Hanna 1 Brian Hanna World Geography Mrs.

Spain 17 October 2013 The Berlin Wall Oppression is not a living entity with pulse and breath, but a creeping, scaly thing born in the darkness of mens hearts. It was a relentless situation for a whole generation when hope was on holiday, reason had taken a recess, and the dumb patience of a generation was stretched to its absolute limits by those who would be masters no matter the cost. (Kaaz 1) The Berlin Wall divided not only East and West Germany, but it also divided a prosperous, democratic government, and a strict, communist government. The Berlin Wall was built, stood for 28 years, and eventually torn down in 1989. After World War II, at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, the Allied powers divided Germany into separate zones, one for each the US, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. The Allied powers had originally intended to reunify Germany after they got the government back up and running. But as the Allied powers relationship with the Soviet Union quickly faded away, it became more of a west vs. east situation. In 1949, the US, France, and Britain combined their zones to create West Germany. The Soviet Union followed suit and soon after created East Germany. The Allies did the same with Berlin, the capital of Germany, and created West and East Berlin. In West Germany, the economy quickly boomed and things started improving. People could get jobs, buy appliances, and even travel as they pleased. In East Germany though, things were quite Hanna 2

the opposite. Living conditions were terrible and the government was under the direct influence of the Soviet Union; and that meant communism. The people living in East Berlin wanted out, life was terrible in East Germany. Soon, they started fleeing to West Berlin. Lots escaped until the Soviets realized what was going on. East Germany was rapidly losing young, skilled laborers and its population. Just past midnight on the night of August 12-13, 1961, trucks with soldiers and construction workers rumbled through East Berlin. While most Berliners were sleeping, these crews began tearing up streets that entered into West Berlin, dug holes to put up concrete posts, and strung barbed wire all across the border between East and West Berlin. (Rosenberg 1) The Berlin Wall had been constructed. The Wall spanned for over one hundred miles and had only a few places where one could pass through. These places were called checkpoints, and only people with special permission could pass through them. It is estimated that about five thousand people did escape, but hundreds of others died trying. Some people tried to escape by jumping off of building bordering the wall, while others simply tried ramming a truck into the wall and then running for it. There were more complicated attempts, like digging tunnels from basements into West Berlin. Soviet guards had permission to shoot at anyone who came close to the Wall, so there was always the risk of death. In one case of an attempted escape, two eighteen year olds ran towards the wall in an attempt to scale it. The first one scaled it successfully, but the second one, Peter Fechter, was not so lucky. As he ran up the Wall, a guard opened fire on him. He almost made it up, but fell down. He was shot and in extreme pain, but the guards just left him there. They did not shoot him again or come to his aid. He was there crying out in pain for over an hour, and once he had bled to death, Hanna 3

the guards carried him off. The fall of the Berlin Wall was almost as instantaneous as its rise. On November 9, 1989, it was announced that the borders were open and that people could pass freely between East and West Berlin and Germany. People were astonished and wondered if the borders were really opened. They went outside and saw the guards were letting people through. People began to chip away at the wall. People started cheering as they were reunited with people from the other side of the Wall. After twenty-eight grueling years, the Wall was opened. The people of East Berlin were free. All over the world, people celebrated. Now, the wall is gone, some pieces of it are as small as a coin, while other pieces are entire slabs. These pieces are collectible now, in homes and museums. East and West Germany reunified into a single state on October 3, 1990. The Wall was down, and the people were free. The communist Soviets had treated the people of East Berlin as a spoil of war. The people were trapped with so few rights or responsibilities for so long they did not know what to do. A human being should never be treated the way the people of East Germany were treated. Instead, all people should be treated with equal rights and equal responsibilities.

Hanna 4 Works Cited Berlin.de. n.d. Web. 3 October 2013. Heneghan, Tom. Unchained Eagle. London: Pearson Education, 2000. Print. Hickman, Kennedy. World War II: Potsdam Conference. 2013. Web. 9 September 2013. <http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/militarystrategies/p/World-War-Ii-PotsdamConference.htm>. Kazz, Carsten. In the Shadow of the Wall. Tennessee: Guild Bindery Press, 1995. Print. Rosenberg, Jennifer. The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall. 2013. Web. 16 September 2013. <http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm>.