Eine kurze Geschichte von der Berliner Mauer: Berlin nach dem Krieg

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Berlin nach dem Krieg

Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurde die besiegte deutsche Nation unter den Alliierten aufgeteilt. Die östliche Hälfte wurde der kommunistischen Sowjetunion zugewiesen, wohingegen der Westen unter den Briten, den Amerikanern und den Franzosen aufgeteilt wurde. In den westlichen Sektoren begannen die Briten und Amerikaner, kapitalistische Ideen zu verwenden, um die kaputte deutsche Wirtschaft zu unterstützen.

Insbesondere wandten sie den Marshallplan an: ein amerikanischer Aufwand, das kriegsgeschundene Europa umzuorganisieren und die Verbreitung von Kommunismus zu verhindern. Durch eine 1947 Ansprache zum Congress, vorherig Minnesota Gouverneur Harold E. Stassen, als er für die Amerikanische Anstrengungen gegen Kommunisten gestritten, hat gesagt:

It is not possible to long maintain true freedom to speak and to assemble and to vote and to worship, if freedom to work and to buy and to sell and to own and to earn are taken away and citizens made subject to the whim of men in government for their food, their shelter and their clothing. (21)

Dadurch wurde die Grundlage für den Kalten Krieg geschaffen, eine sich entwickelnde Spannung, welche die Anstrengungen der Deutschen an die Spitze des Weltgeschehens setzte, und welche die Berliner Mauer hervorbrachte, eine Sperre, die zum Symbol des langen, quälenden Konfliktes wurde.
Stassen, Harold E. "Marshall Plan, Europe's only Alternative to Communism." Vital Speeches of the Day 14.1 (1947). Military and Government Collection. Web. 7 May 2015.

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Berlin after the War

After the second world war, the vanquished German nation was divided among the Allied victors. The eastern half was allotted to the communist Soviet Union, while the west was divided between the British, the Americans, and later, the French.

In the western sectors, the British and Americans began employing capitalist ideas to bolster the broken German economy. In particular, they utilized the Marshall plan, an American effort to rebuild war-torn Europe and inhibit the spread of communism. In a 1947 address to congress, former Minnesota governor, Harold E. Stassen, arguing for U.S. efforts against communism, said:

It is not possible to long maintain true freedom to speak and to assemble and to vote and to worship, if freedom to work and to buy and to sell and to own and to earn are taken away and citizens made subject to the whim of men in government for their food, their shelter and their clothing. (21)

And thus were laid the foundations for the Cold War, a growing tension that brought the German people’s struggle to the forefront of world events and built the Berlin Wall, a barrier that became a symbol of the long, torturous conflict.

Stassen, Harold E. "Marshall Plan, Europe's only Alternative to Communism." Vital Speeches of the Day 14.1 (1947). Military and Government Collection. Web. 7 May 2015.

How the Wall was Built

While the British and Americans were employing capitalism in western Germany, the Soviet Union was utilizing communist ideas in eastern Germany. The countries that had been allies in defeating Germany, were now enemies in the effort to rebuild the defeated nation. Everyone wanted peace. The world was still reeling from two world wars. But tension between the two new superpowers, the Americans and the Soviets, could not be completely avoided. It was a tension that was to last more than forty years.

Berlin, though located completely in the Eastern part of Germany, was split into four sections of its own. The tension between superpowers was suddenly emphasized, as the conflicting ideas of communism and capitalism became neighbors. Under Soviet occupation, eastern Germany became a functioning country, controlled by a communist German government and called the German Democratic Republic.

After several years of watching citizens defect to the more prosperous West, the new government, frustrated by the vast numbers leaving the country, took a step that changed everything.

They put up a wall.

It was a political move that changed the face of the Cold War, and changed the lives of every citizen of East Berlin.

A City Divided

On the western side of the Berlin Wall, the battered German economy was growing rapidly stronger. Business, culture, and politics were thriving, deeply impacted by the American influence within Germany. The people of western Germany, and of West Berlin, began to adapt to a freer, more relaxed lifestyle. For those citizens, peace had brought about democracy, and Germany was beginning to rebuild herself.

On the other side of the wall, though the communist government had built an ordered and organized community that included improved healthcare and free public transportation, the citizens of the GDR had few luxuries and even fewer freedoms. They were not allowed to cross the border between East and West Berlin, many families were permanently separated, and those whose jobs were in West Berlin were forced to seek new employment. Besides this, the GDR kept tight control on citizens’ access to media of all kinds. Citizens were not allowed to vote, nor did they have freedom of speech. The Ministry for State Security, the Stasi, were, in many ways, the new Gestapo. Inhabitants of the GDR were often arrested or taken in for questioning, and any neighbor or acquaintance might be a member of the Stasi.

And many who attempted escape, over the barbed wire and brick of the Berlin Wall, were shot and killed by the border guards. More than one hundred East Berliners died attempting to escape the GDR.

How the Wall Fell

When Mikhail Gorbachev took control of the Soviet Union in 1985, he began to enact social and political reforms that, by allowing Soviet citizens a greater voice within the government, and giving East German governments more decision power, unintentionally, struck the first blow for the destruction of the Berlin Wall. In 1989, courageous citizens of Leipzig, in East Germany, began to stage peaceful protests against the GDR government. Citizens all over East Germany began to join the protest, soon over 500,000 strong, and another crack formed in the wall. On November 9, 1989, an East German official made a vague announcement that East Germans could now travel abroad. Though they weren’t sure the exact meaning of the announcement, media all over Germany began to broadcast the news that East Germans could travel freely, and electrified citizens of East Berlin began to crowd the border crossings at the wall. The guards, as confused as the media, were unsure how to react to the growing crowd, and eventually, let them through. The days that followed were ones of feverish celebration, as East Germans took hammers and chipped away at the wall that had imprisoned them, symbolically destroying their captivity.

On October 3rd, 1990, the divided country was officially reunified. The Berlin Wall, no longer standing, became a symbol of a shattered past, and serves, still today, as a reminder of the people’s struggle for freedom, and the courage it took to achieve liberation.