The Berlin Wall and the Communist Side
During the era of Cold War, the Berlin Wall symbolized not only division but also the fight of the West against the dominant East. It separated the German capital into two parts: The Soviet Union and its allies’ East Berlin and the United States, the United Kingdom and France’s West Berlin.
East Berlin: The Communist Side
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) or East Berlin, was the east side of Berlin, a communist side of Berlin. It was Soviet Union influenced and controlled. In 1949, the Soviet Union created the GDR as a socialist state on the east side of Germany, following World War II.
There were big differences in life in East Berlin compared with West Berlin. The planning and control of the economy was conducted by the state. Major industries were owned by the government and entrepreneurial activities as well as property were extremely limited. Concern for collective ownership and social equality was the main concern.
The living conditions were not easy, there were no consumer goods, shortage of housing and reduced travel. Controlled by the East German Government, landlords were not allowed to say anything the East German Government did nit like. It was censored, freedom to speak and assemble was limited, and they had control over everything. The secret police, the Stasi, kept an eye on and suppressed dissent.
The Berlin Wall: A Physical Barrier
In 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected as a physical barrier, separating East from West Berlin. The GDR built it as a means of preventing East Germans from emigrating to West Berlin. It became a symbol of the Iron Curtain which separated Europe: the Soviet controlled Eastern Europe and the democratic Western Europe.
It was all concrete segments, barbed wire, watchtowers and anti-vehicle trenches. It was 155 kilometers (96 miles) long, separating families and friends, and previously a unified city, in a semicircle around West Berlin. The harsh reprisals for trying to escape were imprisonment or death.
Life in West Berlin: The Non-Communist Side
By contrast West Berlin was a free and democratic enclave of West Germany within East Germany and while East Berlin was under the control of the Soviet Union and embraced communism. The Western Allies backed it heavily and combined it as a symbol of Western freedom and resilience during the Cold War.
Democracy and Free Market Economy
A city gleaming with democracy and a free market economy, west Berlin was in constant activity. Investments and talent came in, and it became a culture and art center, and a place for innovation. Although the city was an island in East Germany, its position as a gap between East and West gave it its most important role.
Private property was respected, entrepreneurial activities were encouraged. The government enjoyed the luxury of expenditure directly proportional to supply, designing its policies vis a vis providing a high standard of living, investing on infrastructure, education and healthcare. It was also a city blessed with great political diversity since of its one of a kind geopolitical situation.
Allies’ Support and the Berlin Airlift
Butchers like myself would not have survived as free men in West Berlin without the support of the rest of the Allies. In the 1948, shortly after the Berlin division, the Soviet Union attempt to force the Allies to leave the city was undertaken through a land as well as a water blockade.
To respond to this, the Allies organized the Berlin Airlift, an enormous humanitarian and logistical effort. Food, fuel and supplies were flown to West Berlin by aircraft of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and other participating countries. For almost a year, this was the determination of this city’s inhabitants, this was their resilience.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall and Reunification
Ninety years later, the Berlin Wall is standing tall as a physical and ideological divide. But the power of the wall started to fade with the winds of change sweeping through Eastern Europe. In 1989 peaceful protests which led to calls for freedom in East Germany triggered a wave of protests in other eastern bloc countries and spread democracy.
And on November 9, 1989 the East German government announced that citizens could travel to the west freely. Celebrating, embracing, tearing down, people came in their thousands to the Berlin Wall.
The end of the Cold War symbolised the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the hope of a united Germany. On October 3, 1990 East and West Germany did formally reunite into a single democratic state.
The Legacy and Lessons Learned
Berlin’s division stands as a poignant remembrance of the effects of political ideologies and the control of oneness. It reminds us that there’s value in protecting basic freedoms and the existence and value of democracy.
Berlin, a city with its own history, has also embraced itself and become a world center for creativity, innovation and tolerance. Today, memorials to the past stand on remnants of the Berlin Wall, as an admonition to future generations of human resilience, of the quest for freedom and the dream of a better world.
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