Berlin Wall Essay

What Was the Berlin contend?The Berlin Wall was both the physical class between westside Berlin and eastmost Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between state and Communism during the Cold War. Dates August 13, 1961 November 9, 1989Overview of the Berlin WallThe Berlin Wall was erected in the unused of night and for 28 years kept easternmost Germans from fleeing to the western. Its destruction, which was nearly as instantaneous as its creation, was celebrated around the world.A Divided BerlinAt the end of World War II, the Allied powers divided conquered Germany into four zones, severally occupied by either the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet nitty-gritty (as agreed at the Potsdam Conference). The same was done with Germanys detonator city, Berlin. As the relationship between the Soviet amalgamation and the other trinity Allied powers quickly disintegrated, the cooperative atmosphere of the occupation of Germany glowering private-en terprise(a) and aggressive. Although an eventual reunification of Germany had been intended, the new relationship between the Allied powers turned Germany into western versus due east, democracy versus Communism.In 1949, this new organization of Germany became official when the triple zones occupied by the United States, Great Britain, and France combined to form West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). The zone occupied by the Soviet Union quickly followed by forming East Germany (the German Democratic Republic). This same part into West and East occurred in Berlin. Since the city of Berlin had been situated solely at bottom the Soviet zone of occupation, West Berlin became an island of democracy within Communist East Germany.Mass EmigrationWithin a short period of snip by and by the war, sustentation conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different. With the champion and support of its occupying powers, West Germany set up a capitalist edic t and experienced such a rapid growth of their scrimping that it became cognize as the economic miracle. With hard work, individuals living in West Germany were satisfactory to live well, buy gadgets and appliances, and to travel as theywished. Nearly the opposite was certain in East Germany. Since the Soviet Union had viewed their zone as a spoil of war, the Soviets pilfered factory equipment and other valuable assets from their zone and shipped them back to the Soviet Union. When East Germany became its own country, it was under the direct influence of the Soviet Union and thus a Communist society was established. In East Germany, the economy dragged and individual freedoms were severely restricted. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted out.No hourlong able to stall the repressive living conditions of East Germany, they would pack up their bags and head to West Berlin. Although some of them would be stopped on their way, hundreds of thousands of others made it crosswise the put off. formerly across, these refugees were housed in warehouses and then flown to West Germany. Many of those who escaped were young, trained professionals. By the early 1960s, East Germany was rapidly losing both its labor force and its population. Having already lost 2.5 million people by 1961, East Germany desperately postulate to stop this mass exodus. The obvious leak was the easy access East Germans had to West Berlin. With the support of the Soviet Union, there had been several attempts to simply drive oer West Berlin in order to eliminate this exit point. Although the Soviet Union even threatened the United States with the use of nuclear weapons over this issue, the United States and other Western countries were committed to defending West Berlin. dreaded to keep its citizens, East Germany decided to build a wall to prohibit them from crossing the border.The Berlin Wall Goes Up at that place had been rumors that something might happen to brin g down the border of East and West Berlin, but no one was expecting the despatch nor the absoluteness of the Wall. Just past midnight on the night of August 12-13, 1961, trucks with soldiers and tress workers rumbled finished East Berlin. While most Berliners were sleeping, these crews began tearing up streets that entered into West Berlin, dug holes to put up concrete posts, and strung barbed electrify all across the border between East and West Berlin. promise wires between East and West Berlin were also cut. Berliners were shocked when they woke up that morning. What had in one case been a very fluid border was now rigid. No thirster could East Berliners cross the border foroperas, plays, soccer games, etc. No longer could the approximately 60,000 commuters head to West Berlin for well-paying jobs. No longer could families, friends, and lovers cross the border to meet their loved ones. Whichever side of the border one went to sleep on during the night of August 12, they wer e stuck on that side for decades.The Size and Scope of the Berlin WallThe Berlin Wall stretched over a hundred miles. It ran not only finished the center of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, entirely cutting West Berlin off from the rest of East Germany. The wall itself went through four major transformations during its 28-year history. The Berlin Wall started out as a barbed-wire make out with concrete posts, but just a few days after the first fence was placed, it was quickly replaced with a sturdier, more permanent coordinate made out of concrete blocks, topped with barbed wire. The first dickens versions of the wall (barbed wire and concrete blocks) were replaced by the hird version of the Berlin Wall in 1965. This version consisted of a concrete wall, supported by steel girders.The stern version of the Berlin Wall, constructed from 1975 to 1980, was the most complicated and thorough. It consisted of concrete slabs reaching nearly 12-feet heights (3.6 m) and 4-f eet wide (1.2 m), plus it had a smooth pipe running across the top to hinder people from scaling the Wall. And tentatively approached the border and and then found that the border guards were letting people cross. Very quickly, the Berlin Wall was fill up with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration along the Berlin Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying. The Berlin Wall was at last chipped away, into smaller pieces (some the size of a coin and others in big slabs). The pieces entertain become collectibles and are stored in both homes and museums. After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990.