Berlin Wall Crisis essays

Berlin Wall Crisis essays The rising and the falling of the Berlin Wall was an event that changed the world. It didnt just affect the people of Germany but it affected the world as a whole. As the first barbed-wire fences were put up on August 13, 1961, it was obvious that a wall was soon to be built. It was also obvious that this wall would have to become higher and higher and also more and more strong. It prevented eye-contact from a brother to a brother and also the possibility of tanks breaking through. But what was not obvious was that the all-escape-defying wall would be replaced by a massive wall. The GDR(German Democratic Republic), began under the leadership of Erich Honecker, to block off East Berlin and GDR from West Berlin . The streets were torn up and barricades of paving stones were built. The local subway and railway services between West and East Berlin were disrupted. People of East Berlin were not allowed to enter West Berlin. Sixty-thousand of them had commuted to West Berlin to work. On September 17, 1962, Peter Fechter was an eighteen year old that was a citizen of East Berlin. He bled to death after he was shot by East Berlin border patrols while he was attempting to escape over the wall. He was shot in the pelvis and was left to lie in the no-mans land between East and West Germany for nearly an hour as he bled to death. His cries of pain were left unanswered and this horrified many witnesses. His outcome showed how serious this Wall was and the cruelty the Wall created. More than 260 were killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989. About three times that many were killed trying to escape west from elsewhere in Germany. The border between West and East Berlin was a total of 166 km. The border area looked pretty much as followed: First, there was a wall that was made up of concrete segments with a height of 4 m. Behind it (at the eastern side) the ...