The Transformation Of The Berlin Wall

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

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.

Even though no large-scaled fight occurred, the Cold War still had a devastating impact on the people of East Berlin. People living in the East suffered under Stalin’s secret police. With the Berlin Wall complete, Stalin trapped the people inside a living nightmare. Families were separated, and workers worked for long hours with almost nothing for return.

The Berlin Wall was built in August 1961 during the Cold War. The Wall that separated East and West Berlin came to show the different ideologies between different systems of government, Communism and Democratic supported by the USSR and the USA.

The aim of this essay is to evaluate and understand the effects on the city of Berlin with the creation of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall has played an extremely important role in the life of millions of people. This 155km Wall has defined the fate of German people that have been separated by the Wall for a very long time.

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

The Berlin Wall was built on August 13, 1961. It was built because millions of East Germans were defecting to the West via West Berlin. In the documentary it was said that before the wall was built one person every three minutes was defecting to the West. This was threatening East Germanys labor force and its economic survival. The GDR said the official reason for the wall was to keep out anti-socialist influences.

“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.

Angela Merkal also nicknamed “Mutti” meaning mother of the nation is serving her third term as a German Chancellor after September 2013 election. Only two post-war German leaders

The Berlin Wall remained for almost 30 years, part the city of Berlin into comrade East Berlin and majority principle West Berlin. Conceived of the fragmenting of Germany by the Allies toward the terminal of Humanity War II, the splitter was an image of socialist tyranny, the most obvious component of the Iron Curtain. It isolated families, cut people off from their employments and left due East Germans peering into th­e energetic Western United States from their boring socialist condominium.

The CDU is a liberal-conservative party and those apart of it tend to be center-right on the traditional left-right scale. According to The Political Compass, Merkel is pulled more towards neo liberalism, which means that she supports a free market. The CDU implemented Germany’s Social Market Economy, an economy that doesn’t want the government to have complete control over prices. This shows that Merkel is indeed a more neo-liberalist than communist. However, Germany’s current economy still has regulations in place that prevent the market from being wholly free, which is why Merkel cannot be classified as a full neo-liberalist. She also grew up in East Germany, the section of Germany that was a proponent of communism and was a part of the Free German youth, a communist organization. In the writer’s opinion, this proves that Merkel is positioned correctly on the Political Compass’s

In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down. The opening of the border had a positive effect on East Germany, and they were able to experience the same prosperity as West Germany. After reunification, and with the help of approximately a 1.6 trillion euros stimulus, eastern Germany experienced some growth as well.However, this also caused an increase in unemployment, because the economy had to include workers from the former Communist population of Germany.

In early September of 1945, Germany lay in total and utter ruins. In the years following World War Two, having been defeated, Germany was placed under allied occupation - divided into two main zones: West and East Germany. “West Germany was established on May 23, 1949, as one of two successor states—East Germany being the other.” ("Germany, West." Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia (2015): 1p. 1. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.) East Germany was ruled by the Soviet Union whilst West was under the rule of the Allied Powers. A chancellor by the name of Konrad Adenauer was put into power and it is said under his rule that Germany flourished. This research seeks to find out whether his role was important in the

While studying about Europe in the twentieth century, it became clear that the cold war had a lasting impact on the history of Germany as well as America’s view on communism. In our text book the Allies, especially the U.S., are always presented as being strongly opposed to the building of the Berlin Wall. So why had the Berlin Wall been allowed to last for twenty-eight years? During a search to find out more as to the reason for this lengthy existence, I came across the website for the magazine History Today, or www.historytoday.com. There was an article entitled “The Berlin Wall: A Secret History”, its author Frederick Taylor states a dissimilar point of view concerning the Allied leaders’ response to the construction of the Berlin Wall than that of the text book. History Today’s website offers many articles about several eras throughout history, as well as, unique perspectives on historical events.

TIMES magazine recently announced that Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, the TIMES Person of the Year Award. Being a hard worker, Angela Merkel has helped Germany prosper in many aspects, including the capitalistic economy, which few countries ever achieve. Even though there are many reasons why people speculate that Germany is socialist, Germany is capitalistic because it follows the rules of being a capitalistic country, the government works like a normal capitalistic country would, and it