The Berlin Wall: the main symbol of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall is another myth of the Cold War. The legendary East German Trabant, together with the Wall, is now a symbol of Ostalgia
For 38 years of its existence, the Berlin Wall was a barrier dividing the people of Germany, a thorn on the map of post-war Europe and the subject of constant criticism and even curses from politicians and public figures - from John Kennedy to Ronald Reagan.
And at the same time, it was the subject, object and source of inspiration for a huge number of works of art of the second half of the 20th century, art of everything from classical music to graffiti.
Concrete canvas
Graffiti was, of course, the first and most prominent artistic image associated with the Wall. If on the eastern side the Wall was carefully guarded, and it was almost impossible to approach it, then on the west, stretching for 140 kilometers and consisting of 45 thousand slabs, the concrete surface was an ideal “canvas” for the art of modern wall paintings, which was gaining strength in the 60s.
Immediately after the collapse of the Wall, graffiti artists took their revenge in the East. Just six months later, already in the spring of 1990, hundreds of artists from all over the world painted the eastern side of the Wall with their vision of the political events that accompanied its appearance, existence and collapse. Among the exhibits of the “East Side Gallery” that opened in September 1990 was the famous fresco by Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel “Lord! Help me survive among this mortal love.”
The fresco by Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel “Lord! Help me survive among this mortal love” has become one of the artistic symbols of the Berlin Wall
Spy passions
The wall was one of the most powerful symbols of the Cold War, and, naturally, could not help but appear in the action films of that time, saturated with political confrontation. The wall was not yet a wall, but a wire fence, when the film “Escape from East Berlin”, based on real events, appeared in 1962.
Three years later, British director Martin Ritt filmed John le Carré's novel "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" with the famous Richard Burton in the title role - the film is still considered the standard of the spy genre.
Even the great Alfred Hitchcock, in a rare foray into the spy film genre, also did not avoid the theme of the Wall in his 1966 thriller Torn Curtain. The plot is quite trivial - the developer of American missile weapons, along with his fiancee and assistant, escapes through the Berlin Wall into the GDR. This picture cannot be considered one of the master’s masterpieces, but the major stars in the leading roles - Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, not to mention Hitchcock himself, make it worthy of mention.
The magic of Berlin
Lou Reed's album "Berlin" became a dark anthem to a city riddled with drugs, prostitution and depression.
A bleak concrete wall topped with barbed wire and guard towers manned by East German border guards cast an ominous shadow over both sides of the divided city. However, East and West Berlin reacted to it differently.
The art of the GDR - at least in its official version - glorified the successes of the first socialist state on the German Land. Although even here “renegades” appeared, breaking out of the general deliberate optimism.
The world-famous playwright Heiner Müller spent most of his life in disgrace; his plays were staged in West Germany, Britain, the USA, France - everywhere except his native GDR. However, he did not leave for the West and only in 1984 was reinstated at the Academy of Arts of the GDR - the first sign of official recognition after his expulsion from the Writers' Union in 1961, exactly the year the Wall appeared.
West Berlin, an island city cut off from the rest of the Western world, deprived of the sobering and healing nourishment of the German provincial burghers, plunged into the abyss of decadence, permissiveness and hedonism. On the one hand, he seemed to be reviving the traditions of bohemian Berlin during the Weimar Republic, on the other hand, he compensated for the lack of freedom and the forced harsh censored asceticism of the eastern part of the city.
It was in this atmosphere of desperate debauchery and permissiveness that Lou Reed plunged the heroes of his best, in the opinion of many critics, album. The album was called “Berlin” and became a gloomy anthem to a city riddled with drugs, prostitution and depression.
Interestingly, by the time the album was recorded in 1973, Lou Reed had never been to Berlin. He first came there only in 1976 to visit his friend David Bowie, who settled in the city.
The interior of Hansa Tonstodios is right next to the Berlin Wall, where in 1976-79. David Bowie recorded his famous "Berlin Trilogy": the albums Low, Heroes and Lodger
Bowie fled to Berlin to escape the glamor of English pop life, which had bored him. In addition to the magic of a city untethered and free from all bourgeois norms, he was also attracted there by the new electronic minimalist music emerging in the mid-70s in Germany. Iggy Pop settled there with him, and with the help of Brian Eno, who regularly visited from London, Bowie recorded his famous “Berlin Trilogy”: the albums Low, Heroes and Lodger in a studio right next to the Berlin Wall for three years.
The same atmosphere permeates the film “Sky over Berlin”, shot shortly before the collapse of the Wall (1987). At first glance, a romantic fantasy about invisible immortal angels in the interpretation of West German director Wim Wenders turned into a hopelessly pessimistic story in keeping with the spirit of the city. The mood of hopeless despair is also aggravated by rock musician Nick Cave, who then lived in West Berlin, playing himself in the film. The core of Cave's then Bad Seeds lineup was made up of musicians from the West Berlin band with the apocalyptic name Einstürzende Neubauten ("Self-Destructive New Buildings").
Rock pressure
For many years, the GDR police used batons to drive away rock music fans from the Wall who tried to hear the sounds of David Bowie, Pink Floyd or Michael Jackson playing in their immediate vicinity through the concrete barrier.
However, in the summer of 1988, the spirit of perestroika reached East Berlin, although the GDR authorities tried to the last to resist the political reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev. In an effort to somehow bring down the protest mood of East German youth, they allowed Bruce Springsteen to perform in a square in the center of the capital. 300 thousand people came to listen to the American rock troubadour, who was then at the height of his fame. The effect, according to everyone, turned out to be exactly the opposite of what the GDR authorities were counting on.
“I came here neither in support nor against any government,” Springsteen addressed the audience in broken German. “I came to play rock and roll for you in the hope that one day the barriers that divide us will fall.” ".
Many historians compare the effect of Springsteen's words, spoken on the eastern side of the Wall, with John Kennedy's legendary "Ich bin ein Berliner" and "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" spoken on the western side of the Wall. Ronald Reagan.
Wall as a stage
"Fear builds walls" - Roger Waters during the historic The Wall concert at the Berlin Wall on July 20, 1990.
On Christmas Day 1989, just over a month after the collapse of the Wall, Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on a stage erected right next to the Brandenburg Gate, amidst its barely dismantled rubble. In the famous “Ode to Joy” that crowns the symphony, a combined orchestra and choir of musicians and vocalists from both Germany, Britain, the USA and the USSR replaced the word Friede (joy) with the word Freiheit (freedom).
But Pink Floyd's album The Wall, most often associated with the Berlin Wall, fell into this association almost by accident. Roger Waters, when he wrote The Wall in 1979, was occupied with problems of a rather personal nature - the alienation and isolation that accompany the hero throughout his life, from his school years to the loneliness of a rock star at the height of fame.
However, the brick wall featured on the album cover, the 1980-81 concert tour, in which this same wall was symbolically crumbling, and especially the historical and political motifs introduced into the film adaptation made in 1982 by Alan Parker, inevitably turned The Wall into a musical and poetic reflection of the prevailing events around the Berlin Wall collisions.
It is not surprising that already in July 1990, eight months after the collapse of the Wall, Roger Waters, who had already left Pink Floyd, was invited to stage a concert performance of his opus in the empty space between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, where until recently there had been “no man’s land.” land" of the Berlin Wall. For half a million Berliners in the square and for the whole world, the concert became a symbol of a new city that had broken down the barriers, as Bruce Springsteen had predicted.
Ostalgia
The legendary East German Trabant, together with the Wall, is now a symbol of Ostalgia
In the first years after the reunification of Germany, while the eastern regions of the country were still far behind the western ones in their well-being and standard of living, a feeling of disappointment with the new reality and longing for a less free, but more reliable socialist past was typical for many residents of the former GDR.
Over time, the situation leveled out, the severity passed, and ostalgia - a term specially invented to denote this melancholy - began to have a good-naturedly ironic character: memories of the clumsy and inconvenient, but so familiar Trabant and Wartburg cars, the Vita Cola specially created in the GDR, and others sweet little things from the past. The best and most famous embodiment of ostalgia is the famous film "Goodbye Lenin!"
A real revelation was the success of the rock group Die Puhdys, which has been going on for almost half a century. The group, which emerged in 1969 in the GDR, was considered for many years a pathetic “socialist imitation” of full-fledged Western rock. However, today, 25 years after the collapse of the Wall, Die Puhdys are still popular. A few days ago, on October 31 this year, their concert brought together a full house in the huge Berlin Arena 02.
The wall as an exhibit
The Berlin Wall has been destroyed. But its ruins have long since turned into museum exhibits. Many museums around the world are now proud of fragments of the original Wall - from London to Moscow, from Tokyo to Los Angeles. The value of many of them is not only purely historical, but also artistic. They are the concrete canvases on which the art of the Wall is captured.
Dieter "Machine" Birr of the still popular East German band Die Puhdys. Photos from the concert on October 31, 2014 in the huge Berlin arena 02
The most secure border in the world
Currently, the state border between North Korea and South Korea is deservedly considered the most protected part of the world. But from 1961 to 1989, the palm in this “hit parade” was firmly held by the Berlin Wall - a strip of barriers and fortifications that marked the state border of the GDR and West Berlin. This fortified line actually encircled the entire West Berlin (length - 155 kilometers), so that this city was a kind of island on the territory of the German Democratic Republic. But the term “Berlin Wall” itself is usually applied to that section of this state border that ran directly through the streets of Berlin and divided the city in two (length - 43 kilometers).
The Berlin Wall took 14 years to build and was completely completed by 1975. The concrete wall itself, approximately 3.6 meters high, made up the westernmost part of this strip, and access to it was free for residents of West Berlin - so it became a kind of street canvas for various artists long before the fall. But on the East Berlin side it was a real line of barriers: wire barriers; a signal fence through which an electric current was passed; more than three hundred watchtowers with snipers; two and a half hundred other military border facilities; anti-tank ditches and anti-vehicle strips and the like. The most famous was the constantly illuminated “no man's land”, unofficially renamed the “death strip”: it was when violators crossed it that the GDR border guards received the right to shoot “to kill”. There were also eight checkpoints within the city, through which communication was carried out between East and West Berlin.
The forbidden fruit is sweet, especially when it's behind a wall
Over the 28-odd years of the existence of the Berlin Wall, many people tried to overcome it and move from the GDR to West Berlin, sometimes more than once - the minimum figure called by historians is 100 thousand people. The motives were simple - to leave socialist East Germany for life in the capitalist West or to reunite with family and friends (the second motive was relevant, first of all, immediately after the appearance of the dividing line). A number of sources indicate that approximately 85 thousand people were convicted in the GDR for attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. Moreover, not only the border violators themselves were subject to criminal liability, but also everyone who somehow helped them in organizing these actions.
However, the attempts did not stop, and during the existence of the wall they were counted at approximately five thousand. The easiest way to cross the Berlin Wall was in the first days and weeks after the barrier appeared on August 13, 1961 - then the wall itself did not yet exist, there were wire fences, so that residents of houses adjacent to the dividing line could jump over to West Berlin. However, then these attempts were stopped, and the Berlin Wall began to take its stable form. And then all the ways the East Germans came up with to get to West Berlin. Underground tunnels were dug one hundred and fifty meters long and only 60 centimeters high. Homemade balloons and devices for underwater diving were created (the border also ran along the Spree River). Light aircraft were hijacked, catapults were built to “shoot” people through the wall, the wall itself was destroyed in some place with the help of a bulldozer, and so on.
But the most common way was to simply try to cross the separation strip as quickly as possible and climb over the wall. It was during such attempts that people died. The exact number of victims is still unknown: the numbers range from almost two hundred people, the fact of whose deaths are confirmed by documents, to almost two thousand. There are known cases of GDR border guards shooting children trying to overcome the Berlin Wall. However, several East German border guards also died as a result of shots fired from West Berlin. One of the most famous tragic incidents on the Berlin Wall is the death of Peter Fechter in 1962: he was wounded in the leg and died in a “no man’s land” from loss of blood: people from the western part of the city could not come to his aid, and the GDR border guards were inactive .
Test on the topic: “Cold War” 9-11 grades.
1. The reason for the emergence of the Cold War:
A) disagreements between the Orthodox Church and other areas of Christianity;
B) US demands for the return of Lend-Lease debts to the USSR;
C) rivalry between the USSR and the USA in the military-technical sphere;
D) the desire of the ruling circles of the USSR and the USA to establish their system of values, way of life and worldview as universal;
D) the struggle for spheres of influence between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain.
2. When the Truman Doctrine was proclaimed:
A) in 1945 B) in 1947
B) in 1949 D) in 1950
3. The purpose of the Truman Doctrine was to:
A) prevent the transition to USSR control of territories declared vital for ensuring US security interests;
B) isolate the USSR in the international arena and exclude it from the UN;
C) ban the Communist Party in the USA;
D) prepare for a nuclear war with the USSR.
4. Continue the phrase: “According to the Marshall Plan, the United States...”
A) pledged to ensure the holding of democratic elections in countries liberated from the Nazi yoke;
B) allocated economic assistance to European countries to overcome the consequences of the war;
C) provided military assistance to Western European countries;
D) declared the USSR an aggressor and terminated diplomatic relations with it.
5. When two German states were created: West Germany (FRG) and East Germany (GDR):
A) in 1949 B) in 1952
B) in 1947 D) in 1945
6. Which states created the “Council for Mutual Economic Assistance” (CMEA) union in 1949:
A) England, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg;
B) USA, Canada and Western European countries;
B) the USSR and the states of Eastern Europe;
D) USSR and China
7. In what year was the Warsaw Pact Organization (WTO) created:
A) in 1949 B) in 1948 B) in 1955 D) in 1953
8. The Warsaw Pact organization was a military-political alliance:
A) USSR and Eastern European countries;
B) USA and Western European countries;
B) USA, Canada and Western European countries;
D) USSR, China and Eastern European countries
9. The NATO military-political alliance included:
A) countries of Western Europe;
B) USA, Canada and Western European countries;
B) USSR and countries of Eastern Europe;
D) Countries of Western and Eastern Europe
10. The 1951 Peace and Security Treaty between the United States and Japan did not contain the following provision:
A) the right of the United States to have military bases in Japan;
B) deprivation of Japan's colonial possessions;
C) delimitation of spheres of influence in Asia between the USA and Japan.
11. Most of the colonial possessions in Africa gained independence:
A) in 1950-1951 B) in 1974-1975
B) in 1960-1961 D) in 1980-1981
12. Which of the following is not the reason for the aggravation of internal conflicts in countries liberated from colonial rule:
A) heterogeneous ethnic composition of the population, intertribal (interclan) confrontation for control over the central government;
B) borders that do not coincide with religious and ethnic borders, arbitrarily established in the past by colonialists;
C) low standard of living, which determines the particular severity of social contradictions;
D) the struggle of the liberated countries among themselves for markets for their products.
13. What role did the military power of the USSR and the USA play in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962:
A) military power was used during hostilities;
B) military power was used as a factor to intimidate the opponent;
C) military power did not play any role;
14. Name the countries that were split as a result of the Cold War conflicts:
A) China, Korea, Germany, Vietnam; B) Japan, India, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia;
B) Iran, Türkiye, Greece, Egypt; D) India, China, Hungary, Bulgaria
15. In which European city was a wall erected in 1961 that outlasted it and became a symbol of the Cold War:
A in Prague B) in Berlin
B) in Warsaw D) in Budapest
16. What prompted the leaders of countries that freed themselves from colonial dependence to address the issue of choosing a model (path) of development:
A) the desire to destroy the traditional way of life;
B) the desire for the speedy implementation of modernization, overcoming economic backwardness;
D) intention to strengthen military power and prepare for the conquest of neighboring countries.
17. The Cold War period was not characterized by:
A) rivalry between the USSR and the USA;
B) creation of military bloc systems;
C) the constant attention of the leaders of the USSR and the USA to building up military power;
D) attempts to destroy opponents in a nuclear war.
18. What prevented the deepening of détente in international tension in the 1970s:
A) the leaders of the USSR and the USA showed understanding on the issue of responsibility for the fate of the world;
B) the anti-war movement began to have an increasing influence on the politics of the leading countries of the world;
C) the Cold War policy began to meet with increasing condemnation of the countries of the world that were part of the non-aligned movement;
D) the military of the USSR and the USA sought to create new weapons systems.
19. According to the SDI program, the start of work on which was announced in the United States in 1983, it was assumed:
A) carry out a joint manned flight with the USSR to Mars;
B) create an underwater missile defense system;
C) create a system of space weapons that protect the United States from nuclear missile weapons;
D) implement a joint space research program
20. Why are the ideas of new political thinking proposed by M.S. Gorbachev, allowed to improve the international situation:
A) they were so convincing, appealing to the sense of self-preservation of peoples and leaders, that it was impossible to reject them;
B) they were accompanied by concrete steps, unilateral concessions to the USSR, which convinced the leaders of NATO countries of the seriousness of Soviet intentions;
B) they met with such strong public support in NATO countries that their leaders could not ignore them;
D) they were accepted as principles of international relations by all countries that are members of the UN
21. Distribute the dates and names of the largest local conflicts of the Cold War:
A) 1950-1953 1. Caribbean crisis
B) 1950-1954 2. Korean War
B) 1956 3. Berlin crisis
D) 1962 4. War in Indochina
D) 1948 5. Middle East conflict
Key: 1d, 2-c, 3a, 4-b, 5-a, 6-c, 7-b, 8-a, 9-b, 10-c,
11-b,12-g,13-b.14-a,15-c,16-b.17-g.18-g.19-c,20b,
21a-2.b-4, c-5, d-1, d-3.
On November 9, 2014, Germany celebrates the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. On this day, under the influence of mass popular uprisings, the GDR government lifted restrictions on communication with West Berlin, which was visited by more than 3 million people over the next three days.
The Berlin Wall was broken, painted with numerous graffiti, drawings and inscriptions, many city residents took away pieces of the once powerful structure as souvenirs. On July 1, 1990, border controls were completely abolished. The collapse of the Berlin Wall symbolized the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new era in international relations.
History of construction and demolition
After World War II, Berlin was divided between the victorious countries - the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France - into four occupation zones. The eastern zone, occupied by Soviet troops, became the capital of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Within the occupation zones of the USA, Great Britain and France in 1948-1990, there was an independent political unit - West Berlin.
What was the reason for the construction of the barrier?
The internal city border between Berlin, the capital of the GDR, and West Berlin was 43 km, and the external border between West Berlin and the GDR was 112 km. Until 1961, the border was open, there were 81 street checkpoints, 13 crossings in the metro and on the city railway. Every day, 300-500 thousand people crossed the border in both directions (for example, some residents of West Berlin preferred to receive education and buy food in the GDR, and many East Germans worked in West Berlin). A large number of GDR citizens moved to the West: before 1961, 2.7 million people left the country (while the population of the republic was about 17 million). Thus, due to the open border, the GDR suffered economic losses.
On August 12, 1961, the Council of Ministers of the GDR, in agreement with its allies in the Warsaw Pact, adopted a resolution on the construction of border barriers on the border with West Berlin, and on the night of August 13, units of the National People's Army of the GDR began to implement it. First, temporary barriers were installed, and on August 18, construction of a concrete wall began (in some places, metal fences were installed instead).
What was the Berlin Wall
Until 1989, the wall was rebuilt and refurbished 4 times. Its total length exceeded 111 km, its height reached 3.6 m, and its thickness - 1.5 m. It was assembled from 45 thousand concrete blocks, rounded at the top, and covered with barbed wire along its entire length.
Along the wall there were 302 towers with sentries and snipers, and over 10 thousand GDR military personnel were involved in the security. There were 8 intra-city checkpoints and 6 between the GDR and West Berlin, as well as several checkpoints for transit transport.
The procedure for the use of firearms on the external borders of the GDR was determined by various laws, regulations and orders. Thus, an order of the GDR Ministry of Defense dated October 1961 allowed the use of firearms if “there is no other possibility for detaining persons clearly trying to violate the state border of the GDR.” However, there was no order obliging him to shoot to kill.
The border control regime has changed more than once. In December 1963, an agreement was signed allowing residents of West Berlin to visit their relatives in the capital of the GDR for Christmas and New Year. In 1968, the GDR introduced a passport and visa regime for transit travel for citizens of Germany and West Berlin. After the proclamation of the “New Ostpolitik” by German Chancellor Willy Brandt and the conclusion of the quadripartite (Great Britain, USSR, USA and France) agreement on West Berlin (1971), the authorities of the GDR and West Berlin entered into agreements that gave residents of West Berlin the right to enter the GDR several times. once a year, including for “family reasons”.
Cases of border crossings between the GDR and West Berlin
After the wall was built, the flow of defectors decreased. Nevertheless, during its existence, more than 5 thousand people fled to the West. The most famous escapes were made through tunnels dug under the wall in May 1962 and October 1964. In the first case, 12 people left the GDR through a 32-meter tunnel dug by shovels. This action was led by an 81-year-old resident of the GDR. In the second case, a 150-meter tunnel was dug by students from West Berlin, through which 57 people escaped to the West. The story also included escapes on a hang glider and on a rope stretched between houses.
However, there were significantly more unsuccessful attempts to cross the wall illegally. In 1961-1988, more than 100 thousand citizens of the GDR tried to escape across the border, and 410 people tried to cross from the territory of West Berlin to the capital of the GDR. In the GDR, thousands of people were sentenced to prison on charges of attempting to escape to West Berlin. The death toll at the wall, according to the latest data from German historians, is 138 people. Most of them were shot while trying to cross the wall or suffered fatal injuries and wounds, others committed suicide after a failed attempt or died in various incidents near the wall.
Fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification
At the end of the 1980s, in connection with the general détente in the world, spontaneous demonstrations began in the GDR, whose participants demanded reforms and free movement. In April 1989, the Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Erich Honecker, ordered the abolition of the use of firearms to “prevent breakthroughs at the border.” In September 1989, the existence of the Berlin Wall became practically meaningless, so residents of the GDR were able to move to the West through Hungary, which opened the border with Austria.
On November 9, 1989, in the GDR, an evening television news program announced that now “private trips abroad can be arranged without specifying the reasons or degree of relationship with the persons visited,” and permits will be issued as quickly as possible. That same evening, border guards, under pressure from a huge number of people, were forced to open crossings through the checkpoint without waiting for official notification from the authorities. Thus, the Berlin Wall “collapsed”; on January 22, 1990, the border guards of the GDR began to dismantle it.
The fall of the wall was one of the stages on the path to the unification of Germany, which occurred on October 3, 1990. West Berlin ceased to exist, and Berlin became the capital of the country. In 2001-2003, laws were passed to preserve numerous remains and traces of the Berlin Wall as state-protected historical monuments (the longest section of 210 m is preserved in the Bernauerstrasse area, next to the Wall Museum). Also, the line laid along the place where it passes reminds of the wall. Several memorials to the victims of the Berlin Wall have been opened, including monuments to the first victims - Günter Litfin and Peter Fechter, complexes on Ackerstrasse and next to the Bundestag building.
Known politicians about the fall of the wall
John Kennedy, US President (1961-1963):
"...this wall is the most obvious and visible demonstration of the failures of the communist system... All free people, wherever they live, are citizens of West Berlin. Therefore, as a free person, I proudly declare: I am a Berliner!" (from a speech before the town hall in West Berlin on June 26, 1963).
Ronald Reagan, US President (1981-1989):
"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you hope for peace, if you hope for prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you hope for liberalization: come here! Mr. Gorbachev, open these gates! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (from a speech at the Brandenburg Gate on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of Berlin on June 12, 1987).
Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the USSR (1990-1991):
“The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Cold War. It materially personified the Iron Curtain. And the fall of the wall...became a symbol of a breakthrough to a new world order not only in Europe, but also in the world as a whole, which promised an end to the dangerous confrontation and the removal of the threat of nuclear war” (from articles in the Financial Times Deutschland, November 9, 2004).
George H. W. Bush, US President (1989-1993):
“I was criticized a little for not going and dancing on the wall as they suggested to me (when it was being torn down)... Dancing on the wall for a few ranking points is stupid. To see it crumble after all these years , was absolutely amazing. The fall of the wall and the subsequent unification of Germany were, I think, the main historical events that happened during my tenure. It was one of the most significant events of the last century in international relations, because it practically ended in a decisive way." Cold War, "and I think people, and hopefully myself, handled it well" (Fox broadcast November 5, 2007).
Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the Russian Government (1999-2000, 2008-2012), President of Russia (2000-2008, 2012-present):
“The history of mankind knows many different barrier and dividing lines and structures, one of the most famous is the Great Wall of China. In my opinion, this is the only structure created by the hands of mankind that is visible from space. But why has it stood for hundreds of years? Because it protected the people, and the Berlin Wall separated them. This, of course, was its unnaturalness. It was clear to me that in the modern world it is impossible to keep the people and they cannot be restrained" (from an interview for the documentary film "The Wall" of the NTV television company, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and aired on November 9, 2009).
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General since 2007:
"The fall of the Berlin Wall... changed the course of history and became a symbol of the triumph of ordinary people in their struggle for freedom... These events serve as a reminder of how much a people can do for the common good, whether they are fighting for rights people in 1989 or working in the 21st century to end poverty, feed the hungry and prevent climate change" (from a statement on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall on November 9, 2009).
Angela Merkel, German Chancellor since 2005:
“Each of you can remember what you did then... For me it was one of the happiest days of my life. With the fall of the wall the Cold War came to an end, and this makes November 9 a joyful day for all of us” (from a statement on the occasion 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall on November 9, 2009).
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain (2007-2010):
"The wall that had imprisoned half a city, half a country, half a continent and half a world for 30 years was torn down by the greatest force - the indestructible spirit of men and women who dared to dream in the dark, who knew that the power of dictatorship is temporary" (from the statement on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall on November 9, 2009).
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General (2009-2014):
“I consider the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, the most important event in world history since the end of World War II. We will never forget how the people of East Germany finally overthrew the oppressive communist regime, overturning the wall that had kept them locked... Freedom is a fundamental and universal right to which all people are entitled. We who live in free and open societies must never forget our duty to help those oppressed by totalitarian regimes" (from a statement published on his personal blog on November 13, 2009). of the year).
Barack Obama, US President since 2009:
“The fall of the Berlin Wall opened the door to an unprecedented march of freedom across the European continent and throughout the world” (from a statement on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of German reunification on October 3, 2010).
Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany (1974-1992):
“The wall was crushed from the East. When the wall was built, the book of the general history of the Germans was closed for many... Before our eyes there are people who were shot at only because they wanted to cross from Germany to Germany, from Europe to Europe” ( from a speech on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the start of construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 2011).
Berlin Wall in works of art
- in literature
In the story "Mein Richard" by German anti-fascist writer Stefan Heim, two young men from the GDR climb over a wall 14 times to go to a movie in West Berlin. Geim participated in the human rights movement in the 1980s and supported the idea of German reunification. After the reunification of the state, the writer protested against discrimination against residents of the former GDR.
The Berlin Wall is also discussed in the novels of the German writer and screenwriter Thomas Brussig “Heroes Like Us” (“Helden wie wir”) and “Sunny Alley” (“Am anderen Ende der Sonnenallee”). Both works have been filmed.
- in fine arts
In 1990, Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel painted the graffiti "Brotherly Kiss" ("Lord! Help me survive among this mortal love") on the Berlin Wall in the open-air East Side Gallery, located in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. The artist depicted the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev and the leader of the GDR Erich Honecker kissing. "Brotherly Kiss" is one of the most famous graffiti in the world.
- in music
On July 21, 1990, after the demolition of the wall, but before the reunification of Germany, a concert performance of the legendary rock opera “The Wall” by Pink Floyd, organized by its founder Roger Waters, took place on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.
At one time, the Berlin Wall became not only a symbol of the division of the German people, it became the very materialization of the Iron Curtain in Europe and the world, which defined the boundaries of two opposing worldviews during the Cold War. The prerequisite for its future construction was the almost simultaneous entry of Allied troops into Germany. After signing the surrender
By the German generals and the victorious countries, Germany was divided into zones of influence. There were four of them: Soviet, American, British, and French occupation zones. Berlin was also divided into three parts. The goals of this division were to restore the destroyed country and carry out denazification under the control of the triumphants.
The Iron Curtain and the split of the world
However, just a few months after the joint victory, it became obvious that the good neighborly existence of the socialist and capitalist camps was hardly possible. The very nature of the two worldviews contradicted such a reconciliation. And although the concept of immediate revolution throughout the world was discarded by the Soviet government, transitional people's governments began to be created in the countries of eastern and central Europe, which by 1946-48 transferred power to local socialist parties. The first to openly announce the state of affairs was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who, speaking in Fulton on March 5, 1946, announced that an iron curtain had fallen over the world, separating the countries of two camps with an invisible barrier.
Division of Germany and the Berlin Wall
The fact that Germany was divided between two systems predetermined completely different processes in different zones of occupation. Very soon, former partners, and now opponents, began to put forward claims to each other, the main essence of which boiled down to reproaches for attempts to impose the desired system in their occupation zone and install a puppet government. This led successively to two particularly tense episodes in 1948 and 1961, later called the First and Second Berlin Crisis. As a result of the Second Crisis, the Berlin Wall was built.
How it was
By the end of the 1950s, the Soviet government actually transferred the levers of government in East Germany to the hands of the GDR authorities. At the same time, the United States still continued to rule the roost in the western occupation part. This fact threatened the viability of the GDR, which became the main reason for N. Khrushchev’s ultimatum to the American authorities. According to the ultimatum, the period of foreign rule was to end as soon as possible, and West Berlin was to be liberated from troops and turned into a demilitarized city. However, the departure of US troops threatened that all of Berlin could fall under the rule of the GDR. A series of unsuccessful negotiations led to a final break in the German question, which ultimately resulted in the construction of the Berlin Wall, dividing parts of the city. In addition to the tense international situation, the process was also spurred by the mass migration of Germans from the eastern to the western part. Soon, in August 1961, the city was divided by a high concrete fence. Over the subsequent years of its existence, the Berlin Wall was constantly strengthened, expanded, and received additional rows and guards.
Consequences
The standard of living in West Berlin was incomparably higher, which pushed many of its eastern residents to take dangerous adventures to overcome the barrier. Over the three decades of its existence, several dozen of the most bizarre, successful and not so successful attempts to cross it have been made: undermining, flying, pole vaulting, tricks with security, even ramming with a tank.
Conclusion
The destruction of the Berlin Wall took place already in November 1989, when the socialist camp was bursting at the seams, in which governments were falling everywhere. Today the wall has been dismantled into pieces. Only a small piece was left as a museum exhibit, which once divided the German people into East and West, Ossie and Wessie.
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