Circumstances That Led to the Construction of the Berlin Wall - Research Paper Example

Cause The events and circumstances that led to the construction of the Berlin Wall Introduction The Berlin wall was not only a physical division between the east Germany and West Berlin but also a symbolic boundary between communism and democracy during the cold war. The erection of the berlin wall was done in the dead of a night and for twenty eight years protected the Germans from fleeing to the west. The destruction of this wall which was almost instantaneous as its creation got celebrated in the whole world. The construction of the first barrier took place on the night of 12th August 1961. This was after Walter Ulbricht, the East German Communist Party leader, ordered a barricade which was meant for stopping the East Germans from defecting (The independent par.1). Approximately 2.5 million people had migrated to West Berlin since the year 1949. The wall was hence constructed mainly to stop the migration from GDR (German Democratic Republic). The Berliners woke up on August 13 only to find themselves alienated from family, work, friends, and even homes. In the weeks and months which followed the barrier got strengthened with guard towers and concrete walls. The entire wall comprised of a concrete section of 66 miles and a height of 3.6 meters. It also had 41 more miles of a barbed wire fence and over 300 manned watch towers. The wall did not just passed through the city center but it circled West Berlin completely which was encircled by GDR communist (Sky news par.2). The document below analyzes the events as well as circumstances that contributed to the construction of the berlin wall. Events that led to the construction of the Berlin Wall There several circumstances and events that took place prior to the construction of the berlin wall which contributed to its construction. These events which gave rise to the construction of the Berlin wall started in the Second World War. The Nazi Germany was allied originally with the communist Russia against the United States, Britain and France that were also allied. Adolf Hitler, however, violated his treaty with Josef Stalin, the Russian ruler, and invaded Russia. This pushed the soviets into an uncomfortable alliance with other allies. The soviets, however, had varying ideologies with its allies even though they were on the same side in the battle field. The Soviet Union could be referred as a communist nation. This was a system whereby the individual rights were subverted for the nation’s benefit. It was a totalitarian system as well that meant that the government was in control of everything and no elections that were held. Germany finally surrendered the war in the year 1945 while Hitler had just killed himself few days that had passed. The Germany division was decided in Yalta at a conference in February 1945. Franklin Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin who were the leaders of the three nations that were allied decided to have Germany divided into four zones. Each zone was taken by the Americans, the soviets, French and British (The independent par.3). Berlin the Germany’s capital was in the soviet zone fully. The city was to be divided into four zones as well. The United States, France and Britain were guaranteed of accessing to their berlin’s zones. However, for these nations to get to their zones, they had to pass via the soviet zone. The varying ideologies of the soviets and their former allies erupted immediately. The soviet troops occupied most of the Eastern Europe where they began the installation of the communist governments in states like Hungary, Poland among others. A portion of Germany that was referred to as the East Germany and was under the soviet control was the soviet puppet government recipient as well. Most of the well educated people such as the intellectuals, engineers and the doctors were the first to flee from these countries’ harsh authoritarian rule. The soviets, on the other and did not want to lose such valuable citizens. They hence started closing the borders of the eastern bloc which was referred to as the soviet nations. This imposed the seclusion from the west that was referred to as the iron curtain. The western nations were not happy at all. Irrespective of a tough war they had fought so as to free the European people from the Nazis, nearly the half of them continued to live under dictatorship (Grabianowski par. 1). The soviets and the U.S., however, had the atomic weapons. For a single side to challenge there could be an eruption of a military war as well as a nuclear destruction on an enormous scale from the other side. Tensions, however, kept rising. The two sides were spying each other while making speeches that were condemning each other. They built up massive weapon stockpiles and also sent troops in the areas that were close to the contested borders. Britain, USA and France had already merged their zones which were in Germany to form one zone. They called it West Germany which was also referred to as West Germany. As a result, West Berlin became a freedom island as well as democracy in the midst of the communist East Germany (The independent par.4). The soviets started using the harassment tactic in their attempts to driving the allies away from West Berlin. The harassment tactics included delays, kidnappings, misinformation campaigns and the bureaucratic tie ups. Eventually, the USSR cordoned off the West Berlin. This took place on June 1948. The road and the rail traffic were prohibited from moving in or out. They had hopes of starving the city. Their efforts, however, failed. This is because the United States and Britain flew the cargo planes via narrow flight corridors that were over East Germany, eventually landing in West Berlin carrying the supplies. It demanded for a nearly miraculous logistics feat with the planes taking off from the depots of supply after every 30 seconds the whole day. The Berlin airlift continued for nearly twelve months. This kept West Berlin supplied with enough for survival. At its peak, this airlift could make a delivery of more than 200,000 tons per month of cargo. This made the soviets to give up, thereby allowing the rail and truck traffic to enter the West Berlin once again (Grabianowski par.2). All these circumstances were forming a base for the wall construction. The berlin airlift did not do anything so as to defuse tensions between the west and east in Germany. Berlin was in fact a tender spot because it was the iron Curtain’s sole gap. The people of West Berlin could freely fly out of the city. Although the border that was in existence between the West Germany and East Germany was closed, nothing could stop the East Germans to enter West Berlin thus avoiding the communist rule. Huge numbers of these Germans left. By the year 1960, tens of thousands of East Germans were leaving in every month. In the year 1961, over 200,000 East Germans had decamped by summer (Sky news par. 4). This mass migration was contributed by improved living conditions in West Germany. The West Germany had created a capitalist society with the help and support of the occupying powers. This gave rise to massive growth that was termed as the economic miracle. The individuals who lived in West Germany lived an adorable life which was an irony of what was taking place in the eastern side. This created the urge of the residents of east to migrate to the west. The communist society that was established by the Soviet Union made the economy to drag and the freedoms of individuals were strictly restricted (The independent par. 5). The life in the east became unbearable. This led to the massive migration of East Germans to the West. Most of the individuals who were leaving were the learned people who were both young and trained professionals. By the early 1960s the East Germany had lost most of its population as well as its labor force. Having lost approximately 2.5 million people by 1961, the East Germany realized that they required stopping the mass exodus desperately (Grabianowski par.3). The easy access for the East Germans to the West Berlin led to the success of the migration. The Soviet Union even threatened the allied nations with using the nuclear weapons only to find they were committed to defending West Berlin. The East Germany eventually decided to build the wall to prevent the East Germans from crossing the border. The West Germany was unhappy for seeing this number of individuals leaving the east. The migration created an incredible economic strain and also increased tension between the west and the east. It now became evident that the violence outbreak was inevitable. No one had the solution of containing the situation. The executive committee of the USSR, the soviet politburo, and Nikita Khrushchev, soviet premier finally came up a plan to offer the solution to this problem. Walter Ulbricht, the German communist leader, offered the orders technically. He was, however, the soviet’s puppet. On the night of 12th and 13th August in the year 1961 the borders between west and east of berlin were closed alongside all the rail stations (Grabianowski par. 4). Thousands of the East German soldiers were always guarding the border while the workers were constructing the barbed fences. The fence construction commenced at around 1am. All the street lights were switched off so that no one could view what was taking place. The berlin city was being walled off without the consent of the residents. They only came to realize about the construction the following morning. The western leaders were not aware of the construction. It came to John F. Kennedy as a complete surprise. The berlin wall is generally thought of as just a wall between the west and West Berlin (Grabianowski par. 5). The East Germany desired to cut off all the access that was previously available for the East Germans to the West Berlin. They, therefore, had to cordon off the entire West Berlin. The Berlin wall surrounded the city’s democratic half completely. It is hence evident that the disintegration of relationship between the Soviet Union with the other three allied powers was one of the even that gave rise to the construction of the berlin wall. This disintegration made the cooperative atmosphere to change drastically into aggressive and competitive. These events had created social boundary between the Soviet Union and the allied powers prior to the construction of the physical boundary (Sky news par. 5). This boundary was of communism versus democracy. This division came out clearly when the physical wall was constructed since it created an island of democracy in West Berlin and a communist one in the East Germany. Conclusion The discussion above reveals that the construction of the wall was not something that came just overnight. There were various events and circumstances that facilitated its construction. Some of these facilitating events and circumstances are as old as 1945 while the wall was constructed in the year 1961. However, the massive migration was the main reason for the erection of this wall. The migration, however, was caused by some circumstances hence all these events and circumstances were inseparable. The physical wall also gave rise to a symbolic boundary of two different modes of ruler ship namely communist and democratic. Works Cited Grabianowski, Ed. How the Berlin Wall Worked. Web. 12 May 2008. http://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/berlin-wall2.htm Sky news. How The Berlin Wall Came To Be Built, 2015. Web. 4 Apr. 2015. http://news.sky.com/story/1368984/how-the-berlin-wall-came-to-be-built The independent. Berlin Wall: What you need to know about the barrier that divided East and West, 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/berlin-wall-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-barrier-that-divided-east-and-west-9847347.html Read More