The Cold War & The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall was far more than just a physical barrier that separated East and West Berlin, it was symbolic of the boundary between Capitalism and Communism. Stemmed from lasting tensions of The Cold War, the Russian’s divided the German city of Berlin into two sides, not only creating political tensions, but cultural rifts and great tales of escape, too.
The origins of the Berlin Wall came directly from what is now known as the Cold War, which originated from tensions following WW2. During the second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one. Soon after the Germans’ defeat, Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe fueled many Americans’ fears of a Russian plan to control the world. In addition, President Reagan believed that the spread of communism anywhere threatened freedom everywhere. In such a hostile atmosphere, it almost seemed like the Cold War was inevitable. It wasn’t a typical war in the sense that it didn’t have traditional warfare or an abundance of casualties; instead, the Cold War was a subtle battle of control between the United States and Russia. For the United States, they were resisting the
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Thousands of people from East Berlin crossed over into West Berlin to reunite with families and escape communist repression. In response to the sudden influx of population in the west, “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 Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to
In his Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate speech in June of 1987, former President Ronald Reagan addresses the issue of the separation between European nations due to conflicting ideals of governments. This issue is most prevalently seen in in the city of Berlin, Germany, where the speech is addressed. This is due to a huge wall that runs directly through the city which divides the Communist East and Democratic West Berlin, more famously known as the Berlin wall. Nearing the end of the Cold War, President Reagan made a bold statement that was a catalyst for the end of the war, and a beginning to nuclear disarmament. This risky statement, which called out Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, was a cry for peace; not just for the people of Berlin, but for the world.
Hajar AlHayki Ms. Winterfeldt US History 11 January 2018 The cold war is a war that began after the end of World War two, from 1945 until 1991. In which the United States and the soviet Unions were involved in this war. They were fighting for two different ideologies: communism and democracy ‘capitalism’. The United States wanted to spread democracy in Eastern Europe: Germany, in which the soviets wanted to spread communism.
In response, the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall to keep citizens from escaping into the West. Construction of the Berlin Wall caused conflicts for many, and in 1987, President Ronald Reagan planned to
The Berlin Crisis 1948 – 1949 was a period of an escalation in tensions between the western powers of USA and Britain and the Soviet Union. The presence of two separate German states: West Germany, or the Federal Republic of Germany (FDR) and East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic (GDR) coexisting caused major clashes of ideologies in the years leading up to the Cold War, the most hostile years of the Cold War and the years that followed the Cold War. The events of the Berlin crisis with the most prominent being the Berlin blockade and the Berlin airlift culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall on the night of the 12th August – 13th August 1961. The original wall was built of barbed wire and cinder blocks but was soon replaced
Over two years after Reagan’s famous statement to tear down the Berlin Wall, Gorbachev permitted the people of Berlin to break down the wall. The fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the end of the Soviet Union’s control of East Germany and the end of the Cold War (Biography.com Editors,
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.
The Great Wall of Los Angeles is a wonderful masterpiece that takes you on a journey through the history of the people of California. It is also one of the country’s most respected large monuments that incorporates inter-racial accord and is a true cultural landmark. The Great Wall spans a half a mile in length which is 2,754 feet and is considered the longest mural in the world. It consists of pictures that represent the history of the ethnic people of California. The mural’s pictures go back to the prehistorical history of the ethnic people all the way up to the 1950’s.
Natives of East Berlin were desperate to go into West Berlin, and the quantity of checkpoints in which Westerners could cross the fringe was greatly lessened. This negatively affected many citizens of East Berlin and they would not obey to any rules. The way to get out was so flee the east, so right as the wall went up, up to 2000 people everyday escaped to the other side. This shows desperation and anger due to being separated from the rest of the city. Surprisingly, more than 3 million East Germans escaped to West Germany between 1945 and 1961.
The Soviet Union requested substantial reparations from Germany, but the United States recalled the reason that World War II started was because of post World War I reparations. In March and April 1947, the United States, British, French, and Soviet officials met in Moscow to arrange Germany’s future, but failed. After the conference, the Western Allies unified their German occupation zones to create West Germany. In response to this, Soviets built the Berlin Blockade, cutting off railways, highways, and waterways into West Berlin. To counteract this, the United States airlifted food and supplies to the residents, until Soviets finally realized their blockade was not achieving their goals, and tore it down in May 1949.
Summary of Evidence SOURCE B (THE BERLIN WALL: A SECRET HISTORY) The Berlin Wall separated many families as it divided Berlin into a communist and capitalist state. This division spread anger throughout the world as it became an international crisis. This worldwide anger proves that the Wall did not only cause a physical division but divided communist and capitalist countries throughout the world. This divide was known as the Iron Curtain.
With East Berlin losing its professional class to West Berlin, the Kremlin decided to make sure that no one could get out. The large numbers of Red Army soldiers around construction sites lead many to fear that an invasion was nearing. In response, Kennedy put troops on the other side of the wall, both countries insisted on never backing down. That was, until an agreement had been made, and another world war
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.
The whole of Communist Europe was swept by revolution in 1989, one by one, all the Communist states were overthrown by democracy, and by 1990, this great divide brought the Eastern European countries solidarity and democracy. On October 3rd, 1990, the world viewed the unfolding of thousands of ecstatic, euphoric and exuberant Germans bringing down the most prominent icon of divide at the heart of Europe—the Berlin Wall. For two generations, the Wall was the powerful depiction of the Iron Curtain. In fact, East German border guards had orders to shoot people trying to defect. But just as the Wall had become a symbol of the division of Europe, its fall came to denote the end of the Cold War.
Once the Berlin Wall came down, it allowed everyone to start to think about the world as a whole instead of in pieces. The world could finally be viewed as a single marked. The fall of the berlin wall created an “outbreak of freedom”(Friedman, 54). It allowed knowledge from one border to pour over where it was never allowed to before. It helped create a standard for economies and banking and much
These areas were also known as the German Democratic Republic (Soviet zone) and the Federal Republic of Germany. To end Eastern immigration from the West, the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. While the economy