- 1.Battle of Berlin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Read, Anthony and Fisher, David; The Fall of Berlin, London: Pimlico, 1993. ISBN 0-7126-0695-5 ... Shepardson, Donald E.; "The Fall of Berlin and the Rise of a ...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B
attle_of_Berlin
- 2.The Fall of Berlin, 1945
- A Berliner describes the fall of her city to the Soviets ... The Battle of Berlin, 1945. The War Ends in Europe, 1945. London Celebrates VE Day, 1945 ...
- http://www.eyewitnesstohistory
.com/berlin.htm
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Whom do East Germans give 1. Why do East Germans revolt
in 1953?
2. Whom do East Germans give
credit for the fall of the
Berlin Wall and their new
freedoms?
3. What are East Berliners
given as they enter the West?
Why are they so fascinated by
their first trip into West
Berlin?
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1- 1953 was year when series of worker revolts occurred throughout communist Europe, from which the East German became the largest and most violent. The army was involved in suppressing the revolt. The economy of post-communist world hit all time low in 1953 and the living standard did not recover across the board since WWII. This created a huge disconnect among masses and ruling commies… Nonetheless, the economy from that year was on upswing trajectory. 2- Helmut Kohl and Mikhail Gorbachev are credited with ending division of nation in two halves. Without Soviet approval, East Germany would hardly unite with Western Germany. 3- Living in the Eastern Europe and visiting Berlin during Honecker era, Berlin Wall was an ugly scar on the soul of the city and entire Germany. We were not allowed to travel there. I had a chance to travel behind the Iron Curtain, so I could see how stupid, inefficient the planning economy was… on top of communist dictatorship. Everyone was well aware how bad the things were in Eastern Europe. The life in the East was gray; everything seemed to be black and white and shades of gray. The choices were limited, and the material quality was low, while everything seemed to function normally. The buildings were semi-ruined, stores lacked commercial, and the service sector substandard. Crossing to the west was shock to everyone… it was like step from black and white movie into colorful, like did Dorothy in Wizard of Oz. During the fall over wall, people celebrated, and the champagne was flowing freely at the gates. The most common things people got was hard to get German chocolates at least what my friend brought to me in November 1989. |
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What were the social effects Please help me I have an essay
due tomorrow. I need to
explain the Social changes
that have occured following
the fall of the Berlin Wall.
So basically, Europe turning
into a democracy. What social
freedoms/changes were allowed
to the people of Europe. I
have a very hard time trying
to find information on the
web. Please help!!!
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Well, I suppose about 95% of the information you are looking for is in German. Anyway, I live in Germany, and remember the night they let the wall come down in Berlin. I saw it live on television, and was dumbstruck, like about 70 million other people. 20 years later, when I think about, as I live on the former German/German border, and live in "West" Germany, and work in "East" Germany, nobody could have imagined what it would be like today. The first thing we thought was, "Wow! They're finally free!". But then, only later, much later, we found out about the drawbacks. I remember visiting East Berlin in 1983, and they had a seminar for students about East Berlin. One guy asked, "Hey I suppose there are two battallions of U.S. Army here. Why can't they just mow down the wall?". The answer: "It's because West Germany can't afford it." He was telling the truth. At the time, there was this struggle with unemployment, and no German politician had ever taken time to come up with a contigency plan of what to do when your population suddenly increases by 20%. Sure enough, 6 years later, the wall came down, and West Germany still had no contigency plan. All those years since the 60's where they whined about the basic need to be re-united, and not a single one of them had a clue of what to do when it became reality. It became reality, because East Germany was broke. And all of the money the East Germans had invested in pension plans and life insurance policies (yes they had things like that!) was presumably locked away in a Swiss Bank Account, and only Erich Honecker knew the number. There were millions of senior citizens that suddenly had no social security, retirement plan, or medical insurance. And in many cases there were too many people who needed money and too few people to evaluate their needs to correctly adjust them to fit West German standards. The next problem was their money. On the regular exchange rate it was 285 East Marks = 1 West Mark. And the foreign minister at the time, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, decided it wasn't fair, so he made a blanket exchange rate of 3 East Mark = 1 West Mark, which upset both the East Germans (who wanted 1 to 1) and the West Germans, who thought it shouldn't be so generous. The next problem was their factories. Many factories were operated like collectives, and after the wall fell, they were all more or less declared bankrupt by West German politicians, because they were either partially or entirely state-run and the state was broke. The West Germans sent an army of Chapter 13 administrators, not all of which had morals, sympathy or scrupples, and they proceeded to sell of East German businesses without really investigating or talking with the workers about how they might salvage their businesses. The East Germans still think of this as "West German Predator Capitalism". In the meantime the 40-year+ generation of 1990 was left clueless as how life was suppose to continue, and was abandoned like a child on the Autobahn when it came to coming to terms with the new society. For the 40+ generation there was no re-education system, no introduction of how to take advantage of this new political system. They had always been told what to do, believed it was right, and now there was no one their to tell them what to do. It left them wide open for every get-rich-quick and con game imaginable. An entire wave of con artists attacked the GDR like flies landing on a carcass, and sold them unnecessary insurance policies, without explaing the small print, time-share condos on the Canary Islands, phoney stocks and bonds, and even fell prey to Aimway, Tupperware, Avon and every multi-level marketing scheme that wouldn't fool your grandmother. Other psychological shocks were the sudden increase of rent for their apparentments. Many had been paying the same rent rate since the house had been built in the 50's. Or the fact that many of these ugly cardboardbox high-risers were suddenly condemned by West German building inspectors, and torn down. New apartment buildings were built to replace them, but now the rent was un-affordable for many. One of the greatest dis-services they did to the East Germans, that is still intact today, which I never understood, is that people in East Germany were paid lower wages than in West Germany. The argument then was that they were not as well-trained as West Germans, and employer's had to compensate somehow. But for all trades? How are East German bakers inferior to West German bakers? And now it's 20 years later, and they still don't pay East Germans as much as West Germans. West Germans, also resent this in a round-about why now, because in construction, temporary agencies prefer East Germans, because they don't have to pay them as much as West Germans. The most shocking social effect for many East Germans, was the order from the West German government after the annexation, that the Stasi (East German Intelligen |
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What did the fall of the What did the fall of the wall
of Berlin mean to the rest of
the world in relation of the
demolishment of the barriers
of communism?
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It symbolized the fall of communism and the triumph of democracy |
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