The Task Was About How The Berlin Wall Was Built - 3025 Words

The Task Was About How The Berlin Wall Was Built (Essay Sample) Content: The Berlin Wall(Name of the Student)(Subject)(Name of the instructor)(Date)Introduction.For almost twenty-eight years a wall divided West and East Berlin in the heart of Germany. Several events before the actual construction of the Wall made the East Germanys leader Erich Honecker to make plans for the Wall be built. After the Wall was put up the cultural difference between West Germany and East Germany broadened. When the wall stood many people tried to cross the border illegally without success. This sparked unstable relationship between the government of the East (The German Democratic Republic) and the government of the West (The Federal Republic of Germany).[Mirabile, Lisa. 1991. The Berlin Wall. Englewood Cliffs: Silver Burdett Press.] [Grant, R G. 1999. The Berlin Wall. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn.] Why the Berlin Wall Was BuiltTo understand better the reasons why the Berlin Wall was built, the events that resulted in the actual construction of the Wall in th e year 1961. After the World War II, Germany was divided into four different zones. Each of this zone was controlled by a different country. The western half was divided into three different zones: the American zone, the French zone and the British zone. The Eastern half of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. Finally, the three western zones combined forming the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). On the other hand, the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The GDR and the FRG resulted from the two sides failing to settle on a harmonious agreement in the aftermath of the Second World War.[Zuchora-Walske, Christine. 2014. The Berlin Wall. Minneapolis: ABDO Publishing Company] [Grant, R G. 1999. The Berlin Wall. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn.] Most of the Germans who were in the East saw the life in the West as more desirable. This resulted in a lot of the turmoil. The Germans in the East were dissatisfied with the kind life under the communist system. West Berlin was seen as a gateway to a democratic West. Between the year 1949 and the year 1961, approximately 2.5 million Germans who resided in the East fled from to West Germany through West Berlin. By August the year 1961, an average of two thousand East Germans were crossing to the West each day. Most of these refugees were skilled professionals, intellectuals and laborers. Their loss was had a devastating impact on the East German economy.[Grant, R G. 1999. The Berlin Wall. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn.] [Levy, Debbie. 2004. The Berlin Wall. Farmington Hills: Blackbirch Press.] To curb the amount of East Germans migrating to the West, the GDR began to building the Berlin Wall. In August 13, 1961 Germans residing in Berlin on both the West and East saw a barbed wire barricade running down the middle of Berlin. This barrier was not put up to keep West Germans out of East Berlin, but to keep East Germans residents in East Berlin.[Mirabile, Lisa. 1991. The Berlin Wall. Englewood Cliff s: Silver Burdett Press.] Who Built the Berlin Wall?The wall was masterminded in the year 1961 by Erich Honecker and an elite group of East German officials. It was kept as a top secret until its construction. The Wall divide a nation and a city as well as the capitalist world from the communist world. People, as well as ideas, politics, cultures and commerce were barred from passing freely across this wall. Today, although the Wall has fallen, there exist divisions in the minds of people who were directly affected by the barrier. A wall in the head (Mauerim Kopf) divides the East Germans (Ossies) and West Germans (Wessies) into stereotypes made by their 40-year political gap, making their union an ongoing challenge.[Grant, R G. 1999. The Berlin Wall. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn.] Erich Honecker was the architect behind the erection of the Berlin Wall. He was under the mentorship of a German Socialist political leader Walter Ulbricht. He collaborated with a few other individuals i ncluding the chief of police Gerhard Exner who determined that the policemen would monitor the building of the Wall. The head lieutenant of the Nationale Volksarmee (NVA), Werner Hbner also supported the idea.[Mur, Cindy. 2004. The Berlin Wall. San Diego: Greenhaven Press.] Honecker created a plan to construct of a barrier that changed not only the city and country in which it was situated, but the entire world. The planning was done in Honeckers private conference room in Strausberg, 30 km east of Berlin. The the walls were covered in maps. Although, Ulbricht declared in June 15th that there were no any intentions to put a wall, the plans were to stop the 3.6 million people who, between the year 1945 and 1961, used West Berlin to migrate into West Germany. The people who migrated desired a free market economy and greater wealth.Without informing the public, an alarm was triggered on August 13th midnight and construction of the Wall started. By 2:00 a.m. the Nationale Volksarmee was in place and Honecker drove through the night to ensure that things were done as planned. At around 4:00 a.m. Honecker went back to Strausberg and by 6:00 a.m. the barbed wire had been stretched across the city dividing east from west. The S and U-Bahn lines were walled up, and constructions with their fronts facing the West German roads but located on East German property was made to be part of the Wall. The Front windows and doors were boarded up so that inhabitants could enter through the East German yards. The demolition machineries tore through tarmac and cobblestone roads that ran from west to east rendering the roads impassable. The police stood and turned away traffic.[Rooney, Anne. 2010. The Berlin Wall. Mankato: Arcturus Publishers.] [Mur, Cindy. 2004. The Berlin Wall. San Diego: Greenhaven Press.] Who Governed the West and the East?After the Second World War, at the Potsdam and the Yalta conferences discussions were done to determine the borders of Germany and deci de who would govern Germany. It was decided that, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and the Soviet Union, known together as the Allied Control Council (ACC), divided Berlin and Germany until Germany was in a position to govern itself. In the year 1948 the Soviet Union which was governing the Eastern States in Germany detached themselves from the ACC after opposing the political differences in the Western parts of Germany governed by France, the United States and the United Kingdom.[Rooney, Anne. 2010. The Berlin Wall. Mankato: Arcturus Publishers.] In June the year 1948, the Western Associates introduced the Deutsche Mark in their region as the new currency in Germany. This move met resistance from the Soviet Union which responded with the Berlin barrier. The Berlin barrier was in full effect by July the year 1948. The barrier was intended to cripple West Berlin by stopping all transport of goods into the West Berlin from the non-Soviet countries. The Soviet Union nee ded to have full control over Berlin. By limiting the access of the governments controlling Western part of Germany; the Soviet Union thought they could seize this control. West Berlin's resources were declining and action had to be taken. The United States, France and Britain had to get cargo into West Berlin, or yield to the Soviet Union. The only solution for this was the Berlin Airlift.[Waldenburg, Hermann. 1990. The Berlin Wall. New York: Abbeville Press.] [Zuchora-Walske, Christine. 2014. The Berlin Wall. Minneapolis: ABDO Publishing Company.] The Berlin Airlift was seemed a totally impossible idea on the paper. The plan was to take resources to West Berlin by public air corridors via cargo plane. This airlift was done for 15 months. It ended in May of the year 1949. The idea was a great success. The same month, the Western zones combined to become the state of West Germany. After the creation of West Germ, the Soviet zone became East Germany in October the year 1949.[Gra nt, R G. 1999. The Berlin Wall. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn.] It was clear that West Germany had more work opportunities compared to East Germany. People began migrate to West Germany and West Berlin, the East started seeing economic and political turmoil. Educated individuals began to flocking to West Germany also. East Germany decided to stop the movement of people and thus stopping the economic loss they were experiencing. During the night of the 12th of August, the year 1961, East Germany constructed a wall that lasted for over 20 years.[Levy, Debbie. 2004. The Berlin Wall. Farmington Hills: Blackbirch Press.] The East German government decided to guard its newly started separation with a security force which was called the State Security Service (Stasi). The State Security Service was a group of interrogators, investigators, informants and spies who watched the lives of East German citizens. Although the true extent of the Stasi was not known, the East Germans feared their go vernment and kept a closed mouth. The West German government did not monitor the Wall.[Grant, R G. 1999. The Berlin Wall. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn.] How the Wall Divided Germany.Overnight a mobile and functional city was cut in two. The West Berlin was entirely surrounded by the East Germany on all sides. Immediately the economic, political, cultural and social effects began to be felt. Transportation was totally affected. The roads were physically torn apart, and the public transit routes were walled over denying everybody to pass. Of the three thousand people who made an attempt to escape, many were gunned down by the guards in the border. The world knew it was separated politically between the capitalists and the socialists. There was a cold War and the division was clear. The Wall proved the seriousness and permanence of that conflict and brought Germany to the center...