Life After The Wall Analysis

The excerpt from Jana Hensel‘s After the Wall: Confessions from an East German Childhood published in 2004 tells an honest story of what it was like to be a child of East Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Hensel describes how she and members of her generation grapple with the dichotomy of being a part of two different worlds: reunified Germany and the old East Germany that belonged to their parents and their past. The excerpt discusses how commodification during reunification transformed the East German state from a communist system to a capitalist one. Hensel describes how this transformation erased any signs of the GDR and made East Germans foreigners in their own homeland.

The Lives of Others and Goodbye, Lenin are two movies cleverly depicted about the fall of Communism. One director chooses to portray humor as the base of his movie, while the other chooses a more dark and serious tone. Both directors clearly want their viewers to understand the seriousness of what the fall of the Berlin Wall meant and the importance of Germany’s East West unionization for the citizens of the GSD. However, a hidden truth in both movies is revealed. Truth about a culture that once existed, but has since been swept under the carpet of change. The late 80s brought on the fall of the Berlin Wall signifying the end of the Stalinist regimes that had once held so much power. Outlined below are two movies that, while so different in their delivery, end with the same clear message.

“When The Walls Came Tumbling Down” by Trey Ellis is a memoir written in honor of his father who had died from AIDS, and written to bring awareness about Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome in a time where talking about AIDS was socially taboo. A memoir is a biography written in the form of first person, from personal knowledge and experience about the topic. Memoirs also are known to be written facts, and consists of events relevant to the book topic chosen by the author. First person is the format Ellis used to write his memoir, so it is clear throughout the entire work that it all his own personal encounters with his ill father. “It wasn’t until my father opened the door that I realized something terrifyingly life-altering was about to be

Nowadays, people keep their identity a secret. Some people choose to keep it, while others are forced to keep it hidden within the darkest lairs of their brain. Although they don’t let other people know who they truly are, they always have some hidden talents, which is clearly shown within the short story “War of the Wall” and the poem “The Names”. In the short story “War of the Walls”, by Toni Cade Bambara, there are two characters who are telling a “painter lady” to stop painting on a wall that they “own”. They tell her to stop, but the stranger doesn’t listen. A few days later, the two characters find that the lady had painted people on the wall, and eventually, we find out that the wall was dedicated to people who fought for their own freedom.

THESIS: From research and historical analysts, we can conclude that in many cases the people of Germany have been effected socially and economically by the building and construction of the Berlin Wall.

In Berlin, the Iron Curtain had many purposes. It was there to protect, to separate and to enforce a way of life for East Berliners. Firstly, The Wall gave meaning to people’s lives in different ways. It defined where they were to go, who they were to see and who they were to be. For the countless Stasi and informers, it gave them a purpose and an importance in society, and after The Wall came down, that purpose was lost and yearned for. Secondly, The Wall and the controlling ways of the Stasi loomed over the lives of East Berliners, and its implementation was just one of many extreme measures to minimalise Capitalism and encourage Communism. Thirdly, although The Wall

When the wall was torn down, eastern businesses suffered, families separated, yet this would bring pride to Eastern Germans in the near future. This was all due to the switch from a command economy to a market economy in Eastern

Following the fall of the Third Reich at the end of WWII Germany was split between east and west into two different countries. In the east the German Democratic Republic was under communist rule and was supported by the Soviet Union. The Federal German Republic was a democracy that was part of NATO. As part of the division of Germany following WWII, Berlin, the capital of Germany was divided evenly between the two nations. However, the entire city of Berlin was deep inside of the GDR, so the Western half of the city was democratic but it was surrounded by communist territory. This made West Berlin a place where many East Germans would try to escape to. As a result of this the German Democratic Republic built a wall surrounding West Berlin to stop its own people from escaping to freedom.

In Where the World Ended, Daphne Berdahl explores via ethnographic study the creation and evolution of identities in the town of Kella. Located within the 500-meter Schutzstreifen along the Grenze (the inter-German border during the Cold War) residents of Kella experienced strict surveillance from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and lived with additional regulations. Berdahl presents Kella as floating between the East and West; however, the impenetrability of the inter-German border from 1952 to 1989 instituted Eastern economic and cultural practices in Kella until the entire GDR experienced the fall of socialism. In this paper, I will demonstrate that Berdahl operates under the flawed assumption that Kella’s geographic location within

This was a leading climatic event in towards the end of the 1980’s marking the end of communist regimes around the world, making it evident to even average citizens that change was coming. The Berlin Wall stood as a symbol for the two opposing sides of the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1949, Germany split into two different nations. Germany was a central hub for Cold War politics, with the West side allying with democratic states and the East side allying with the Soviet Union. The end of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the Soviet Union’s status as a reigning power in Eastern Europe, with the Soviet Union falling not long

Anna Funder’s investigative account of the traumas experienced during the totalitarian governance of the GDR (German Democratic Republic), Stasiland, presents an historical account of life under the communist regime and behind the Berlin Wall, an historical account which manifests in the personal stories, descriptions of the remnants of the East German government. Funder presents interviews of victims of the GDR to create a tangible account of the power held by the government. She further conveys the historical importance of the former Stasi operatives to be powerful in presenting a complete depiction of East German society. However, it is also through Funder’s presentation of the former East Germany to be permeated by its history that creates her powerful portrayal of East Germany.

Too many people suffered during this horrible, tragic time full of only agony and sorrow. This was a hard moment in time for Germany. Why was this so sad? Well, this is sad because how many people weren’t divided because of the wall? Too many people had to suffer because of the communist leadership. Too many people at that time would have

In this story, the narrator’s biggest problem is finding employment. Germans are unable to go into a profession that they find interest in, rather they are forced to make due in hard labor like “clearing rubble and carrying rocks” or other underpaid jobs (125). He describes how “there was a time when they used to say it was unnecessary [to have a profession], all we needed was soldiers. But now they say you have to have a profession” (125). With total war, all the German people work for the war effort, whether that was as a soldier or working in factories making weapons and other resources. It is very difficult for them not only to have a positive attitude towards their new ways of life in occupied Germany, but it is most difficult to believe that you may never go back to the Germany that existed prior to Nazi Germany. German identity may never exist again and it is obvious that many Germans regret what emerged between 1939 and

In contrast to the desolate picture life in East Berlin painted, the economy of West Germany, which also included West Berlin, was rebounding and becoming quite strong. West Berlin’s businesses were booming, and their industry products were readily and rapidly bought by its resident who were eager to obtain the products and goods they had so long been deprived of previously, as a result of World War II.10 This new and heightening demand for goods pushed wages up quickly, and many new jobs were created with the development of new housing units and other construction enterprises.11 Movies, plays, and concerts were also available for West Berlin residents to enjoy, and overall life in West Berlin was good. However, life on the West side wasn’t all fun and games. Their city was still divided, and families were still separated. To the children of West Berlin residents, East Berlin was hidden from view and shrouded in mystery, their only knowledge of the other side coming through school or some form of media. It seemed they constantly asked themselves the question, “ Will the lives of East and West Germans forever be so vastly different and separate?”

          In the poem, “The Mending Wall” Frost creates a lot of ambiguity in order to leave the poem open for interpretation. Frost’s description of every detail in this poem is very interesting, it leaves the reader to decide for themselves what deductions they are to be making of the poem. To begin with, Frost makes literal implications about what the two men are doing. For instance, they are physically putting the stones back, one by one. Their commitment and constant drive shows how persistent these men seem about keeping the wall intact. On the other hand, there are inferences that something deeper is occurring.