yr13_ia_2007_reed_b

=Summary of evidence ((tell the story of how it became east Germany))= o **sources talk about their evidence and what seems to be** o **essential that I footnote at least 5 books** o **5 quotes from 5 sources^^ use textbooks bios newspaper internet**

After the success of Western powers in winning the Second World War Germany was destroyed and weak. Russia, Britain, France, and the U.S joined at the Potsdam conference and decided the best way to take care of Germany would be to split her up into 4 parts and share her. At the Yalta conference this “splitting” decision was established and Germany was now divided into 4 zones. Berlin, as the capital city, was split up into 4 zones as well, although it was in the Russian sector.

Germany had effectively become divided into two separate countries with very different socionomic and political structures. [|[1]]The Russian zone was run by the principles of communism where as the other three western zones were democratically ran. Although the ideologies were conflicting, in the beginning while Stalin was in rule this did not create any problems. In 1952 Stalin proposed a German unification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe but the western powers denied the offer. The USA saw itself as the upholder of liberal democracy.[|[2]]The communist state was seen as a one-party state that held its people on a pedestal capable of power and change. The two ideologies conflicted completely.It was only after Stalin died when Khrushchev took power leading the communist state, authenticating the desire of rejection for German unification while also confirming the desire to ban the influence of western capitalism to the eastern communist zone of Germany. The desire to stop capitalism was hard to achieve while trucks, trains, and planes full of goods and supplies kept piling into East Berlin everyday. This conflict led to eventual Berlin Blockade, where the Soviet Union prohibited all on land transitions between east and West Germany ultimately leading to the Berlin Airlift in which the western powers used their air forces to transport supplies to the eastern zones.

After many uprisings in eastern Berlin as well as many communities throughout the German Democratic Republic, as it was now called, Soviet troops, fearing a revolution, occupied the uprising areas and dispatched harshly towards the protesters. As transit was free between the east and west at this time, westerners were aware of the events taking place. Since the soviet troop’s occupation took a lot of the industrial equipment from Eastern Germany to be shipped to the Soviet Union and used as war reparations, this weakened the economic position of Eastern Germany and caused many to flee from there to the ever greater climbing economic status of the West.

Approximately 200000 had already made the move in 1961, before the wall was erected.[|[3]] Because of the amount of fleeing persons from the east to the west, it caused the east to become even weaker socially wise, for example many talented doctors that wanted decent salaries. Obviously this had come to upset the government of the German Democratic Republic so on August 13, 1961 soviet troops were ordered to set up temporary barbed wire wall literally enclosing East Berlin from the Western zones, which later became a large 10 foot high concrete wall. The [focus] on the crimes of a former enemy was [now] not compatible with building her up against a new one – the Soviet Union.[|[4]] The need to reinvigorate the shattered German economy, to build West Germany as a bulwark against Communism, and to make West German rearmament acceptable to her new allies was vital.[|[5]] Travel was now completely restricted between the east and west. The wall was later a symbol of the Cold War that separated east and West Germany for 28 years until it was taken down in 1989 due to civil unrest between the two sides.

My first and most vital source is that of an interview I held with a close friend of my Stepmother’s. Her name is Heike Neumann, native German, born and raised in the German Democratic Republic in a town called Luterstadt Wittenberg, 100 kilometres East of Berlin. The interview has taken place by e-mail on August 2nd, 2007, 18 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The time between the fall of the GDR and the interview is significantly small so the source can be effectively useful. Neumann is now 44 years old living in the same town East of Berlin where she grew up.

[|[1]] __Modern Germany__ by V.R Berghahn page number 226 [|[2]] __The Cold War__ by Steve Phillips page number 5 [|[3]] __The Berlin Wall, A look back at the fall of communism and Soviet influence__. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/berlinwall.html [|[4]] Internet located Article __Living with Loss, Dealing with Shame: Neil Gregor looks at Germany and the legacies of war.__ [|[5]] Internet located Article __Living with Loss, Dealing with Shame: Neil Gregor looks at Germany and the legacies of war.__