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| Ronald Reagan can be quoted with saying, ''Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'' |
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JOHN TAGLIABUE, Special to The New,York Times. "EVOLUTION IN EUROPE; Reagan Reconquers Berlin but Fallen Wall has the Last Laugh." New York Times: A.6. Los Angeles Times; National Newspapers Core; New York Times. Sep 13 1990. Web. 16 May 2012 .
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| A quote by Peter Shneider |
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| ''The wall,'' he said, ''was built and the wall was torn down for exactly the same reason: to keep people from leaving East Germany.'' |
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''They haven't known a single day of democracy since 1933,'' he said, referring to the year Hitler came to power in the now divided city of Berlin. And while the East German joy at the opening of the wall clearly showed a heartening commonality in human aspirations, Mr. Schneider thinks that some differences will remain.
He cites a friend who came from the East, where he was an anti-Communist dissident, to the West a couple of years ago and was capable of saying: ''After two years here I understand Lenin when he shut down the free press, because if every opinion can be written, the right opinion cannot prevail.'' |
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Bernstein, Richard. "Clamor in the East: Implications of the Wall; for a Berlin Novelist, the Plot has Changed." New York Times: A.20. Los Angeles Times; National Newspapers Core; New York Times. Nov 14 1989. Web. 16 May 2012 . |
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| During the previous half year about 160,000 refugees had escaped from the German Democratic Republic (GDR), bringing the total to over three million who had sought a better life and more freedom in West Germany. |
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| The barrier gradually was turned into an insurmountable concrete wall that averaged 12 feet high and 96 miles long, dividing neighborhoods, streets, and even houses. An elaborate system of fortifications with a back wall, a minefield, a jeep road, guard dogs, watchtowers, and searchlights made the wall impenetrable, and those who wanted to get out had to build tunnels, break through with trucks, fly across in balloons, or forge passports. More than 125 people died in the attempt because the border guards had orders to shoot all escapees. |
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| In the short run it increased cold war tensions, culminating in the Cuban missile crisis. In the medium term it stabilized the Communist regime by closing off the “exit” option and forcing East Germans to come to terms with the dictatorship of the SED (Socialist Unity Party). The wall also compelled West German leaders to accept the existence of a second German state and sign agreements with it to permit some travel through a handful of crossing points such as Friedrichstrasse. In the long run, however, the ugly edifice demonstrated symbolically that the GDR was forced to imprison its people because it remained rather unpopular. |
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| The inhumanity of the wall eventually prompted its fall. Many East Germans continued to try to leave, supported by a West German policy that recognized them as citizens and paid ransom for their release. When the Hungarian government opened its Austrian border in the summer of 1989, tens of thousands fled, sparking mass demonstrations among those left behind in the GDR. |
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| The reasons for the segregation of berlin |
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| Since 1958 the Soviets had demanded that the Western Allies abandon all their occupation rights to Berlinleft over from World War II. When John F. Kennedy became president in 1961, Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev stepped up his demands that the United States pull out. Through the spring and summer, Kennedy and Khrushchev had increasingly strained discussions on the matter, with the Soviet government making various threats to resolve the question unilaterally and Kennedy asserting the rights of the United States, Britain, and France to continue to keep troops in the Western sectors of the city on the grounds that World War II had not formally ended with a peace treaty. The Soviets promptly threatened to sign a separate peace with East Germany, thus in their eyes ending Allied occupation rights in Berlin. Sensing that the dispute was going to drag on, and unwilling to risk a nuclear war over Berlin, Kennedy took steps to ensure that the United States had sufficient troops in the city so that the Soviets could drive them out only at great cost. |
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"Berlin Wall." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 289. Gale U.S. History In Context. Web. 22 May 2012.
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http://ic.galegroup.com:80/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=UHIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX3045300183&userGroupName=taho179&jsid=c025288df6079720a7879291261ad877
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| When and how the wall fell |
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| On 3 October 1990 the two Germanies reunited, and by the end of the year the Berlin wall--the most recognizable symbol of the Cold War--had been dismantled, in part by Berliners and tourists in search of a souvenir piece of the wall. |
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"Berlin Wall." The Cold War--1945-1991. Gale, 1992. Gale U.S. History In Context. Web. 22 May 2012.
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http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=UHIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CBT1605203015&mode=view&userGroupName=taho179&jsid=7b5c2f4266949008ddf5fad0f58c18f7 |
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| The division of germany into sections |
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| Well before the D-Day invasion of mainland Europe, the three main Allied powers, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, held high-level discussions to determine how to administer Germany after it had been defeated. Eventually it was decided that Germany would be split into four administrative zones, one each for the Soviets, the American, the British, and the French. Berlin, as the German capital, was also to be divided into four administrative zones. However, Berlin was located deep within the zone allocated to the Soviets, 180 kilometres (110 miles) from the western zones, and this geographical fact was to haunt post-war Germany for many decades. |
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| The first major crisis between East and West regarding post-war Germany began on June 24, 1948, when Western land access to Berlin was blocked by the Soviets. Berlin relied on shipments of almost every good its population used, from food and medicine to coal for heating and power generation. At first it appeared that the Western powers would be forced to either abandon their sectors ofBerlin, or open a land passage to Berlin through military confrontation, risking a possible Third World War. Unexpectedly, however, it proved possible to supply Berlin with the bare essentials (and no more) through a massive airlift operation. The New York Treaty of May 4, 1949 effectively ended the Berlin blockade, and the Western counter-blockade, and supplies quickly returned to normal levels. |
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| People leaving, and russians giving them a reason not to. |
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| However, there were a large number of people crossing from the East who simply did not return. Towards the end of the Second World War there had been a flood of refugees fleeing from the East to the West ahead of the advancing Soviet army. While the tide slowed after the end of the war, there remained a steady stream of Germans who left the East of the country and resettled in the West. It is estimated that more that two and a half million East Germans fled into the West between 1946 and 1961, yet the entire population of East Germany was only 17 million. The East German authorities attempted to restrict their citizens crossing by introducing passes and making "fleeing to the Republic" a crime with potential jail sentence of up to four years. |
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| crossing the borders each day. Many East Berliners worked in the West, where they could make more money and so enjoy a higher standard of living than those working in the East, a situation that led to resentment from some. Berliners from the West enjoyed the extra spending power their currency offered in the East, crossing the border for less expensive haircuts, clothes, and other goods and services. Relatives living on opposite sides of the city could visit each other, students crossed to attend schools and universities, and many people crossed the border to attend concerts and sporting fixtures. There were some measures introduced to make crossing the border difficult and frustrating, such as police controls on many crossing points, and the barricading of some streets, but over 80 access points still remained open, and the underground railway (S-bahn) still crossed regularly. |
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| There were many factors driving the refugees. Some were as basic as seeking a better job, more food, or more material goods. The numbers of refugees spiked upwards during times of hardship in the East, when food and other essential resources were scarce. |
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| The social and political changes that had taken place in the Soviet zone, such as the educational reforms and the removal of many judges from their positions, resulted in many educated and wealthy persons moving to the West. The refugee problem grew and became an embarrassment for both sides. The East viewed those leaving as traitors and the West could not cope with the scale of the human tide. In the first seven months of 1961, over 150,000 East Germans left for the West. |
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| On the night of August 12, 1961, on the Eastern side of Berlin, large numbers of army units, militiamen, and People's Police (Vopos) began to assemble near the border. Beginning shortly after one in the morning the troops were posted along the border, and the wire and posts were deployed to seal East from West Berlin. Traffic was prevented from crossing, including the underground railway trains. When Berliners awoke on the morning of August 13 their city had been split in two. |
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| Only 420 feet of the Berlin Wall remain--chiefly in the Bernauer Strasse in the city's Wedding district--as a tourist attraction, a memorial, and a sobering reminder. |
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