The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Investigating the history of Germany, I should admit that the period from 1988 till 1989 was a turning-point. On the 9th of November, 1989 the Berlin Wall, which separated East Germany and West Germany, fell. So, these two parts of the country combined again.

There were a lot of people who were waiting for such an event. Because one the most dangerous period of German History had already finished. It lasted for almost eight years old. It started on the 13th of August 1961 when the Berlin Wall began to build. It separated Eastern part and Western part of Germany.

The official purpose of that Wall was to save the socialist state in the East Germany. In order to examine thoroughly these historic events we had to start from the period of the Cold War after the World War II country winners decided to prevent fascism. That is why they divided Germany into two parts. East Germany or the German Democratic Republic (GDR) belonged to the Soviet Union, and West Germany or the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) went to the United States of America, the Great Britain and France.

2 These two parts had not opportunity to fight against settled regime.FRG was afraid of getting such strong enemy as the USSR was. Avril Pittman considered that FRG in order to save GDR decided to take its neutral stand. However, there were crowds of people who left GDR through Berlin.

It was a flood of refugees. Premier Khrushchev stopped such process with the help of a cheap concrete block wall, it was the Berlin Wall. 2 Bob Mardling as a witness of those events noted that on the 13th of August 1961 it was Herr Kansdorf, the father of his partner, who informed him that Berlin was barricaded.Immediately he remembered a family one member of which decided to visit his ailing old mother in the West Germany, while the rest of the family was in the East Germany.

They wanted to reunite with for a while, but such event prevented their reunion. He also described in details how the mayor of Hamburg set the crowd of people against the settled regime. He announced how difficult it would be to meet with friends and relatives if the Government divided Berlin into small parts. Bob Mardling compared the performance of this mayor with the addressing of Hitler to a large crowd.The mood of those people was the same; they were angry, nervous and excited.

I should note that Mardling’s description of the East Germany and West Germany was also very interesting. He told about his trip to Berlin in 1971. Bob compared Eastern and Western parts. In the first one, he noted that frontier armed guards with dogs thoroughly examined the tourists two times. The awful name of such place as “Zone” caused only the sense of fear. Undeveloped agriculture and citizens’ low level of living in the East Germany, and prosperous economy of the West Germany made feel the deep contrast between these two parts of the whole country.

One more feature which I want to mention is the name of the Berlin Wall. The Citizens of West Germany called it as “a wall of shame” inhabitants of the East part considered the day of building such Wall as a holiday and named it “protection rampart”. Of course, eastern Germans were not glad to live on the opposite side of the Wall, under the socialist’s pressure. They simply had no choice, and they had to be there.

Horror, fear and military regime were in GDR. There were few people in the streets, no cars, no signs of living, and only some children’s pictures in extremely heavy political manner devoted to the anniversary of the Wall.According to those drawings the peace should be armed. 4 I should mention that such pictures are the symbol of socialist’s regime.

Children described their real lives. Dictatorship of the time of war, horror, fear, uncertainty in their future and constant pressure caused hate of East German citizens and protest against communist’s politics. The real symbol of East Germany was TV tower Fernsehturm. The symbol of Christianity a cross which reflected on the central bowl of the Fernsehturm citizens of West Germany considered as a sign of the lack of freedom to worship.Armed guards at the Christian Church in the centre of the East Berlin showed the real attitude of socialist’s regime towards the inner world and cultural wealth.

4 Bad quality of food and clothes, awful living conditions, lack of privacy, dictatorial socialist’s regime which you could see everywhere, even in the books of that time, shocked Bob Mardling. The contrast between the East and the West Germany was evident. Some citizens of GDR did not lose the hope to leave that part of Germany. According to historical facts 171 people, who tried to get over the Wall, were killed.

About 5000 of the East Germany inhabitants did it themselves.In order to be free and overcome the concrete barrier they jumped out of windows of the buildings which were close to the Wall, climbed it over, flight it over, tried to go away through the sewers, wanted to break it driving at high speed through its weak parts. 2 All these things show us the hopelessness and despair of inhabitants of the East Germany. They did not want to give up and resign themselves to the dictatorial regime. People fought against it with all methods they had, and some of them could do it, however the great part of citizens had no opportunity to feel the spirit of freedom because they were killed.At the beginning of 1989, East Germany was under the pressure of the Soviet Union.

Communists held power over the whole Europe. The settled dictatorial socialistic political regime spread over the whole Europe. Rules of such regime were firm and customary. However political leaders such as Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, Deng Xiaoping of China, George Bush of the USA, Helmut Kohl of Germany, Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain had another point of view according to political reforms. The settled communism prevented them to realize their political programs.

The world had changed, and political situation also need some changes. In 1988 Margaret Thatcher announced the end of the Cold War. Political leaders understood the necessity of political reforms, but they could not predict their results, they were afraid of them. That is why, trying to change the political situation they, however, did not want to let the East Germany and the West Germany cooperate. For example, Thatcher and French leader Francois Mitterrand were against reunification of GDR and FRG, but Kohl believed that in the nearest future Germany became a unified country.Of course, the result of political reforms would depend on the Mikhail Gorbachev’s point of view.

Fortunately, his understanding of internal and foreign policy was not the same as persistent communists had. That is why European countries had possibilities to change dictatorial socialistic political regime into another one more favorable for them. It is very important to note that future events of destroying communist regime were evident, on the one hand, and unexpected, on the other hand. In some years the only country where communists were in the government and had the power would be Chinese.Such global changing of world political system started with the falling of the Berlin Wall. On the 9th of November 1989 government of the East Germany changed the attitude towards the West Germany and let citizens of GDR cross the Wall; they received their long-awaited freedom.

2 Festival mood of German citizens and liberation from the dictatorial regime influenced European countries and their political system. To understand better the mood of citizens there is a description of those events from the point of view of the spectator, he is Andreas Ramos.He was in Berlin with his wife at that time. He mentioned that starting from the 9th of November news about Berlin events overfilled all TV channels. The break-up of the Berlin Wall became evident.

Nobody wanted to miss such an event. That is why Andreas Ramos proposed his wife Karen and friends Rolf Reitan and Nana Kleist to go to Berlin. They took all necessary clothes and food and drove on the old van to Berlin. Crowds of people arrived there. At the East Germany border there were about 20000 citizens of FRG and GDR. There was a huge party where all people cheered.

Walking between the lanes of cars men and women were talking, laughing and discussing the only one problem, it was the fall of the Berlin Wall which presented them with the long-awaited freedom. Gathering in the large circle they were dancing, singing songs and cheering. There was also a group of musicians who were playing violins. Sounds of music and laugh created the festive atmosphere among the crowd of people. It was very cold, but people did not pay attention to it. They opened cars’ windows and spoke with each other.

I should admit that this event concerned not only German citizens, people from France, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, England and other countries gathered there together in order to be spectators of such a great event. They also as local inhabitants were waiting the fall of Berlin Wall and were happy to observe it with their own eyes. Everybody spoke their native languages and Germany a bit, and everybody understood neighbors’ speech. There were many inhabitants from East Germany without passports; they simply looked at around and drove back again.

However they were very happy, they smiled and waved their hands. 5 At last East Germany citizens received their freedom. Although they could not predict their future, however the main goal was realized. Such a global event attracted a great many of men, women and even children. Crowds of people were everywhere some of them were sitting on the trees, the rest persons tried to climb on the buildings, but all of them were drunk with joy, and they waved and shouted.

There were no guards in the guard towers, there was not a border.Everyone may get into the East Germany or West Germany. Germans were free. Trying to get to Berlin Andreas Ramos had to cross the border and he found himself in the East Germany. He noted that there were also crowds of people who wanted to go across the border.

All eastern Germans were sitting in their cars and listening to the radio where music periodically broke the news about the fall of the Berlin Wall. 5 They could not even believe that they became free, and that is why people hurried to find themselves on the other side of the Wall.The most important events were in Berlin, where the fall of the Berlin Wall took place. Describing Berlin events Ramos first of all admitted a great many reporters who interviewed and filmed people near the Wall, and many policemen who were standing around.

Some people ruined the Wall tearing it down into small pieces. Everyone wanted to make a contribution to the process of broken of socialist’s regime. Hundreds of East and West Germany policemen protected the city from the chaos. Heavy machines were there and the sound of a drill which made holes in the Wall made people happy and cheerful.Some people tried to see through the numerous holes the crowd of people on the other side of the Wall. Witnesses tried to take even a small piece of a cheap concrete Wall and safe it by heart.

5 The fall of the Berlin Wall gave as positive as negative contribution to the life style of the East German citizens. I should note that politics and economics of Berlin were on the lowest level. Money lost their worth and the government lost their power, these two branches were collapsing. In order to support East Germany citizens western Germans gave them 100 Deutschmark, such sum of money were enough for some months.Next day banks opened, and people could take their cash. In spite of such negative point, the fall of Berlin wall gave Germans hope of their happy future lives.

They gathered together and celebrated such event. Crowds of people were walking along Berlin streets and drinking champagne. They visited coffees, bars, restaurants and communicated with each other, made friends and cheered. There were a lot of flags, kites, fireworks, children, dogs that pointed to the festive mood of local citizens. The Berlin Wall fell down.To draw the conclusion one can say that the fall of the Berlin Wall became a crucial moment of the communist policy which spread over the European countries.

Even political leaders understood the necessity of political reforms; however they wanted to have an obvious example of the European country of communist regime. They had got such example, and as the result the low level of the economy and dictatorial socialist’s regime of the East German citizens indicated to the weakest points of the communist policy. That is why politicians should avow that such policy was failed from the very beginning.