Berlin Wall 1961 PDF

Berlin Wall 1961 Occupied Berlin  West Berlin By the mid 1950’s West Berlin was a thriving city. The U.S, Britain and France had united their sectors of Berlin and injected millions of dollars to rebuild the city in their image. For the most part the people of West B...

Berlin Wall 1961 Occupied Berlin  West Berlin By the mid 1950’s West Berlin was a thriving city. The U.S, Britain and France had united their sectors of Berlin and injected millions of dollars to rebuild the city in their image. For the most part the people of West Berlin were happy and prosperous. It had its own mayor, Willy Brandt and was using West German currency. It was fully equipped with modern conveniences such as electricity, TV, Grocery Stores and Retail shops. West Berlin looked as prosperous and appealing as any major city in the Capitalist world, a place where anyone had the opportunity to achieve financial and personal happiness.  East Berlin East Berlin was under the direct command of the Soviet Union but highly influenced by East Germany. Their leader was Walter Ulbricht. East Germany and East Berlin were in a very poor state by the 1950’s. Communist policies like collectivization, had left the population very poor in comparison to their West Berlin neighbours. The Soviets also had not rebuilt East Berlin and East Germany the way the U.S and Britain rebuilt West Germany and West Berlin. The Soviets stripped East Berlin of anything valuable at the end of WWII. East Berlin looked very grey, drab and primitive. It did not have wide spread access to modern conveniences like electricity and TV. West German Flag East German Flag  Exodus - If you don’t like it, Leave There was a long well guarded border between East Germany and West Germany, but there was no border between East and West Berlin. If you were unhappy with your life in Communist Germany all you needed to do was go to Berlin and walk to the west side. No passports, no hassle. Once you were in West Berlin you could fly to West Germany and start a new life, or you could stay in West Berlin. This caused a huge mass exodus of people from East Germany and East Berlin. From the late 1940’s through to the early 1960’s 10’s of thousands of people left each month.  Statistics Originally the government of East Germany believed that people were leaving strictly for economic reasons but then they found out that people were primarily leaving because they did not believe in the idea of Communism or the leaders that it presented. Approximately 20-30% of the entire population of East Germany left between 1948-61. The biggest problem was who was leaving.  Who left The most educated and skilled amongst the East German society were the ones who were leaving. Teachers, Professors, Doctors, Scientists, Accountants, Mechanics, Artists, Musicians and Engineers were highly represented in this group. These are the people that think for a living. They use their mind and they have been well trained. If they leave then East Germany will be left with the uneducated and the foolish. East Germany would be destined to fall behind in scientific, cultural and technological development. Their people would be less educated than the other nations of Europe and therefore the nation would be less powerful. They tried to increase the amount of people enrolled in educational institutions like High schools and universities but that just caused more people to realize that they should leave for something better. They had to find a way to stop the exodus.  Symbolic Defeat Other than the practical needs of stopping the most educated from leaving there was also a symbolic defeat that was occurring. If the smartest in your society are leaving because they don’t agree with your ideology and government this is a huge defeat in the battles of the Cold War. You are failing to win over the hearts and minds of your own people and they are voting with their feet by leaving.  The Wall - Phase 1 After a number of failed attempts to convince his people to stay, Walter Ulbricht asked Khrushchev if he could put up a physical barrier to stop people leaving through West Berlin. Khrushchev agreed. August 13 1961 a barbed wire barrier was put up around West Berlin. American guarded checkpoints were still open to traffic but it had to be regulated by passport and exit pass. This caught many people off guard. It was a Sunday morning, some people were out visiting friends and going to church. They lived in East Berlin but were visiting West Berlin and vice versa. Families were separated. The Western Governments went into high alert. They were concerned that this was the first stage towards an attack when the East German troops were mobilized to build this wall. Families formally separated Conrad Schumann – East German soldier Status Quo and Wall improvements In the end the barbed wire was replaced with a real wall. Eventually this wall would be built up with concrete, death strips, car traps, guard towers, and guard dogs. Though it surrounded West Berlin it did not stop Western officials and transport from reaching Berlin like the Berlin Blockade. It prevented East Germans from leaving through West Berlin. It solved the problem of emigration but stood as a symbol of the failure of the East Germans to convince their own people that Communism was a good idea. Newly fortified To the Brandenburg Gate Concrete Slabs Death Strip Escape - Success Husband with transport papers smuggles his wife across the border in a speaker box Escape Failure The Status Quo