Berlin Wall

He served as Prime Minister for Britain during World War II

The Berlin Wall was not in its entirety important to the US in a large way, any trade that they had with East Berlin would have been interrupted and also the wall stopped many skilled workers leaving the Soviets to work for the Allies. The Berlin Wall was not in its entirety important to the US in a large way, any trade that they had with East Berlin would have been interrupted and also the wall stopped many skilled workers leaving the Soviets to work for the Allies.

The guys who wrote it farted so hard that all the women in town passed out

The cold war between USA and USSR ended, and USSR disintegrated.

American think tank then did research and determined that the next threat to world peace, freedom, and the democracies is Islam. This is already clear in Koran, the book of Islam.

Steve

At all times. The War Powers (USA, France, Great Britain, and the USSR) maintained guard posts at all their points of entry and departure. The city of Berlin was technically an occupied city from the end of WWII until the dissolution of the USSR and the reunification of Germany.

The Soviet Zone, or East Berlin, was the capital of the German Democratic Republic. The wall was built in 1961 in order to prevent GDR citizens fleeing to the US, British, or French zones. The Wall was continually improved to include razor wire, machine gun nests, watch towers, land mines, attack dogs, and trip-wire explosives.

Numbers are unclear, but at least 125 people were killed in their attempts to escape to the West.

For America, I would say the War in Iraq/War on Terrorism. As far as wars worldwide, I'm not sure.

Deconstruction of the wall began November 9, 1989.

After Germany surrendered, it was split up into zones of occupation among 4 victorious powers, but it was surrounded by Soviet-controlled territory.

It was called the Cold War. Some of its significant events included Korea, Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Airlift, the building of the Berlin Wall, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

President Truman responded to the blockade by sending planeloads of much-needed supplies to West Berlin. For more information on the Berlin Airlift consult the online Truman Library and Museum by following the link to the left.

Economic hardships, social disorder, rebellion in Chechnya and a rise in organized crime added to the list of problems for Yeltsin.

The Berlin wall's construction was started on August 13, 1961 by the German Democratic Republic.

When World War 2 was over in 1945, Germany was destroyed like no other country had ever been destroyed. Almost 90% of the German cities were razed to the ground by British and American bombers or by Russion artillery.

The Eastern part of Germany was annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union (although it had been German territory for 800 years). The 15 million Germans in these Eastern territoriea were expelled to Western and Central Germany. More than 30% of these German refugees died when they tried to escape from the Red Army. More than 1.5 million German women and girls were raped by Red Army soldiers.

After the displacement of the Eastern Germans was finished in 1947, the rest of Germany was divided into

- a capitalist West German "Federal Republic" under control of the U.S. and Britain and

- a Soviet-controlled, communist Central Germany ("GDR") which now was renamed "East" Germany (because the former "Eastern Germany" was Polish now).

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At that time, the Allies had no interest in a German unification because of the negative experience from World War 1+2. Most Americans and Russians said to themselves: "Better two or three separate Germanys than one united Reich."

Berlin (the former capital of the German Reich) had a special status.

The city of Berlin was located in the heart of the communist East Germany.

But even though, America and Britain had negotiated with the Russians to get control over the Western part of Berlin ("West Berlin").

So, since 1949 not only Germany was divided, but also Berlin was divided into a capitalist West and a communist East.

The problem however was that West Germany recovered very quickly from the post-war depression ("German Boom Miracle"). Already in 1960, the West Germans had nearly reached the living standard of the United States. And the German exports (Volkswagen, Mercedes, Siemens etc.) had even reached the world leadership.

Communist East Germany however developed much slower. Even in 1960, 30% of the war destructions in East German cities had not yet been rebuilt.

So, it is not surprising that

* more and more East Germans decided to move to West Germany and

* more and more East Berliners decided to move to West Berlin.

By 1960, almost 25% of The East population had escaped to the West.

Now, the East German government and the Soviets feared an economic and political collapse of the East.

So, they saw no other option than

* to build a wall between West and East Berlin and

* to establish a high-security border with mine belts between West and East Germany, the so-called "Belt of Death".

Both, the Berlin Wall and the Belt of Death were completed in 1962.

In the following decades, the East Germans had no chance to visit their children, their parents or their friends in the West any longer. The East Germans were imprisoned in their own country.

Of course, many East Germans became very desperate and depressive now. Some of them had a girl friend in the West and couldn't see her any longer, although the girl friend was already pregnant.

In Berlin it could happen, that the girl friend lived only 300 yards away, but on the other side of the Berlin wall. So, the East Berlin girl could see her West Berlin lover. She could wave at him. She could shout to him. But she never got the chance to fall into his arms any longer because the wall and the death belt were insurmountable.

Some East Germans even tried to escape through the Belt of Death. But there were so many land mines and pitbull dogs and communist soldiers with machine-guns that it was almost impossible to survive this flight.

Besides, the East German Secret Service ("Stasi") was the most perfect and radical Secret Service of the world. Almost in every East German household, bugging devices were installed. And almost in every family one or two members worked as undercover agents, who denounced their own parents (when they complained about the political and economic situation).

So, East Germans were in a deplorable situation. While West Germany was one of the world's richest nations, East Germans were 20 years behind. West Germans mainly drove Mercedes, BMW and Audi whereas East Germans had to put up with the old-fashioned Trabant cars (which looked like a pre-war vintage automobile).

The only worldwide success that East Germany had were their brilliant sports results. For example in the Olympic Games in 1988, East Germany won more gold medals than the United States. But, later it became public that East Germany had established the most perfect doping system the world has ever seen.

In 1989 however, Hungary (as the first East Block nation) opened its border to Austria. At that time, East Germans were already allowed to travel to communist neighbor countries like Hungary. So, only a few days later, thousands of East Germans rushed to the new Hungarian "escape exit" and flew to Austria and West Germany.

A few months later, the pressure on the East German government became so hard that the communist East German leader resigned. And on Nov. 9, 1989 demonstrations in East Germany had reached such a dimension that the new government decided to open the Berlin Wall and the "Belt of Death" between West and East Germany.

When the Berlin Wall came down on Nov. 9, West and East German men and women fell in each other arms because they hadn't seen each other for 25 years. The welcome scenes were so sentimental, so dramatic that almost every German was moved to tears for hours. Nobody had expected this miracle to become reality.

Now when the border was open, it was only a question of 12 months until the German re-unification took place on Oct. 3, 1990.

And despite all skepticism of the Western and Eastern allies, Germany has turned out to be a peaceful nation which is perfectly integrated into the NATO and the European Union.

Some critics however say that Germany again rules Europe: this time not by force and guns, but because of its economic dominance.

The leaders of the two German states at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall were:

West Germany: Helmut Kohl

East Germany: Erich Honneker (ironically the man responsible for overseeing its construction in the first place)

America and Russia both had different views on what to do with the divided Germany in 1948. Stalin and the Soviets wanted to destroy Germany, stripping its wealth and power so it was no longer a threat to them. On the other side, the USA and Britain wanted to re-build Germany, building them up financially to make a new trading partner. There are 3 events that led to Stalin blockading Berlin and they were: -On January 1947, America and Britain joined their two zones of the divided Germany creating a new zone which they called Bizonia. This angered the Russians as they realised the British and Americans were beginning to create a new, stronger Germany. -On the 31stMarch 1948, the Americans voted for the Marshall Plan (the Americans would donate huge sums of money to struggling European countries to aid them and hopefully turn them capitalists) . This too angered Stalin, the leader of Russia, as he saw it as an attempt to weaken Russian influence on eastern Europe. Because of these the Russians began stopping and searching all road and rail traffic into Berlin as a warning to the Americans. -And finally on June 1st, America and Britain announced they wanted to create West Germany as a new country and so introduce a new currency into Bizonia. The people of East Germany and Europe began to change all their money for the new currency of West Germany, believing it to be worth more. The next day, Stalin completely cut off all road, rail and water routes to Berlin.

Berlin, Conference of, 1884-85, international meeting aimed at settling the problems connected with European colonies in Africa. At the invitation of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, representatives of all European nations, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire met at Berlin to consider problems arising out of European penetration of W Africa. The stated purpose of the meeting was to guarantee free trade and navigation on the Congo and on the lower reaches of the Niger. In fact, the territorial adjustments made among the powers were the important result. The sovereignty of Great Britain over S Nigeria was recognized. The claims of the International Association, a private corporation controlled by King Leopold II of Belgium, were more or less recognized; these applied to the greater part of the Congo. These territorial awards ignored French claims to parts of the Congo and of Nigeria and the historical claim of Portugal to the mouth of the Congo. The attempts to guarantee free trade and the neutrality of the region in wartime and to set up rules for future colonial expansion in Africa were hailed, but soon the agreements proved too vague to be workable.

The destruction of the Berlin wall began, not as the result of anyone's order, but rather it was the result of the final breakdown of authority of the East German Government. The demolition of the wall could be said to have developed out of an international press conference which began in East Berlin on 9 November 1989. There had been massive demonstrations against political repression for months. As the peace conference ended, greater freedom of travel was announced for people of the German Democratic Republic. At midnight, the East German government allowed gates along the Wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points. In the following weeks, many people then took to the wall with hammers and chisels, dismantling it piece by piece.

The official demolition of the Berlin wall began on 13 June 1990, and was undertaken by former East German border guards overseeing contractors, under a democratically elected government.

The Soviet Union did not build the Berlin Wall, it was built by and on the order of the government of the German Democratic Republic ('DDR', called 'East Germany' by the English-Language press).

It was built to stop citizens of the German Democratic Republic emigrating to West Berlin and from there to The Federal Republic of Germany (called 'West Germany' by the English-Language press).

The border between the DDR and the Federal republic had already been closed. In order to stop emigration it was also necessary to close the border between East Berlin (part of the DDR), and West Berlin.

Before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, one could move freely throughout Greater Berlin (Gross-Berlin). There were no physical barriers, and people living in the Soviet sector could cross into the Western sectors. In principle, one could be stopped by customs officials but it hardly ever happened. There were a few residents of East Berlin who worked in West Berlin and vice versa. Berlin was, in effect, a gap in the Iron Curtain. Moreover, there was no barrier between East Berlin and the rest of East Germany. Westerners were, however, not supposed to go beyond East Berlin.

The Berlin Wall divided East Berlin from West Berlin, walling in the Germans on the Eastern side so that they could not flee to the West and escape communism. The enabled the Soviet-controlled East German government to be even more oppressive. The conditions in the East continued to deteriorate while conditions in the West continued to improve. Much more could be said, but that's a quick answer. Perhaps someone else can add more. Actually, the above isn't strictly true. After the Berlin wall was built, Eastern Germany began to prosper because all of the skilled labour force had to remain on the Eastern side. Wester Germany did not benefit because of the above too. Their workforce was severely hindered. APEX_Western plans to create an independent West Germany

The Berlin Wall was 167.8 km (104.875 mi) long

The Berlin Blockade and airlift were important for the development of the Cold war because it was one of the first crises which happened during the Cold War. The Berlin Blockade changed many people's lives in West Berlin as the Soviets had blocked food supplies, energy supplies and gas to West Berlin by closing all roads and railways. This lead to the USA and Britain having to supply West Berlin by sending airplanes filled with supplies to West Berlin. In order for West Berlin to survive, they needed 4000 tonnes of food a day which meant that aeroplanes filled with supplies landed every 30 seconds. This was called the Berlin airlift. As a result of this, 79 American and British pilots lost their lives. In May 1949 Stalin called off the Berlin Blockade as the Soviets realised that the people of West Berlin were managing fine with the help of the USA and the UK.