Reference
- BERLIN WALLPartition wall built between East Berlin and West Berlin in 1961, with the aim of preventing citizens of communist East Germany from escaping to the West. Due to its position in the middle of a politically divided city, and, by extension, of a divided nation (East and West Germany), the Berlin Wall became one of the most significant symbols of the Cold War.
The dramatic story of “the two Berlins” and of the Wall between them began in 1945. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union divided Germany among themselves into four occupation zones. Although located entirely in East Germany (dominated by the Soviet Union), Berlin was also partitioned, with its western half under the control of the United States, France, and Britain...
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Streaming Media
- 1989—The Fall of the Berlin WallHow did a bureaucratic blunder by a Politburo member lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall? Find out as you examine the surprisingly peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union and Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe.
- Rockin' the WallROCKIN' THE WALL both an engaging history lesson about the Berlin Wall and life behind the Iron Curtain, and an entertaining exploration of the power of rock music as a force for social change and liberation.
- The WallMartina Gedeck, star of the Academy Award®-winning film The Lives Of Others, brings a vivid intensity to this mysterious and riveting tale of survival set in a spectacularly beautiful Austrian mountain landscape. In a tour-de-force performance, Gedeck stars as an unnamed character who suddenly finds herself cut off from all human contact when an invisible, unyielding wall inexplicably surrounds the countryside where she is vacationing.
Online Resources
- The Berlin Wall Collection: A City Torn Apart: Building of the Berlin WallErected literally overnight, the building of the Berlin Wall was the culmination of over a decade of escalating confrontations and contentious blockades contrived to encourage the west to abandon Berlin to the Communist Bloc. The wall was East Germany's ultimate attempt to isolate and destroy an island of freedom. Instead of expelling the west, Berlin became ground zero in a contest of tit-for-tat brinksmanship with a serious risk of erupting into nuclear war.
- The Berlin Wall Falls and USSR DissolvesInitially, Department of State officials and Bush’s foreign policy team were reluctant to speak publicly about German “reunification” due to fear that hard-liners in both the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Soviet Union would stymie reform. Although changes in the GDR leadership and encouraging speeches by Gorbachev about nonintervention in Eastern Europe boded well for reunification, the world was taken by surprise when, during the night of November 9, 1989, crowds of Germans began dismantling the Berlin Wall—a barrier that for almost 30 years had symbolized the Cold War division of Europe.
- Berlin Wall MonumentIn developing this monument, the CIA Fine Arts Commission decided on five precepts for its placement: prominence, pedestrian orientation, a sense of the wall as an obstacle, an “unromantic presentation,” and a measure of contemplation. The Wall is located near the southwest entrance to the Original Headquarters Building. It was dedicated on Dec. 18, 1992. A bronze plaque near the Wall reads, “These three sections of reinforced concrete were removed from the Berlin Wall near Checkpoint Charlie at Potsdamer Platz in November 1989.”
- A Brief History of the Berlin Crisis of 1961Autumn 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the political crisis that resulted in the erection of
the Berlin Wall which divided that German city for 28 years. The National Declassification
Center of the National Archives and Records Administration and the Historical Collections
Division of the Central Intelligence Agency have partnered to publish newly declassified
documents that reveal intimate details of the five month Berlin Crisis of 1961.
Perspectives
Berlin on the Brink
The Berlin blockade brought former allies to the brink of war. Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union defeated and began their occupation of Germany in 1945, and within a few years, the Soviets and their Western partners were jockeying for control of their former foe. Attempting to thwart the Allied powers' plans to create a unified West German government, the Soviets blocked rail and road access to the western sectors of Berlin in June 1948. With no other means of delivering food and supplies to the German people under their protection, the Allies organized the Berlin airlift. In Berlin on the Brink: The Blockade, the Airlift, and the Cold War, Daniel F. Harrington examines the "Berlin question" from its origin in wartime plans for the occupation of Germany through the Paris Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in 1949. Harrington draws on previously untapped archival sources to challenge standard accounts of the postwar division of Germany, the origins of the blockade, the original purpose of the airlift, and the leadership of President Harry S. Truman. While thoroughly examining four-power diplomacy, Harrington demonstrates how the ingenuity and hard work of the people at the bottom -- pilots, mechanics, and Berliners -- were more vital to the airlift's success than decisions from the top. Harrington also explores the effects of the crisis on the 1948 presidential election and on debates about the custody and use of atomic weapons. Berlin on the Brink is a fresh, comprehensive analysis that reshapes our understanding of a critical event of cold war history.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall! was the exclamation from Ronald Regan that was heard around the world. This volume takes readers to the excitement and turmoil of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Readers will explore its geopolitical ramifications, its representation of the struggle between Soviet communism and American capitalism, and the internal and external pressures that led to its dismantling. Essay sources include John F. Kennedy, Richard von Weizsaecker, Doris Bergen, Louis J. Halle, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Tear Down This Wall
On June 12, 1987,Ronald Reagan addressed a crowd of 20,000 people in West Berlin in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. The words he delivered that afternoon would become among the most famous in presidential history. "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate," Reagan said. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!"In this riveting and fast-paced book, Romesh Ratnesar provides an account of how Reagan arrived at his defining moment and what followed from it. The book is based on interviews with numerous former Reagan administration officials and American and German eyewitnesses to the speech, as well as recently declassified State Department documents and East German records of the president's trip. Ratnesar provides new details about the origins of Reagan's speech and the debate within the administration about how to issue the fateful challenge to Gorbachev.Tear Down This Wallre-creates the charged atmosphere surrounding Reagan's visit to Berlin and explores the speech's role in bringing about the fall of the Berlin Wall less than two years later.At the heart of the story is the relationship between two giants of the late twentieth century: Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Departing from the view that Reagan "won" the Cold War, Ratnesar demonstrates that both Reagan and Gorbachev played indispensable roles in bringing about the end of the U.S.-Soviet rivalry. It was the trust that Reagan and Gorbachev built in each other that allowed them finally to overcome the suspicions that had held their predecessors back. Calling on Gorbachev to tear down the Wall, in Reagan's mind, might actually encourage him to do it. Reagan's speech in Berlin was more than a good sound bite. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we can now see the speech as the event that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War.Elegant and dramatic,Tear Down This Wallis the definitive account of one of the most memorable speeches in recent history and a reminder of the power of a president's words to change the world.