Analysis Of ' Drawing The Line '

Following the Second World War, Germany had split into two states: East and West Germany. East Germany fell behind economically and forced its citizenry from moving to West Germany. West Germany, conversely, had become overwhelmingly successful. West Germany had established itself as one of the world’s wealthiest nations. Finally, in 1990, full German unity succeeded in bringing both West and East Berlin together.

During World War II, Germany’s military was superior to anyone else in the world, with far more advanced technology, tactics, and weaponry. They had a fearless leader who would stop at nothing to make his country great again. Their closest rival, the Soviet Union, was almost out of the picture with a death toll of over 26 million. On top of that, Germany had nothing to lose, and would not conceivably stop. So how then, with all odds against them, did the Allies win the war? A combination of factors affected Germany’s downfall, such as lack of morale, unwieldy weapons, and failure to work with its so-called allies.

In addition to the damaging consequences of the First World War with the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, certain features of Germany caused the state to be susceptible to the influence of this dangerous ideology. Along with the damage to the national ego as a result of the First World War, Germany had co-existing and conflicting highly modern strands of development forced to integrate with powerful remnants of archaic values and social structures, and had a deeply fractured parliamentary political system, and the weaknesses of this system reflected the social and political differences within the population. This shame and failure after World War I was superimposed onto a modern country which once had an advanced economy, a sophisticated state

Their common political origins and disapproval to the Vietnam War played a fundamental role in creating dissent in the United States and Europe (Klimke, 186). Klimke says that because of West Germany’s status in the post-war world as first an occupied nation, and later as a chief Cold War battleground, America was a pivotal player in the culture and foreign policy of the Federal Republic (Klimke, 188-192). Efforts to reeducate Germans into becoming a more democratic nation, Cold War divisions, and what Klimke refers to as “a plethora of personal contacts and networks among Americans and West Germans [that developed in the post war years” intersected in America’s cultural policy towards West Germany (Klimke,

In the mid 30’s Germany was in a perpetual state of economic decline. The First World War had decimated all economic growth, increased inflation, and made unemployment an all-time high. From the suffering of

In the aftermath of World War II, every nation of the world emerged mentally and, in some cases, physically altered. The physical affects of the Second World War spanning from Pearl Harbor to the battleground that made up most of Western Europe to Nagasaki and Hiroshima are visual pictures engrained in the minds of all, past and present, but the American ideology that these destructive images helped to give rise to would directly shape American domestic and foreign policy for approximately the next 50 years and indirectly shape the current policies implemented in the United States today. The United States, a world super power, entered World War II in December, 1941. The apprehensive and notably late involvement of the U.S. provided

The First World War was a devastating calamity in which 10 million soldiers lost their lives fighting for their countries. This figure is ridiculous, but when one realizes that, that does not include the civilians who lost their lives during the fighting, the number seems even more ominous. This terrible event happened, and America tried to stay neutral for a while; however, we eventually found ourselves entangled in its web of destruction and for the a little more than the last six months of the war America was part of the fighting. The Germans were no fools, when America and its “dough boys” joined in the fighting they knew it was a big deal, it even lead to a strike by the Germans. “We must strike,” General Erich Ludendorff told his fellow commanders, “before America can throw strong forces into the scale.” But what was the final act that pushed America past the point of no return? What effect did America actually have while fighting? Why was it such a big deal that this one country joined in the fighting? What was going on in America, while its soldiers were out fighting on another continent somewhere in the world? The purpose of this paper is to examine those questions and discuss the influence that America had while fighting in Europe in the Great War as well as the politics that occurred internationally after the war ended.

When World War ll ended and the Allied powers came out victorious against Germany, the Allies had to decide what to do with the country. The allies withheld their decisions at the Yalta and Postdam conferences, and determined that they would split Germany up into four zones between the United States, Soviet Union, France, and Britain. Because of Germany splitting up into four different zones, the Yalta and Postdam conferences also contributed to the division of

Today, the German and the US diplomatic relations are becoming more solid that it was initially in the entire of Europe. The US is beginning to have confidence that they can establish a lasting diplomatic relationship with Germany after their long separation since the World War II. It has not been an easy journey for both countries as historical scholars have studied. The two countries share the same level of enthusiasm and western civilization despite the difference in geographic location. It is also interesting to note over fifty million Americans have German ancestry. During pre-1871, the relations between German states and the United States were not formal, but in 1875, they signed various trade agreements with the Prussian kingdom. They sent their representatives to each of the countries to oversee these trade relations. The long history of the German empire that saw some of the great reformists such as Otto von Bismarck emerged to lead one of the strongest and most powerful empires in Europe, but requires extra resources to run the empire from American the late 19th century. The plans to find resources such as coal to run their

The downfall of Germany after the Second World War is an outcome thought by many that time as deserving for a nation touted to have caused one of the most atrocious events in human history. The Nazi Party, which ran Germany under its terrible regime before and during the Second World War, has perpetrated a series of destructive actions that soon wrought havoc to the rest of the world. From the anti-Semitic platform of the Nazi Party that generated the Holocaust up to the unholy alliances with Italy, Japan and others under the Axis Powers that led to massive destruction of lives and properties in different parts of the world, Germany undoubtedly had the greatest responsibility to account for with

After the wars ended, the United States, Soviet Union, Great Britain and France were all able to coexist peacefully. Germany was separated into four occupational zones and divided Europe into levels of influence. From there tension grew between the United States and the Soviet Union, because of differences on communist one party systems and capitalism democracy. The last thing that they wanted was another break out of war. Both sides created allies that agreed with their ideologies. As a result, the Soviet Union created an alliance with the communist nations such as japan, North Korea, and Germany and the United States joined forces with the democratic nation. Both nations and their allies united against the enemies and it became very difficult

A nation is a conglomerate of people bonded by the same culture, history, and motives. A government exists to further the prosperity of the state in which it was installed. In a nation with such a diverse and assorted population, constantly expanding due to immigration, complications are bound to arise: loyalty to different lands, various cultural differences, diverging aspirations. The United States has excelled in all facets of society due to this diversity; but, it is not exempt from the drawbacks which such diversity entails. Such a young country, founded on immigration, can be easily divided when global conflict becomes apparent. People are suddenly more aware of their heritage, their connections to the home of their ancestors. The motives of the population which originally brought them together to form a nation are promptly pulling them apart. How can a government act according to the motives of its people when the people have diverging motives? A government will have to choose the will of one community over that of another. More often than not, this can lead to the isolation and persecution of the neglected party in order to safe-guard the actions of the government. Neighbors are turned against each other,

On the 26th of June 1963, United States president John F. Kennedy delivered a speech to the citizens of West Berlin. The aim of this speech was to assert the United States’ support for West Germany and to boost the morale of its citizens. Kennedy’s words “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” have since become the title of his infamous speech. This speech provides insight into the relationship between the United States and West Germany and this will be explored in this response. This response will also analyse the usefulness of this speech as a primary historical source and will determine its historical significance.

The ideas laid out in this address encouraged economic reconstructive policies and promised not to cripple German industry. As an act of propaganda in Germany, the speech began the battle of the minds against Russia for German confidence. Byrnes was able to successfully win over the German people and ended his charismatic talk with: “The American people want to return the government of Germany to the German people. The American people want to help the German people to win their way back to an honorable place among the free and peace-loving nations of the world.” (About the USA: US Diplomatic Mission to Germany) It was obvious to the German people that the USSR and the US was competing for ideological supremacy. “As an allied unity turned ever more clearly into an allied rivalry and confrontation, each side began to woo the German people ever more intensely.” (Stern 181) Early actions taken by the United States signaled early on that it would play a distinct role in the shaping the new state if for no other reason than to

As it began, our century drew to a close, with Germany once again the economic powerhouse and political hub of Europe. What is remarkable is how quickly this happened, how unbidden and unanticipated: the toppling of the Berlin Wall in November 1989; the reunification a year later; the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in late December 1991; a resurgent impetus to West European integration in 1992; and NATO enlargement, which was consecrated in April 1999. Unquestionably, this chain of events has profoundly affected Germany’s situation over the past decades. For the first time since the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1949 and the painstaking process of