The History of Germany - The Fall of the Berlin Wall, written for children

In November of 1989, Germany's Berlin Wall would fall changing both the future of Germany and Europe forever. A country that had been divided in two - West Germany and East Germany, would resolve most of its former political issues and become united once more. The time running up to the fall of the Berlin Wall was a wave of democratisation, political views throughout much of Europe was changing from communism to a more democratic ruling. Even the governments that remained communist would become more

liberal. Just one year later, this change in political view would go east to Russia, where Boris Yeltsin attempted to wipe out communism in a country so deeply communist. Going back some years to 1949, the Soviet Russians who ruled over Eastern Germany stopped any traffic moving in to Berlin, closing all the roads and preventing food convoys to enter the city. It brought the citizens of West Berlin only dismay as their food supplies shortened day by day. Many would starve before food parcels were dropped from aeroplanes. Just from this, a city of millions were saved from further starvation and eventually the Soviets didn't see the necessity to keep the roads closed and food convoys would move in once more. In a failed attempt to capture the entire city of Berlin, the Soviet Russians decided to make a divide - this divide would be the Berlin Wall and the famous Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg Gate was the biggest gate built into the wall and would later symbolize freedom and the passing of the communist rule in Eastern Germany. With the wall in place, Berlin was officially separated into East and West Communist rule and Democratic rule. Many families were separated and there were no means of escape for the citizens of East Germany. So horrifying was the time of the Berlin Wall, that anyone who made an attempt to climb over would be promptly shot and hundreds would die in this inhumane way. The Berlin Wall was a monument of hatred and showed how power could disrupt a nation. In 1985, Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Soviet Union's Communist Party and new policies were put in place. With these policies, the general public had a right to opinion against the current Government. As you can imagine, the majority of people were against their Communist Government and their rule would slowly deteriorate into nothing. Countries such as Latvia and Estonia would become independent from the Soviet Union. Hungary's communist government would also fall and they allowed East German's to cross their border and escape into Western Germany. It was only a matter of time for the president of East Germany to stand down from his post and make way for a new president who promised to put an end to the restrictions of travel between the wall. The Brandenburg Gate would no longer be manned by guards and both East and West Germans in their millions set about the demolition of the Berlin Wall, using everything from hammers to cranes. The people of Berlin were overjoyed and celebrations reached far and wide. At that time, each former resident of Eastern Germany

was given enough money that it equalled to three months of their former wages. The city of Berlin and its people were finally liberated and communism became a thing of the past - a troublesome one at that.