Liam La

What were the Berlin Wall’s implications for the people and how did the Berlin
Wall show that Europe was in a cold war period?

The Berlin Wall - a solid, physically existing barrier, but also a symbol of oppression,
division and suffering for many Berlin citizens (primarily those living in the east).
With the wall’s construction beginning on August 13th, 1961 by East Germany, it had
massive implications on the people until its purpose, which was claimed to be
preventing the “fascist” elements of West Germany to encumber the establishment
of the socialist state (when in actual fact it was used to prevent emigration and
defection from East to West Germany), was finally diminished on November 9th,
1989.

There were many negative implications that were brought up in unison with the wall
being built. As the wall was built to prevent people from crossing the border from
east to west or vice versa, this meant that people who had family, friends or jobs that
they wanted/needed to attend to could not. With the wall being up for 28 years, this
was an enormous implication. Families and friends who knew each other from either
side would most likely have either forgotten about each other, passed away or lost
ties by the time the wall was finally brought down. People who had to cross borders
in order to attend their job and attain income were not allowed through and could
not work, which meant that they ended up poor and without enough resources to
sustain a proper living.

Another negative implication that was created was the attempt of escaping, and the
death that most likely came about with it. With East Berliners feeling deprived of
basic freedom and rights, they were compelled to escape over to the west. However,
it was a deathly task – many people who attempted to escape were killed in the
death strip, a small strip of land that lay beyond the wall. The death strip was littered
with guards with guns, dogs, trip wires and other defensive tactics that were
effective at putting escapees to their demise. Over 150 people were reportedly killed
trying to cross the border.

The Berlin Wall was also a showing of how Europe was in a cold war period. A cold
war is defined as ‘a state of political hostility between countries characterised by
threats, propaganda, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular.’ The
Berlin Wall was capable of showing this as the two opposing political ideologies that
East and West Germany had was creating tension and antagonism between them,
and the Berlin Wall that separated them only increased anxiety.
Liam La

It is shown that East Germans did not like their living standards and the communist
ideologies of the Soviet Union who were ruling East Germany at the time. This lead
to a huge defection from the East to the West, particularly people who were
educated, skilled professionals and young. It is approximated that there was an
emigration from East Germany to West Germany of over 2 million people during
1949 to 1961. With so much of East Germany’s potential future fleeing to the west,
this forced the GDR (German Democratic Republic) to build the Berlin Wall to stop so
many people from leaving to the west. By building the Berlin Wall with this purpose
in mind, in only further increased the political hostility as the communists thought
they had something to prove and that they had to show that were the superior.

The Berlin Wall also was an exemplification of what a cold war is. Rather than
fighting physically (which did not prove so well just a few decades earlier), the cold
war was founded upon and characterised by hostility and resentment between
countries. By building an actual wall that prevented any fighting from the countries
but provoked outrage from the people, injustice and a life of division, the Berlin Wall
was a perfect showing of what occurs in a cold war period.