Individual Assignment

Berlin Wall

I always found the Berlin Wall very interesting.  This wall was a barrier constructed by the East Germany’s government to keep its people away from Western Europe.  The building of this wall started on 13 August 1961.  It completely cut off the city of West Berlin from East Berlin. There were guard towers placed along this large wall and many people tried to climb this wall and died.

Later in 1990, as people started demanding to tear down this wall, the East German government finally announced the opening of border crossings. It was a historical moment, when crowds on both sides waited for hours, and happily cheered when the pieces of the Berlin wall came down and both East and West Berlin were joined again.

The Berlin Wall was built by Eastern Germany’s government.

The Wall was a barrier to prevent the emigration of people to reach western Germany and other countries of Western Europe.

Its construction started on 13 August 1961, and it was built at the old borders of East & West Berlin, It started in 1961 and continued until 1990 and it took around one year to build it.

It cost 16,155,000 East German Marks or about 3,638,000 US Dollars.

It is not existing now, as the people of Germany have united. http://www.aviewoncities.com/berlin/mauer.htm

 

In the beginning, they used barbed wire, eventually replaced by a concrete structure topped with wire and studded with watchtowers. And these materials came from locally available concrete, cement and bricks; the materials transported to the site in army vehicles, lorries and carts; it was designed by Hagen Koch, who was a 21-year-old Stasi recruit whose background in technical draughtsmanship, mapped out the Berlin Wall. There were no changes made to the original design.  After the Berlin wall fell in 1989, Hagen Koch started talking openly about his part in creating this wall. He created an archive in his East Berlin flat where he welcomed visitors including the Queen of Sweden and the artist Christo. He was reported seriously ill in a Berlin care home having suffered a heart attack in 2011. He had lost the power of speech. The Guardian UK, newspaper, was unable to verify if he is still alive today.

However The Soviet Union (now Russia) built the Berlin Wall to control East Berlin from the US/French/British controlled West Berlin.
The construction of the wall was supervised by the East German (communist) leader Erich Hoeneker. And it was constructed by Communist labour battalions from East Berlin and the real problem was controlling the people trying to cross the border, as so many people died while escaping from East Berlin to the West Berlin. Army battalions had to be vigilant in supervision.  http://www.newseum.org/berlinwall/

The Berlin Wall was important since it showed that people didn't want to live in East Germany and the government put the Berlin Wall to stop people from crossing into West Germany. It was a big image disaster for Russia at that time, especially when both Russia and the weat were claiming to be better than each other. This was a historic wall that divided East Germany and West Germany.

It was a symbol of the communist controlled economy and the destruction of it resulted in the reuniting of Germany as well as the spread of democracy.

The Berlin Wall was brought down because many world leaders from Russia, USA, and Europe jointly decided that it was useless to control people's freedom of travel and the way should be made open to all Germans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

Reference:

SSR, elorussian. "Berlin Wall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall>.

1950s, the late, they would pack up their bags, hundreds of thousands of others made it across the border. Once across, these refugees were housed in warehouses, East Germany was rapidly losing both its labor force, and its population.. "Berlin Wall - The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall." 20th Century History. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm

"NEWSEUM: THE BERLIN WALL." Newseum | Newseum Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. <http://www.newseum.org/berlinwall/>.

"Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer." Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. <http://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/de/>.

"Berlin Wall." A View On Cities. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. <http://www.aviewoncities.com/berlin/mauer.htm>.

1990, end of, and as Communism. "Berlin Wall Online - Chronicle of the Berlin Wall history includes an archive of photographs and texts." Dailysoft: IT-Consulting, Photography, Berlin and Berlin Wall information. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. <http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/>