The barrier mostly referred to as the Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961, during the Cold War era to split East Berlin from West Berlin. This wall was erected to the East Germany to stop its people from escaping to the west Germany. However, whether the Berlin Wall met the intended aim is still an issue of contention to this date. So now let’s take a closer look at the topic and explore what the implications are from all sides.
1. Border Control and Security
The Berlin Wall had also physical characteristics being a concrete barrier or structure that was 96 miles long and covered across the entire city. Surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by soldiers the passage between East and West Berlin became almost impossible.
Several measures in border control condemned by the GDR significantly limited people’s freedom of movement from the East to the West. The border wall was not set up for people to cross over; anyone trying to cross was likely to be arrested, possibly imprisoned or even killed. Such heightened measure of security played down the chances of border jumpers since the barriers were virtually hard to penetrate.
2. Political Symbolism and Propaganda
Apart from being a barrier, the Berlin Wall was an allegory the cold warrior between democracy and communism during the Cold War. Opposition of Western and the Eastern blocks was reflected brilliantly in it.
In the construction of the wall there was a conveyed leadership and power from the GDR government to its people. They utilized the wall to show their dedication of socialism as their values and to restrain the capitalist even within their own society. This potent symbolism energized the propaganda war between the two sides by telling a story that helped to set the Jewish state on the road to victory.
3. Economic Impact
Structurally, the Berlin Wall separated the city, but it split the economy of the city as well. As the part of the capitalist world, West Berlin continued to grow and develop, whereas East Berlin and the bulk of the GDR remained an economic desert.
This wall made economical interconnectivity and interaction between the two parts of the city difficult in that it restricted the growth of the East part from the monetary rich Western part. This economic divide also played a large role in the desire of many people in East Berlin to travel across the wall, to another life.
4. Humanitarian Consequences
Although the Berlin Wall largely sealed East Germany to West, it was a humanitarianSophie Scholl and the White Rose Memoir: Resistance, Gender, and the Politics of MemorizationandGender LAST modified 2/27/12 9:40 pm Page 211necessity that had humanitarian costsSophie Scholl and the White Rose Memoir: Resistance, Gender, and the Politics of MemorizationandGender LAST modified 2/27 Marriages were lost, friendships severed and people split in their loyalty. That wall again reduced physical touch to some extent hence kept families apart and infected people always felt lonely and yearned for the much-needed touch from their loved ones.
Also, we realize that the wall led to shedding of lives. People tried to smuggle themselves over it, dig under it, or even swim in it with their trying to reach freedom despite the probable deaths.
5. The Peaceful Revolution and the Fall of the Wall
The ability of the Berlin Wall in stopping emigrants deteriorated gradually year by year. At this time, the GDR had a pressure from within and from other countries in the outside world. Pacifist claiming for freedom remained louder and louder, and there were some major shifts in the political spectrum.
Finally, the head of East Germany, Erich Honecker, resigned on October 18, 1989, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdrew British recognition from the GDR two days later, on October 20, 1989, and in part due to a speech made by Mikhail Gorbachev on November 4, 1989, the situation seemed to be out of control. The candor and the falling of the wall did lay a future peaceful revolution or the end of the cold war and the reunification of Germany.
Conclusion
Overall, although the Berlin Wall met some of its objectives like limiting the migration as well as establishing political statement the general goals of not allowing the union of Germany didn’t meet its goals. It was symbolic of the Cold War in terms of, the boundaries and the disputes of the time.
Today, few parts of the Berlin Wall have remained but in a shape they symbolically explain the effects of separations and the human’s spirit determination to be free.
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