The Berlin wall rise and fall is one of the most significant events in the history post-world war, which shook the world and changed it forever. The Berlin wall fell on November 9, 1989, but the number of people killed between 1961 and 1989 had left a lasting effect on Berlin and Germany, which will never be forgotten.
What happened that led to the building of the Berlin wall?
After the end of world war 2 in 1945, Germany split up into four sectors. Inhabitat by the United States, England, France, and the soviet union. Even Berlin split up, and more than 90 miles of east Soviet inhabited Berlin.
Which, after world war 2, were clashing with other European countries over ideologies and the future of Europe. The soviet union divided itself from the rest of Europe and created a political frontier called the ‘‘Iron curtain’’.
In 1948, the soviet took full charge of berlin and discontinued all the essentials like food, water, and goods and blocked all transport and buses from east berlin to west. In addition, they aimed to starve the western allies, so they all left Berlin. And eventually, take complete control over Germany.
In response to them, other allies France, the uk, and the US, merged and formed the ‘Federal Republic of Germany. And eventually, the soviet made ‘German democratic republic.’
And on August 13, 1961. GDR begins the construction of the Berlin wall. 43km long of east berlin.
Difference b/w FDR and GDR
In response to the dictatorship of the soviet over east Germany and cutting the routes and supplies. West Germany allies the US, England, and France merged to form the federal republic of Germany. Moreover, FDR transported food, oil, and other necessary goods through airlift.
In fact, this happened for the first time ever in the history of wars. 2.3 million tons of food and goods were supplied, which occurred for a year. Also, the Soviets expected that this would happen only for a few weeks.
The FDR focuses on denazification, which is to put an end to Nazi influence. They supported Democratization.
In this free enterprise, people had a better standard of living, more liberty, better pay, and as a result, people had more purchasing power. Availability of anything was easy.
Whereas GDR spent vast amounts of assets on war reparations which diminished the economy. Any activity which seems unfaithful to the states, people got arrested by secret police called ‘‘STASI’’.
To control people, strict communist policies were created. They did not want anyone to follow western culture or get influenced by it.
Fall of the berlin wall
Because of strict communist policies and rules, east Germany residents ran away despite guards patrolling. Moreover, many historians assumed 5000 residents moved to the west every day. In the workplace all around east Germany, strikes happened, the flag of the soviet union tore apart by protestors. In response, the Soviets killed hundreds of people.
Throughout the years, more than 3 million people ran away to West Germany. Sizeable numbers of people were skilled labourers, engineers, and young, hard-working professionals. The economy, which was skiing down, already dropped massively.
The Berlin wall was becoming more extensive, more enormous, and extremely hard to cross to prevent this. Furthermore, the Berlin wall kept on evolving bigger, more significant, and extremely hard to cross.
By the climax of the 1980s, things rapidly changed. Many European countries got liberty, they started to follow Democratization, and the cold war was about to end. Protests in east Germany were uncontrollable for the soviet union to handle, and Mass Demonstration for democracy.
So, on November 9, 1989, borders opened, and the fall of the Berlin wall happened.
