The Berlin wall
The Berlin Wall was a wall that divided the city of Berlin into the East and West.
“There were heated debates among friends and workmates, and everyone sensed that something dramatic was going to happen. But a wall right through the city, as was occasionally suggested? No, our imaginations didn’t stretch that far.” ~Joachim Trenkner, East Berlin resident
Iron Curtain
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe … all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject … not only to soviet influence but to a very high and … increasing measure of control from Moscow.” ~Iron Curtain Speech made by Winston Churchill
Both the United States and Soviet Union had superpower status and always fought for greater power so that they could control the country. The Soviet Union wanted to create a buffer zone in Eastern Europe and they also wanted to spread communism. The friendly governments would be a defense against Germany. The Soviet influence and controlled Eastern Europe in 1946. The iron curtain separated Europe into different sectors. The different parts were the West, which was western democracies and U.S., the East was Soviets and Soviet Union.
The "Iron Curtain" was a phrase that Winston Churchill used when describing the division of Eastern Europe in capitalist and communism countries.
The "Iron Curtain" was a phrase that Winston Churchill used when describing the division of Eastern Europe in capitalist and communism countries.
Orders that caused the wall to go up
Khrushchev's speech caused the wall to go up. He said that France, Great Britain, and the U.S. had to move their forces out of Germany in the next six months, this was said in November 1968.
During the night on Sunday, August 13, 1961, the Berlin Wall started to go up, dividing East and West Germany. The Berlin Wall was a series of four walls made of different material. The first wall was hastily erected with a mixture of coiled barbed wire, concrete and cement blocks. In June 1962, the second wall was built, East Berlin rebuilt the first wall again, making it out of reinforced concrete twelve feet high and topped by smooth round pipes. They built it this way so someone trying to climb up could not get a grip. The third wall was started in 1965 and was made even stronger by concrete slabs, held between steel girders. In 1975 the final wall made of a new type of impenetrable concrete. It stretched ninety-six miles around West Berlin. It had alarms, spotlights, guard dogs, heavily armed border guards, 302 watchtowers and 20 bunkers. In addition, it also had forty-one miles of wire mesh fencing and sixty-five miles of trenches to black vehicles. Many East Germans fled to the West because it was wealthier environment. Many families were torn apart, and some never reunited. The Berlin Wall was apart of the Cold War and caused Germany to be torn apart.
"Tear down this wall" Speech
"Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. . . . Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar. . . . As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. . . .
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate.
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
—Ronald Reagan, address at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987
“Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we never had to put up a wall to keep our people in … All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” ~President John F. Kennedy, June 26, 1963
Reagan wanted the Fall of the Berlin Wall; he achieved this by convincing Mr. Gorbachev that this was the time that the wall needed to come down. Reagan spoke about how the wall was ruining people's lives and futures, as well as destroying families.
"The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy .... which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means." ~ President Ronald Reagan, June 8, 1982
Thirty years later, on the evening of November 9, 1989, 100 miles of brick, wire, and concrete around the capitol of Old Germany, The Berlin Wall was destroyed. Travel restrictions were finally lifted between East and West Germany. On the first day after the wall fell, 800,000 East Germans came across into West Germany. Under West German law, every East German who arrived in the West was entitled to a one-time gift of “welcome money", about 100 marks or about $50 US dollars at the time.
JFK's Ich bin ein berliner speech
"I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed.
Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner."
I appreciate my interpreter translating my German!
There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.
Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.
What is true of this city is true of Germany--real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.
Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.
All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner." ~ John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy wanted to make sure that the people in Berlin knew that the U.S. was with them. The U.S. would keep fighting for them until the Soviets would surrender to the West. Kennedy wanted to make sure that everyone got freedom and didn't have to fight for it.
Berlin Wall Standoff at CHeckpoint Charlie
The Soviets and U.S. had weapons in case one of them decided to make a move; if it was the wrong move then it could have turned into a war. The East Berlin Uprising was a series of demonstrations really started on June 16, 1953 but on June 17, 1953 it went against German Democratic Republic government. By the time the demonstrations were done it ended up in more than 400 cities, towns and villages in East Germany. As political views were spread, the demonstrations expanded. These demonstrations were about more than worker reforms, they also included freedom reforms. Some sayings were “Death to communism” and “Long Live Eisenhower”. The protests soon turned violent, but the impact they made was for the better good despite the violence. The compromise that President Eisenhower and the Soviets made turned out good. The compromise was a food distribution program for those who needed help in East Berlin, but propaganda happened also and another common chant during the demonstrations was, “dictatorship of the proletariat”, which meant the lower class citizens were dictators. For the first time in history the lower class citizens were going up against the dictators. The Eastern people did not like the communism; they wanted President Eisenhower to win and for communism to be gone.
“Driving through Checkpoint Charlie was like driving off the set of a color movie and into film noir. The sky was gray. The buildings were gray. The clothes were gray. They shuffled along, slumped over, looking very tired, Mostly people ignored us, but some walked by and without turning their heads, winked or raised an eyebrow to hello- knowing full well that if they caught they would be arrested and possibly never seen again. ~S.Agliano, 8th Infantry, Germany, 1969-72
The End of the Cold war and memorial to the wall
At midnight on October 3, 1990, East and West Germany were reunited. On October 3, 1990 at midnight was also when the Cold War was over.
"I do not regard the end of the Cold War as a victory for one side ... The end of the Cold War is our common victory." ~Mikhail Gorbachev, January 1992
"What was my reaction the other night? I tell you. I'm a hard old retired colonel, but I had tears in my eyes. To see people standing on the wall, where once they would have been shot. I could hardly take it all in." ~ U.S. pilot Gail S. Halvorsen, after the fall of the Berlin Wall