Berlin Wall Essay Example for Free

Berlin W totally EssayWhat Was the Berlin Wall?The Berlin Wall was both(prenominal) the physical division between westside Berlin and eastern hemisphere Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between country and fabianism during the Cold War. Dates August 13, 1961 November 9, 1989Overview of the Berlin WallThe Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night and for 28 years unploughed eastern Germans from fleeing to the westside. Its destruction, which was nearly as instantaneous as its creation, was celebrated or so the world.A Divided BerlinAt the end of World War II, the affiliate powers divided conquered Germany into iv partitions, each occupied by any the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union (as agreed at the Potsdam Conference). The same was done with Germanys capital city, Berlin. As the relationship between the Soviet Union and the other three Allied powers quickly disintegrated, the concerted atmosphere of the occupation of Germany turned competitive and aggressive. Although an eventual reunification of Germany had been intended, the new relationship between the Allied powers turned Germany into wolfram versus eastern United States, democracy versus Communism.In 1949, this new organization of Germany became official when the three 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 eastbound Germany (the German Democratic Republic). This same division into West and East occurred in Berlin. Since the city of Berlin had been situated entirely within the Soviet zone of occupation, West Berlin became an island of democracy within Communist East Germany.Mass EmigrationWithin a short period of period after the war, animateness conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different. With the help and support of its occupying powers, West Germany dress circle up a capitalist companionship and experienced such a rapid growth of their parsimony that it became known as the economic miracle. With hard work, individuals living in West Germany were able to live well, vitiate gadgets and appliances, and to travel as theywished. Nearly the opposite was true 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 mint living in East Germany wanted out.No everywherenight able to stand 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 crossways the b ball club. Once 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 needed 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 take all over 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. Desperate to keep its citizens, East Germany resolute to build a wall to prevent them from crossing the border.The Berlin Wall Goes UpThere had been rumors that som ething might go by to tighten the border of East and West Berlin, but no one was expecting the speed nor the absoluteness of the Wall. fairish past midnight on the night of August 12-13, 1961, trucks with soldiers and construction workers rumbled through East Berlin. While most Berliners were tranquillitying, these crews began vehement up streets that entered into West Berlin, dug holes to put up cover posts, and strung barbed wire all across the border between East and West Berlin. Telephone wires between East and West Berlin were overly cut. Berliners were shocked when they woke up that morning. What had once been a very fluid border was now rigid. No longer 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 nigh t of August 12, they were 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 through 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 fence 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 two 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 leaf blade girders.The fourth 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 high (3.6 m) and 4-feet wide (1.2 m), electropositive it had a smooth pipe running across the top to hinder people from scaling the Wall. And tentatively approached the border and indeed found that the border guards were letting people cross. Very quickly, the Berlin Wall was inundated with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration on the Berlin Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying. The Berlin Wall was eventually chipped away, into smaller pieces (some the size of a coin and others in big slabs). The pieces extradite become collectibles and are stored in both homes and museums. After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a champion German state on October 3, 1990.