Germany was never meant to split up. The significant things were communism, the division, the fall of the berlin fall and control. We can’t really point to a significant event. More importantly, most of the changes that took place in the life of the GDR were forced upon it from outside – crushing the Berlin workers rising, building the berlin wall and the end of the soviet union were all external. Germany was split into two countries, East and West Germany. The East ruled by communism (GDR) and the West capitalism.
Many people left the GDR to go the West because it was run by a capitalist country so all the German people had been living in a capitalist Germany so when the east became communist most Germans living in the east weren’t use to the way in which it was ruled. They had to split Germany because they couldn’t have a Single Germany loyal to both the USSR and the USA. This is shown in source 4; it shows the general level of fear in the East. Stalin’s opinion is shown in source 6 when he said in reality, they actually had far too much fear, as neither side wanted war at all.
The main point about the division of Germany is that it was the peoples doing so the GDR was created because of the allied fears of the USSR starting WW3. In 1989 when the berlin wall came down it effect all of Germany in a strong way people from each side rushed to meet people on the other as shown in source 31 it shows how significant the fall of the berlin wall was to hundreds and thousands of people there when the wall started to be broke down. Many people got very emotional about this moment over the wall that split them apart for 30years.
The Essay on Berlin Wall 2
What Was the Berlin Wall? The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. Dates: August 13, 1961 — November 9, 1989 Overview of the Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. Its ...
This is also shown in source 30. The Main reason for the collapse of the East German government was the hatred towards communism by the East German people. The weakest part of the GDR was that it was communist. The East German people hated communism. The historian pol O’docartaigh (in source 34) clearly indicates that the DDR not the bleak and miserable existence suggested by sources 12, 14 and 27. That said, Mary Fulbrook points out that having a two family income was slightly pointless when there were no consumer goods to spend any money on.
This hatred was made worst by the rich and prospering West Berlin, led to huge emigration figures(source 16).
Communism was also very strict which affected the people’s views on East Germany. Next is about Stalin’s death and the stasi. When Stalin died the East German people though the control would have calmed down after all it was under Stalin’s own personal paranoia which helped started the cold war. The East Berlin workers thought that it would have settled down but as shown in source 14 it clearly shows that this was not the case.
The increasing levels of control used by the stasi throughout the life of the GDR show that while support from Moscow may have been necessary, there were more than enough East Germans willing to enforce the will SPD but the most important act of control was the berlin wall so that people couldn’t leave East Germany. Overall we can see that communism was the most significant event in the life of the DDR. While individual people, events or stragies. The cheer that president Reagon got for his phrase” Mr gorbachev, tear down the wall” tell us all we need to know about this.
