Table of Contents ....................................................................................................... 2 Chapter One - The Rise of the Berlin Wall .................................................................. 3 Laying the foundation ............................................................................................ 4 Just Another Brick in the Wall ................................................................................. 8 Chapter Two- Freedom in the East and West ............................................................ 10 In The West – heroes promoting Freedom .............................................................. 13 In the East – Big Brother Controlling Freedom ...................................................... 15 The East and West from Another Perspective ........................................................ 19 Chapter Three - Escaping from East Germany ......................................................... 22 Early Escapes .........................................................................................................23 Creative Escapes ................................................................................................... 25 Chapter Four - The Fall of the Berlin Wall ............................................................... 30 How the Wall fell ................................................................................................... 31 Life After the Wall ................................................................................................ 34 Timeline.................................................................................................................... 39 Who was? Talking Head Biographies ....................................................................... 40 After WWII ............................................................................................................ 40 The Rise of the Wall................................................................................................ 41 Famous Escapees................................................................................................... 42 The Power of Words .............................................................................................. 43 The Fall of the Wall ............................................................................................... 44 Their herstory, too ................................................................................................. 45 What if? Alternate Endings ...................................................................................... 46 Trivia Quiz................................................................................................................ 48 Glossary .................................................................................................................... 50 Recommended Reading ............................................................................................55 About the Author ......................................................................................................57 2
Berlin Wall 3
your city separating you from your friends and family. That happened in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The Berlin Wall was built to stop East Berliners from escaping to West Berlin. Laying the foundation First, World War Two ended in 1945 after Germany surrendered and then the USA dropped the atom bomb on Japan. Germany was split into four zones, because Germany lost the war, and the Allied Powers won. USA, France and the United Kingdom were democratic countries, but the USSR or Soviet Union was communist. 4
There is more freedom of speech, freedom of travel, and freedom of expression. People get to keep their money in democratic countries. The markets are free. However, there is a wide gap between the rich and poor. Often, the working class needs to work long hours for little money, but the company owners make the most money. Josef Stalin, Harry Truman, and Winston Churchill shook hands to seal the deal of how to divide Germany after World War Two. Communist governments are usually run by one political party. The government keeps all the money that you earn. They don’t allow you to be who you are. The leaders don’t allow ideas about God. These ideas came from the writing of Karl Marx, who thought that it was unfair that poor people struggled and worked hard while the rich got richer. His book “The Communist Manifesto” made these ideas popular around the world. 5
Allied Powers seemed to get along. They had different The Berlin political perspectives, but they Airlift had to agree. Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and 1947-1949 Josef Stalin met near Berlin to decide how to divide the country. Later, the Soviet Union tried to force West Berlin to join the East. Stalin blocked all roads so that no food or supplies could enter. Instead, American, and British planes brought supplies non stop. After two years of delivering cargo to West Berlin, the Berlin airlift ended, but the Cold War began. This was a long war with no direct fighting between USA and the Soviet Union. There was a constant threat of nuclear war. Next, people started leaving East Germany to West Germany, because they wanted more freedom. In 1960, about 200,000 East Germans fled. The East closed the borders, because they noticed most of the people were leaving to the West. The country wouldn’t function, because there weren’t enough people to do jobs, like teachers, police, firefighters, doctors, and hairdressers. 6
Union made a secret plan. Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet Union leader, and Walter Ulbricht was the East German leader. The plan was hidden so that the East Germans wouldn’t escape before the wall was built. Only two weeks before the wall was built, Walter Ulbricht lied, “no one intends to build a wall.” These events led to the Berlin Wall. The division of East and West Germany, the fleeing people, and the leader’s secret plan to scam the East Germans changed everyone’s lives forever. 7
Think of waking up to sirens, guns, and police shouting. In the morning, your parents say that you can’t go to school because there’s a wall. Your friends and family lived a few blocks away, but one day you can’t see each other. This happened in Berlin, Germany. The Berlin Wall divided the city, changed everyone's lives, and shaped history. The Berlin Wall separated the city into East and West. Soldiers divided the city with a barbed wire fence on August 12 going into Barbed wire fence at Brandenberg Tor August 13, 1961. The border was 140 kilometers. After a long time, the guards made the wall out of cement, and after a long time of making it, they made it 12 feet tall. It changed daily life for families. Some people were confused, mad, and frustrated. It separated family and friends. Some people had to go new schools and jobs or find new homes. One story is about two lovers from opposite sides - Helga from the West and Dieter from the East. Dieter was visiting Helga on the West on the night the Berlin Wall went up, and she was separated from her family. 8
people loved communism, yet others wanted to escape. One point of view was from Jürgen Lit-Faß was “We woke up and Berlin was no longer a city. It felt like part of our heart had been ripped out.” In the East, one woman named Angelika Schrobsdorff said, “The wall was the end of something innocent. Suddenly, trust between neighbors disappeared.” The Berlin Wall split the city in two halves and had many effects on people. The Berlin Wall was built brick by brick. 9
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