Abstract

This assignment is submitted as partial requirement of Global Trade. This report depicts the sequences of Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall, erected November 13, 1961, served to separate communist East Germany from Western influences. Intended to "protect" East Germans, the wall actually was erected to prevent them from leaving the country. The Wall finally came down August 13, 1989, reuniting families and symbolizing the end of the cold war was near.

The initial plans for Allied occupation of Germany were prepared in 1944 in London by the European Advisory Commission. In this agreement, Germany would be divided into four occupational zones governed by Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin, which would be in the Soviet occupational zone, would be divided among the four powers as well.

By the time of the blockade, there was a major contrast between the East and West Berlin. West Berlin was a thriving democratic, capitalist city, while East Berlin was in drab poverty. Trying to escape the forced collectivization of goods and agriculture, numerous shortages, and a police state, many fled to West Berlin. To maintain the stability of the communist regime, the East German leaders felt that these floods of people had to be stopped.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………..….3
1.1 Summary of the Berlin Wall…………………………………….……..3
1.2 Background………………………………………………………….…3
2. Body…………………………………………………………….……….4
2.1 A Divided Berlin ……………………………………………..………..4
2.2 The Berlin Wall Goes Up ………………………….…………………..5
2.3 The Size and Scope of the Berlin Wall …………..……………………5
3. Conclusion………………………………………………………………6
3.1 The Fall of the Berlin Wall …………………………………………….6
4. Reference…………………………………………………..…………….7

1. Introduction
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961 that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.

1.1 Summary of the Berlin Wall
Physical barrier which surrounded West Berlin, cutting it off from both East Berlin and the surrounding parts of East Germany. The wall was erected by the communist government of East Germany in 1961 to prevent disaffected people fleeing to the West and fell in 1989 after the collapse of Russian backing for the East German government and the opening of crossing points.

1.2 Background
In the aftermath of the Second World War Germany was occupied by four liberating powers: Russia, France, Britain and the United States. Berlin, the capital of Germany, was in the Russian sector, but was also split into four sections amongst the same powers. With the rise of the Cold War, which saw liberated western nations return to capitalism and democracy but eastern ones become communist satellites dominated by Russia, the divided Germany became a source of conflict between East and West.

Russia grew concerned that West Germany, which experienced freedoms, economic growth and integration with Western states, was undermining both East Germany and the whole Soviet power bloc. After attempts to force a renegotiation of terms failed after the Berlin Blockade, overtures were made to reunite Germany under a truly neutral government. The West spurned such offers. By 1960 there was due to be further discussions, but Russia and East Germany pulled out after an American spy plane was shot down over Russia.

2. Body
The Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. Its destruction, which was nearly as instantaneous as its creation, was celebrated around the world.

2.1 A Divided Berlin
At the end of World War II, the Allied powers divided conquered Germany into four zones, each occupied by either the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union (as agreed at the Potsdam Conference). The same was done with Germany's capital city, Berlin.

As the relationship between the Soviet Union and the other three Allied powers quickly disintegrated, the cooperative atmosphere of the occupation of Germany turned competitive and aggressive. Although an eventual reunification of Germany had been intended, the new relationship between the Allied powers turned Germany into West versus East, democracy versus Communism.

In 1949, this new organization of Germany became official when the three zones occupied by the United States, Great Britain, and France combined to form West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). The zone occupied by the Soviet Union quickly followed by forming East Germany (the German Democratic Republic).

This same division into West and East occurred in Berlin. Since the city of Berlin had been situated entirely within the Soviet zone of occupation, West Berlin became an island of democracy within Communist East Germany.
2.2 The Berlin Wall Goes Up
There had been rumors that something might happen to tighten the border of East and West Berlin, but no one was expecting the speed nor the absoluteness of the Wall.

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. Telephone wires between East and West Berlin were also cut.

Berliners were shocked when they woke up that morning. What had once been a very fluid border was now rigid. No longer could East Berliners cross the border for operas, plays, soccer games, etc. No longer could the approximately 60,000 commuters head to West Berlin for well-paying jobs. No longer could families, friends, and lovers cross the border to meet their loved ones. Whichever side of the border one went to sleep on during the night of August 12, they were stuck on that side for decades.

2.3 The Size and Scope of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall stretched over a hundred miles. It ran not only through the center of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, entirely cutting West Berlin off from the rest of East Germany.

The wall itself went through four major transformations during its 28-year history. The Berlin Wall started out as a barbed-wire fence with concrete posts, but just a few days after the first fence was placed, it was quickly replaced with a sturdier, more permanent structure made out of concrete blocks, topped with barbed wire.

3. Conclusion
The wall divided the city, cutting people off from jobs and families. Although there were protests in West Berlin, and despite criticism from the US, ultimately the West could do nothing to stop the wall and by 1962 there was tacit agreement that the wall was a fact of life. US President Kennedy said "It's not a very nice solution... but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war". The jury is out on how successful the wall was in stopping the drain of people across to the West: Around 5000 managed to cross between 1961 and 1989 and over 100, perhaps over 200, people were killed as they tried to cross.

3.1 The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall happened nearly as suddenly as its rise. There had been signs that the Communist bloc was weakening, but the East German Communist leaders insisted that East Germany just needed a moderate change rather than a drastic revolution. East German citizens did not agree.

As Communism began to falter in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia in 1988 and 1989, new exodus points were opened to East Germans who wanted to flee to the West. Then suddenly, on the evening of November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official Günter Schabowski stated, "Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany) or West Berlin."

People were in shock. Were the borders really open? East Germans tentatively approached the border and indeed found that the border guards were letting people cross. Very quickly, the Berlin Wall was inundated with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration along the Berlin Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying.

The Berlin Wall was eventually chipped away, into smaller pieces (some the size of a coin and others in big slabs). The pieces have become collectibles and are stored in both homes and museums.

After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990.

4. Reference

●Jennifer Rosenberg, ’The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall’
, 2011, (accessed 10 December 2011).

●Robert Wilde, ‘The Berlin Wall’
, 2011, (accessed 10 December 2011).

●Berlin Wall

●Berlin Crisis of 1961