest gift that the Fuhrer received when he started his dictatorship and twisted laws to strike at the Jews.
In 1938, following the Kristallnacht pogrom on November 9-10, around 115,000 Jews emigrated from Germany. Up until 1941, German policy had encouraged emigration, however they gradually increased emigration taxes and limited the amount of money that could be transferred from German banks. Emigration was so popular because it was the first response to the control of the Nazi’s. Around 37,000 to 38,000 Jews emigrated to Germany’s neighboring countries. This included France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland.
What do you think? Only because of the richness and wealth they flee to Europe? The German Nazis would use this claim. No, in my opinion they flee not only because they are thinking that Germany is a paradise. They flee because of war.