The Berlin Wall symbolized many things for different people. For the Germans it served as their punishment from World War II, this punishment divided up their country and separated many people from their families who might have lived in different parts of Germany. Everyday things that were accessible to them like going to the grocery store or visiting family members were now made harder since in order to cross to the other side of the wall people would have to go through security checks. The Wall also represented death because if someone were to try to escape to the other side of the wall they would be shot dead. To other countries the Berlin Wall represented communism as well as division between two different forms of government. During …show more content…
During the Cold War people had been living in fear thinking that one day their country might be bombed with a nuclear weapon. With the détente the nuclear anxieties were eased a bit. In 1972 a discussion known as Strategic Arms Limitation Talks or SALT was held. United States President Richard Nixon and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev agreed to “freeze a number of strategic ballistic missile launches as well as reduce spending on nuclear weapons.” The two countries also agreed to limit their number of nuclear weapons. A second Strategic Arms Limitation Talk was held in 1979 this time between United States President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev. This time more “controls were put in place on strategic nuclear weapons and new missile programs were banned, however this deal was not ratified by the U.S congress.” The reason why this treaty was never ratified was because President Carter was angry that the USSR had decided to invade Afghanistan. This goes to show that there was a period of relaxation between the United States and the USSR; however tensions did start to rise again when Afghanistan was invaded. The election of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the USSR is another example of thawing out of the Cold War. Gorbachev was regarded as a “young and reformist” leader. In 1988 Gorbachev ordered that troops should with drawl from Afghanistan. Tony Judt stated
When the wall was put up one thing lead to many other things. If a mother had gone to say the west side of berlin for a couple of days while her family was in east berlin where they live during the time period that the wall had been put up, the mother would have to maybe wait some time before she could go back to east berlin with her family. When the wall was put up many scenarios just like this had happened and many families actually were split apart. Families being split up could lead to the other family members trying to get into the side they are on which was now considered illegal and if they had been caught trying to cross the wall they could have been shot on site. People trying to cross from east to the west was very common as it was believed that west was the more favourable side. By 1961 around 3 million east Berliners had gone over to live in the west this impacted the people living in the east because many who had moved were skilled labourers such as doctors this meant that there were only limited doctors for the
The wall was a symbol that represented communism and a deprivation of freedom around the world. In West Berlin the wall was known as the “wall of shame”, while the East side claimed it abolished the discord in Europe. People all around the world had different names for it, but one thing was for sure as long as the wall was up peace was not at rest.("Remembering the Berlin").
The Berlin Wall became a physical and historical symbol of the division of two ideologies; communism and capitalism. It also proved that there was a great amount of hostility and tension between the Soviets and Americans. It even showed the world the different ways one could rule a
It meant to Germans back then who was in charge. It still shows through the history of the Wall, all the suffering and separation that happened in the time the Wall was up. The Berlin Wall was also significant to those who went into the Cold War to help free people in
President Reagan’s many actions helped to end the Cold War. He communicated with Gorbachev. When there is communication through the two leaders there is mutual respect. They drafted up the INF treaty. This shows that they are willing to work together try to create peace between the two countries. In a New York Times article called A President Who Listened it said, “his second term as president emphasized a different set of goals. I think he understood that it is the peacemakers, above all who earn a place in history.”
The wall represent the division of the world. On the west you had the capitalist and on the east you had the communist. The Berlin wall separated the soviets and the westerners. As long as that wall
The Berlin Wall, built in August of 1961, was s physical symbol of the political and emotional divisions of Germany.
The Berlin Wall was a tangible symbol of the suppression of human rights by the Eastern bloc during the Cold War and was anti-fascist protection.It blocked West Berlin and East Berlin. The wall blocked to stop young educated people from the East,so that they can be in the more prosperous side.
The Berlin Wall, built in August of 1961, was s physical symbol of the political and emotional divisions of Germany. The Wall was built because of a long lasting suspicion between the Soviet Union on one side and Western Europe and the United States on the other. For 28 years the Berlin Wall separated friends, families, and a nation. After WWII was over Germany was divided into four parts. The United States, Great Britain, and France controlled the three divisions that were formed in the Western half and the Eastern half was controlled by the Soviet Republic. The Western sections eventually united to make a federal republic, while the Eastern half became communist.
The 1980’s were a dynamic time in the life cycle of the Cold War. The early portion of this decade, which saw massive shifts in the administrations of the United States and Soviet Union, maintained an atmosphere of suspicion, wariness, and skepticism. This theme of uncertainty and caution was the logical product of decades of both American and Soviet duplicity, confrontation, and militarization. Yet, despite this mistrust between the polar Cold War belligerents, and contrary to the early rhetoric of the Reagan administration, the United States and Soviet Union modified their perceptions of each other’s intentions following 1985’s Reykjavik Summit, which, despite producing no tangible results, established common desire for arms reduction and a conclusion of the Cold War. This warming of relations, however, increased at a gradual rate and encountered significant hurdles as the two nations attempted to limit the potential for thermonuclear war. Ultimately, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev’s “dialogue of the eyes” transitioned from one administration to the next, while also weathering significant domestic pressures as the United Soviet Socialist Republic disintegrated.
The Cold War, which started sometime in the 1940’s, was a large quarrel between the United States and the Soviet Union. This dispute involved a lot of propaganda and threats of nuclear warfare. Despite all of the trouble though, after over forty years of fighting, the two leaders of these countries (Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev) would finally work out a solution. However, although they did reach an agreement, there were many differences between these two men.
“Escape hatch”no more. The Berlin wall consisted of barbed wire and concrete, it was built to prevent East Germans from fleeing for their democratic freedom. Once the communist government realized that their people were fleeing the country they were outraged. According to History.com, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) constructed the wall on August 13, 1961. Now because of this there is no more departing. Everyone on the East side of Germany could no longer flee without their life being seized. They were stranded. There was no more escaping the Communist Government and they . It was a wall of shame or as they say Wand der Schande.
For twenty-eight years, the Berlin Wall separated friends, families, and a nation. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall was one of the most striking and distinctive features of Berlin. The Berlin Wall was a border security installation built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on August 12, 1961. The Wall was to protect the GDR from aggressive acts by the west. In reality, the Wall functioned as a barrier to stem the huge migration of skilled laborers to West Berlin and the entire Western Germany. During the standing of this Wall, the people from East and West Berlin had no interaction with each other, and this brought pains and poverties in both sides
On August 13, 1961, the Soviet Union that controlled East Berlin (and East Germany) rolled out a wall of barbed wire overnight to separate their claims on East Berlin from the Allies that controlled west Berlin because they thought that the allies were damaging their communist regime in the East. The reason for this ‘overnight barricade’ was to keep the “Western fascists from undermining their city” . Families were broken apart and if you were at the wrong side of the wall at the wrong time, you would be separated from your families by a string of barbed wire that later became a giant concrete wall. This was seen as a somewhat aggressive action and immediately began making political actions to make the Soviets tear it down. When Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union, he noticed that it was causing famine and chaos in East Berlin, so he agreed to demolishing the wall that his predecessors had built.
The Berlin Wall was a fortification established in 1961 in order to separate East Berlin from West Berlin. The wall separated people from their work, home, and family, and the results were devastating. The events that surrounded the destruction of the wall proved that men seek freedom by nature. Many parallels can be drawn from the fall of the wall in 1989 to the end of the embargo that the United States had on Cuba for roughly half a century.