Did Russia itself really want Berlin Wall to be built in 1961?
It was East Germany’s (aka the German Democratic Republic - GDR) Leadership and personally Walter Ulbricht who initiated “Berlin Wall” project in 1961.From Wikipedia.Despite economic gains [GDR], emigration [to the West] still continued. By 1961, 1.65 million people had fled to the west. Fearful of the possible consequences of this continued outflow of refugees, and aware of the dangers an East German collapse would present to the Soviet Union’s Communist satellite empire, Ulbricht pressured Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in early 1961 to stop the outflow and resolve the status of Berlin. When Khrushchev approved the building of a wall as a means to resolve this situation, Ulbricht threw himself into the project with abandon. Delegating different tasks in the process while maintaining overall supervision and careful control of the project, Ulbricht managed to keep secret the purchase of vast amounts of building materials, including barbed wire, concrete pillars, timber, and mesh wire.On 13 August 1961, work began on what was to become the Berlin Wall, only two months after Ulbricht had emphatically denied that there were such plans ("Nobody has the intention of building a wall"), thereby mentioning the word wall for the very first time. Ulbricht deployed GDR soldiers and police to seal the border with West Berlin overnight. The mobilization included 8,200 members of the People’s Police, 3,700 members of the mobile police, 12,000 factory militia members, and 4,500 State Security officers. Ulbricht also dispersed 40,000 East German soldiers across the country to suppress any potential protests.Once the wall was in place, Berlin went from being the easiest place to cross the border between East and West Germany to being the most difficult.Berlin Wall - WikipediaWalter Ulbricht - WikipediaErich Honecker - Wikipedia - GDR Leader in 1971–1989.As the Security Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee in the new East German state, Honecker was the prime organizer of the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and, in this function, bore responsibility for the "order to fire" along the Inner German border.
Berlin Wall?
Lack of that decadent rock-n-roll? You get to still push around the Poles and Czechs, even if it's only for the Soviets? Access to fine Cuban cigars? It'd be easier to argue Stalin was a great leader, then to argue for life on the east side of the wall. Easier to argue that Montezuma's revenge is a helpful diet aid.
Ronald Reagan and the Berlin Wall??
I think some people don't get what I am asking - Americans, I obviously know a main reason the wall came down was that Gorbatchov did not have any money left after the Cold War, so please don't try to educate me. In 1985, Gorbatchov made reforms, with Perestrojka (alteration) and Glasnost (openness), so people were allowed to do more and more things. Also, he stopped spending money in nuclear wepons. So, in 1985, they basically new it was over. INn 1987 then, Reagan held his really good speech, and told Gorbatchov to open the Wall, who was already facing to tear it down cause of no money and more and more Germans protesting. Reagan just cared about beating Soviet Union in nuclear weapons. The main reason were a lack of money and support mixed with a tolerant Gorbatchov, not Ronal Reagan's "care" for the Germans. Most of you understood what I meant so thank you for your answers. I think now I had too much prejudice Americans would believe everything which is pro-America.
Did the construction of the Berlin Wall create an improvement in the lives of anyone? And who?
The cold war was great for companies who made military weapons. The Berlin wall was a cherry on top of creating incredible fear on both sides which resulted in needing more weapons from the industrial military complex of both the Soviet Union and U.S.The wall helped the Soviets responsible for keeping Germans out of West Berlin. So these people's supervisors were happy. West Germans benefited because of all these people moved into the western side of Berlin their resources would have been very stretched.The wall benefited the U.S. in that building a wall was a statement that the Soviets wouldn't move past this line. If you were planning on taking over West Berlin you wouldn't waste the time building a wall.
Can you explain the Berlin wall?
West Berlin was in East Germany, it wasnt on the border. See here's a map http://beingfullypresent.files.wordpress... The West Berliners were not trapped because they could fly out of West Berlin. Everyone in East Germany, including East Berlin was trapped because the authorities wouldn't let them pass any borders. The border between East and West Germany was heavily guarded. It was called the Iron Curtain. "The Iron Curtain took physical shape in the form of border defences between the countries of the western and eastern Europe. These were some of the most heavily militarized areas in the world, particularly the so-called "inner German border"—commonly known as die Grenze in German—between East and West Germany. The inner German border was marked in rural areas by double fences made of steel mesh (expanded metal) with sharp edges, while near urban areas a high concrete barrier similar to the Berlin Wall was built. The barrier was always a short distance inside East German territory to avoid any intrusion into Western territory. The actual borderline was marked by posts and signs and was overlooked by numerous watchtowers set behind the barrier. The strip of land on the West German side of the barrier—between the actual borderline and the barrier—was readily accessible but only at considerable personal risk, because it was patrolled by both East and West German border guards. Several villages, many historic, were destroyed as they lay too close to the border, for example Erlebach. Shooting incidents were not uncommon, and a total of 28 East German border guards and several hundred civilians were killed between 1948–1981 (some may have been victims of "friendly fire" by their own side)." The East Berliners wanted to get into West Berlin for varied reasons a) to live there, because life was better there b) because they were separated from family/spouses/children/parents/friends on the other side c) so that they could leave Germany and go to another "free" country.
How did Communists react to the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Thanks for A2A Sean Meleady . I can’t speak to how the Communists in general felt about the fall of the Berlin Wall, but I can speak to how particular communists in Europe thought about the changes that were occurring. The communists I knew were either Italian or French. The Italians, for the most part, were Euro-communists and generally rejected the tenets of Stalinism and the primacy of the Soviet Communist Party. Many felt that Gorbachev’s reforms were long over due and that the fall of Stalinism would kick start “true” socialism. Nonetheless, Italian Communists were not big fans of the United States. From the 1970’s, the Italian Communist Party had supported the Soviet Union as a counter weight to American “Imperialism,” while no longer marching lock-step with the Russians. The Fall of the Berlin Wall opened up new possibilities for socialism to achieve communism!The French Communist Party was more Stalinist compared to the Italians. Georges Marchais, the French Communist boss, had taken over his party about the time the Italians had started to break away from Soviet influence. For their loyality, the Soviet Communist Party had supported their comrades in France for decades. The French Communists had, in turn, morally supported the Soviet Bloc states through thick or thin avoiding criticism whenever possible. For the French Communists, the Fall of the Berlin Wall was a resounding defeat of socialist ideals. For almost 30 years, the East Germans had pointed to the wall has an internal defense against fascism. All true communists were expected to parrot that line. When the Wall came down, that could only mean a victory for fascism.
How did WWI lead to WWII? Also, Berlin wall question?
The Berlin wall was built in 1961. At that time, Berlin was still occupied by the Four Powers, the US, the USSR, Britain and France. The wall divided Berlin into two parts, West Berlin, still occupied by the three western powers, after the Berlin crisis and the famous months long air bridge organised by the US in 1948 sealed the failure of the USSR to control all of Berlin. East Berlin had become the capital of East Germany created in 1949, under the domination of the USSR. However, the occupying troops of the Four Powers always retained the right to cross the wall. Besides the Versailles Treaty, WWI lead to WWII because the Russian Empire had collapsed and been replaced by the USSR whose actions undermined democracy through the Komintern (the division between Socialists and Communists paved the way to the electoral success of the nazi party in the Reichstag), and because the suppression of the Austro-Hungarian Double Monarchy left a space of small and unstable republics right in the centre of Europe dangerously exposed to predatory strategies lead by Hitler and Stalin. In Asia, Britain and France allowed Japan to grab the former possessions of Germany, in particular German Micronesia in the Pacific and Germany's former concession interests in Jiaozhou in Shandong province, against the position of the Chinese delegation. Such a move triggered in 1919 the May 4th movement, which is remembered as the first cultural protest on a national scale that ever happened in China. Nevertheless, China would progressively become a new satellite of Japan, and the brutal Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 would pave the way to the Second Sino-Japanese war. The expansion of Japan over German Micronesia turned the Pacific into a Japanese sphere of influence, which lead to the Japanese attack against the US fleet in Pearl Harbour on December 7th 1941. It can be seen that while the Empires were swept in Europe, France and Britain, the two main European democracies that were among the winners of WWI, remained major colonial powers, and sent the wrong signal in Asia, allowing the Japanese Empire to expand into the newly founded Republic of China. Last but not least, the League of Nations, proposed by Wilson, failed because the US never participated since the refusal by the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.