The Soviet Union And West Berlin

The German Communist Party began restricting East German's ability to travel to the West in 1949 (Levy 13). Germany's Eastern government installed barbed wire and minefields fields along the border of East and West Germany. However, Eastern Germans' still found a way to escape to the western side of Germany. The most popular way of escape was known as the five-cent subway ride to freedom. There was a subway system in Berlin that linked it's Eastern and Western sides together. For five cents, eastern Germans' would take the train from East Germany to West Germany. Then that person would slip through the border or take a plane or bus out. According to Debbie Levy, during the first six months of 1961, 160,000 Germans had escaped from the East to the West. From 1949 to 1961, more than three million Germans had escaped from the East to the West. This upset the Soviet Officials in charge of Germany very much. Half of the people escaping East Germany were under 25, and three-quarters were under 45. The people escaping included: 16,000 engineers, 5,000 doctors, dentists, and veterinaries, 1,000 university professors and lecturers, and 15,000 high school and elementary teachers. The

On the night of August 13 th , 1961, police officers strung barbed wire across the border of

The reunification of Germany happened on October 3, 1990 when East Germany joined the Federal Republic. Guenter Schabowski announced the opening of the Berlin wall, putting an end to the 28 years of division. He announced this offhandedly during a press conference, by saying that the East was lifting the travel restrictions across the border to the West. He then looks down at his notes, stammering “As far as I know, this enters into force...this is immediately, without delay” (East German announces Berlin wall open). Upon hearing this, East Berliners stormed to the wall and demanded to be let through. Although border guards had not been given this order, they let people through after seeing the numbers. Soon after the opening of the walls, the Soviet Union fell apart. Representatives from eleven of the fifteen

On August 15, 1961, Communists began building a wall to keep Germans from escaping Communist-controlled East Berlin to West Democratic Berlin. There were guards, electric barbed wired fences, and of course the twelve foot concrete wall that prevented Germans from escaping. After the wall was built many Germans still tried to flee the west but not all were successful. The East Berlin Germans were now under total dictatorship of the Soviets. Many United States Presidents traveled to Berlin to share their views on democracy with the Communists, but the Communist weren’t persuaded. In 1987,

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.

Berlin Wall, known as the Iron Curtain, divided and separated the entire Europe in two. Berlin Wall was meant to stop people from escaping to the West. Many people didn’t have a chance to react before the wall was set up. No one was allowed to cross to the other side without permission. Tens of thousands of people were separated in just one night. On both sides, separated brothers, sisters,

On the night of August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic and volunteer construction workers of East Germany began to seal all points of entrance into West Berlin with miles of barbed wire, concrete, and stationed soldiers. “Antifaschistischer Schutzwall”, as they called it, or the “anti-fascist bulwark.” The purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western fascists from entering the socialist state of East Germany, and to prevent Easterners from pouring out of the USSR-occupied zone. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, many refugees fled from the east to reunite with family in the west, and to escape the oppressive government that had developed in East Germany after Germany’s defeat in the second World War. Soon, the wall was extended to divide all of Germany, spanning over 96 miles across the nation, dividing the Communist East from the Western Federal Republic of Germany. The Berlin Wall stood for 28 years. Finally, on November 9, 1989, the head of the East German Communist Party announced that members of the GDR could cross the border as they pleased. Celebrating citizens of Germany brought hammers and pickaxes, and began to chip away at the cement that had divided friends and families for nearly three decades. To this day, what’s left of the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful symbols from the Cold War.

The Berlin Wall had a major impact on humanity’s views on how society should be ruled. Berlin is the capital of Germany. After the ending of WWII, Berlin was split up into East Berlin, and West Berlin. East Berlin was communist, suffered from the repressions of the Communist Party. West Berlin had a better lifestyle, and had financial aid from the United States. From the years between nineteen forty-nine to nineteen sixty-one, approximately 2.5 million people from East Berlin escaped to West Berlin. This toll included skilled workers, professionals, and intellectuals. Because of the loss of these people, the economy in East Berlin was threatened. On August twelve-thirteen, nineteen sixty-one, the Berlin was built in order to stop the people of East Berlin from fleeing. The Berlin wall was a major point during the Cold War, and many opposed it. It gave another reason to detest communism.

On 12th and 13th of August 1961, leaders Walter Ulbrict and Nikita Khrushchev built a wall around Berlin to prevent East Berlin citizens from leaving. At first the incarnation of the wall was just a barbed wire fence until it was made more foreboding by making a row of secondary walls, electric fences, trenches and an open “death strip”. The Berlin wall measured to be 3.6 meters high and 155km in length but only 43 km of the wall divided West and East Berlin.

The Berlin wall was a wall that was up to 15 feet high, which separated East and West Berlin during the Cold War. It lasted 28 years from 1961 and 1989. Throughout this time period, many people living in East Germany left and fled to West Germany because they had a better economic system. Since their lost in WWII, East Germany built the wall to prevent access to West Berlin. Because of this separation that lasted 28 years, many families, friends and relatives were separated. The wall slowly progressed to become even more advanced so that it would be harder for people to get to the other side. About 5,000 people survived, 5,000 people got caught and 191 more were killed. People were willing to do anything at any means just to get over the wall

In the beginning, when the wall was put up it did hamper some people from getting across the border, but it was still relatively easy. Elke Rosen and her family had an apartment that was in East Berlin but the front door opened into West Berlin. All they had to do to escape was run out the front door

In 1961 there was a wall build with barbed wire to separate the east and the west in Berlin. This resulted in a riot from the citizens who proceeded to attack offices, military officials, and threw rocks at military vehicles like tanks and cargo trucks. The people of Berlin were outraged, people were forced away from their friends and family and were not allowed to cross the border of the wall because Khrushchev wanted to gain control of the entirety of Germany.

On the dark but not so stormy night of August 12th, in only about four hours, construction workers had put up a barbed wire fence (there were four versions of the Berlin

In 1975 an additional wall was built to further dissuade escape attempts. This second wall was built from L-shaped concrete sections, and stood 4 meters high. The top of this new wall was capped with wide concrete slaps to be more resistant to advanced escape techniques. New advances added self-firing fences and touch sensitive sections. These new features did not dissuade escape attempts, and East German authorities were forced to increase their security presence along the wall. (coldwar.org)

On August 13, 1961construction started on a wall separating East and West Berlin. This wall existed for 28 years stirring up much controversy as it separated families, friends, and changed the lives of many citizens of East and West Berlin for good. Though many saw this event as a horrible thing, I see it is not a good thing but something that has to be done for the greater good. The first outcome of the fall of the wall was the reunification of Germany, divided into sectors at the end of World War II by the Allied powers, the United States, the Soviet Union, France and Great