Berlin Wall Interview

Interviewers: Lena and Liesel Kemmelmeier

Interviewee: Hope Harrison

Hope Harrison is a professor at George Washington University and specializes in The Berlin
Wall, East and West Germany, united Germany, international history of the Cold War, Russian
foreign policy, and German foreign policy.

Interviewer: How did the Berlin Wall cause those living in Berlin (specifically in
the East) to encounter problems both in their everyday life and with their
families?
Hope: Overnight, people were not allowed to move back and forth without permission. And no
one was given permission from the East (at least not unless they were senior officials) for a long
time. So if you lived in East Berlin and had family, friends, a job, a school in West Berlin, you
couldn't get to them. People were shocked and very upset. Some tried to escape and did
escape. Some were killed trying to escape. Many were jailed for trying to escape or being
suspected of planning to escape or helping someone to escape. And if you were caught trying
to escape or if you did escape, your family members suffered: they could lose their jobs, their
chance to attend university, and generally would be ostracized by the regime.

Interviewer: Why was the U.S so involved with the Berlin Crisis?

Hope: After World War II, Berlin was under 4 Power, Allied control: the US, UK, France and
USSR, as was the whole of Germany. The Four Powers wanted to make sure Germany couldn't
rise up again, so they occupied the country militarily, including the former capital of Berlin.
When West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany, a democracy, allied with the West)
and East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, communist, allied with the USSR) were
created in 1949, the Four Powers still kept Berlin under Four Power control. And it remained
that way for the entire Cold War and until German reunification on Oct. 3, 1990. As you know,
Berlin was deep inside of communist East Germany, 110 miles away from West Germany. So
West Berlin was quite vulnerable. Khrushchev started the Berlin Crisis in 1958 to try to get the 3
Western Powers out of West Berlin--he called for West Berlin to become a "free city"--meaning
demilitarized, with no Western troops left. The US refused to leave. The best reason for that
was the way President Kennedy put it to Chairman Khrushchev at their summit meeting in
Vienna in June 1961 when they discussed Berlin:
"If the US were driven out of West Berlin by unilateral action, and if we were deprived of our
contractual rights by East Germany, then no one would believe the US now or in the future. If
we left, the world would lose confidence in the US and would not regard it as a serious country.

It is an important strategic matter that the world believe the US is a serious country. . . .If the US
were forced out of West Berlin, US commitments around the world would be seen as mere
scraps of paper, worthless. The US would become isolated. I will not allow this. I was not
elected to do this."