Berlin+Airlift,+Berlin+Wall

By Marco Mangu and Kayla Beck :)

[|Five Year Death toll of Berlin Wall]**Summary of Berlin Airlift**: - during the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union, Germany was divided into East and West - Berlin- the capital of united Germany o It was entirely inside East German territory o It was also divided into East and West ﻿ o There were 4 sectors: the French, British, American and Soviet (Russian) - People of East Berlin wanted the freedom of West Berliners so they began to defect (escape control of the communists ) - The only way to get supplies into or people out of West Berlin was to fly - The US flew plane loads of supplies in until the East German government would allow vehicular traffic back into West Berlin - 1948-1949- supply of vital necessities to West Berlin by air transport mainly under US auspices - The airlift was initiated in response to a land and water blockade of the city that had been instituted by the Soviet Union in the hope that the Allies would be forced to abandon West Berlin - Massive effort to supply 2 million West Berliners with food and fuel for heating began in June 1948 and lasted until September 1948 although the Russians lifted the blockade in May of that year - 277,000 flights were made during the around-the-clock airlift - By spring of 1949, approximately 8,000 tons was flown in daily and more than 2 million tons of goods, of which coal accounted for about two thirds, were delivered

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Summary of the Berlin Wall**: <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- The Berlin Wall ﻿was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic﻿ Republic (GDP) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Construction started on 13 August 1961, it completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- It was built to stop East Berliners escaping from the Soviet-controlled East German state into the West of the city <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Berlin's unique situation made it a focal point for tensions between the Allies and the Soviets and a place where conflicting ideologies were enforced side - by-side <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- The GDR claimed that the barricade had been raised as an ‘anti-fascist protection wall’, and that they had moved to prevent a third world war <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- The version of the ‘Wall’ that started life in 1961, was in fact not a wall but a 96 miles barbed wire fence <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- A second fence was built parallel to the first with a 100 yard gap in between them <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- The open space between the two walls was know as the "Death Strip" <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- The strip was covered with raked gravel, making it easy to spot footprints

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Later on even these measures were deemed insufficient and a concrete wall was added in 1965 <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Despite the various security measures enforced, escape attempts were common <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- For those unable or unwilling to abscond from the East, life was bleak; and things only continued to get worse throughout the 70s and 80s as Communism <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">and the USSR began to collapse <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- As the Iron Curtain cracked the fall of the wall looked inevitable <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- November 9th, 1989 Gunter Schabowski, Minister of Propoganda, read out a note at a press conference announcing that the border would be opened for <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">"Private trips abroad” <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- The days that followed saw chaotic celebrations erupt over the country as Germany celebrated the political fall of the Wall <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- In the following days and weeks hundreds of citizens began physically tearing down the concrete division
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">it offered no cover
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">was mined and booby-trapped with tripwires
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">it offered a clear field of fire to the armed guards who were instructed to shoot on sight
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">news spread like wildfire and the German people immediately gathered in their thousands by the checkpoints, demanding passage
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">There was some confusion as to what the official line was and the border guards
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">uncertain of what to do and ill-equipped to deal with the huge and unyielding mob, were forced to let them pass

<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">Documents:

Document 1 <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">-Primary Source- **Excerpt(s) from Ronald** **Regan's Speech at the Berlin Wall** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">We come to Berlin, we American presidents, because it's our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom. But I must confess, we're drawn here by other things as well: by the feeling of history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination. Perhaps the composer Paul Lincke understood something about American presidents. You see, like so many presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin. [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.] Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America. I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To those listening throughout Eastern Europe, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.] Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar. Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany--busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland. Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance--food, clothing, automobiles--the wonderful goods of the Ku'damm. From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on earth. The Soviets may have had other plans. But my friends, there were a few things the Soviets didn't count on--Berliner Herz, Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze. [Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner Schnauze.]In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent-- and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens. To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides. In the Philippines, in South and Central America, democracy has been given a rebirth. Throughout the Pacific, free markets are working miracle after miracle of economic growth. In the industrialized nations, a technological revolution is taking place--a revolution marked by rapid, dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications. With our French and British partners, the United States is prepared to help bring international meetings to Berlin. It would be only fitting for Berlin to serve as the site of United Nations meetings, or world conferences on human rights and arms control or other issues that call for international cooperation. One final proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of enjoyment and ennoblement, and you may have noted that the Republic of Korea--South Korea--has offered to permit certain events of the 1988 Olympics to take place in the North. International sports competitions of all kinds could take place in both parts of this city. And what better way to demonstrate to the world the openness of this city than to offer in some future year to hold the Olympic games here in Berlin, East and West? In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You've done so in spite of threats--the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: "This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality." Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Document 2 <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">- Primary Source- sorry I couldn't make it come up so I just attached this instead [] From the Times newspaper in 1966

Document 3- Secondary Source - **Excerpt from The Berlin Wall: Life, and the Spartial Heritage of Berlin (By Rector Gérard-François Dumont)** In 1948 – following the Second World War – Berlin was divided into four zones (American, French, English and Soviet), while all of the land around the city was under Soviet occupation. On 24 June 1948 the Soviets, who occupied East Berlin (about 45.6% of the city), decided to blockade the three zones under Western military occupation. This was an effort to extend Soviet influence in Germany and reflected Lenin’s belief that whoever took Berlin would also take Germany. Using technical problems as a pretext, the Soviets cut off communication and transportation between the three Western zones and the rest of West Germany. If successful, this show of force would have resulted in the Western abandonment and the subsequent Soviet occupation of West Berlin. The Berlin Wall would never have been built if the Americans and English had not reacted to the Berlin blockade with consistency, efficiency and remarkable courage. For eleven months the United States and England relieved West Berlin by air. 277,728 flights from the West brought supplies into Berlin over the 322 day blockade. Contrary to Soviet hopes, the Western air bridge withstood the German winter and Soviet bullying. Neither shining lights into pilots’ eyes, radio interference, ground-to-ground resistance nor anti-aircraft defences were enough to destroy the bridge and allow West Berlin to fall into Soviet hands. On 25 April 1949 the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) announced the decision to lift the blockade. Despite 76 deaths and considerable cost, the Western allies had kept hold of West Berlin. Their persistence in not abandoning the city to Soviet totalitarianism laid the framework for the wall’s construction. The key factor in the wall’s construction, however, was the impact on East Germans of the connection between West Berlin and the increasing freedom in West Germany and Western Europe. In 1950, with certain exemptions related to military service, West Berlin became a part of the FRG. In 1957 West Berlin’s geopolitical status vis-a-vis the rest of Western Europe was strengthened through the integration of the FRG into the Treaty of Rome. West Germany’s involvement in the Western European Economic Community confirmed West Berlin’s place both relative to Western Europe and as a Western European enclave in the heart of the territory controlled by the communist GDR.

Document 4 - Primary Source - **President Kennedy's Speech at the Berlin Wall** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum!" Today in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!" <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">There are many people in the world who really don't understand--or say they don't--what is the greatest issue between the free world and Communist world. Let them come to Berlin! There are some who say that "communism is the wave of the future." Let them come to Berlin! And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere, "we can work with the Communists." Let them come to Berlin! And there are even a few who say "yes, that it's true, that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress." Lass' sie nach Berlin en kommen! Let them come to Berlin! Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect But we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us! I want to say on behalf of my countrymen who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance the story of the last eighteen years. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for eighteen years that still lives with the vitality and the force and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin! While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the communist system, all the world can see, and we take no satisfaction in it. For it is an offense not only against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and dividing a people who wished to be joined together! What is true of this city is true to Germany: Real lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">In eighteen years of peace and good faith this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace with goodwill to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you, as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin and all your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall, to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind. Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, no man is free. When all are free, then we look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one, and this country and this great continent of Europe, in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

Document 5 - Primary Source <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;"> The Berlin-Wall border to East-Berlin at Niederkirchner Strasse. Here they are building the new Wall in January 1977. The old Walls were replaced by these new ones, which was much higher, and had a round tube on the top, which made it harder to climb over <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">﻿ Paper 1 Questions: <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">﻿1.a) In Source Number 4 what is the message that Kennedy is trying to convay? <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">﻿ 1.b) Does source number 5 show anything other than the creation of the Berlin Wall? <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">﻿ 2. Compare and Contrast the statements made in Source 1 and Source 3 about the influence the wall had outside of Berlin. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">﻿ 3.With reference to their origin and purpose, assess the value and limitations of Document 2 and Document 3 for historians studying the Berlin Wall <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">﻿ 4.Using these sources and your own knowledge, analyze the the signifigence and Symbolizim the Berlin wall had towards the Cold War. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; margin: auto 0in auto 3pt;">