The end of WW2 in Europe was well featured with the substantial devastation of every single possible field of people’s economic, social and legal lives. Generally speaking, Europe was left devastated to the degree when external help would only help. The question was how to rebuild it. While the allied powers opposed reparations by Germany, Stalin, on contrary, demanded tremendously high compensations, stressing the fact that Soviet Union had the highest number of deaths, casualties and other victims. When these demands were denied, USSR began shifting all the heavy industries and manufacturing from Germany to Soviet Republics. Berlin was split up in a Western sector leaving the US in control of the south, France of the Western Rhein Main territories …show more content…
According to some statistical data, only in first 6 months of 1960, around 300 000 people moved to FRG, including teachers, doctors, engineers and most of all young people among them. Thereby, already existing deficit grew bigger and bigger, putting certain pressure on the East German government. The first rumors concerning a split up of Berlin started emerging at that point. However, back then, the Chief of State, Walter Ulbricht publicly stated: “Niemand hat die Absicht eine Mauer zu errichten.“ (No one has the intention to build a wall.) In the end it was Nikita Khrushchev who gave the order of closing up Berlin. He found himself in a situation where he had to react, otherwise risking losing his face in front of the international community. What Khrushchev called “the ring around Berlin” was 96 miles long border around West Berlin. The night from 12th to 13th of August 1961 marks the start of the project “Protection of the nation´s border“. Approximately 43,5 km of area linking metro and subway, canalization and rivers had to get blocked. The first wall was a wall of soldiers, meter-by-meter replaced by barbwire and concrete afterwards. Not surprisingly, there was no big protest from the side of US, France or Britain. The primary reason was the intention to avoid any escalation after WWII. Berlin was marked as the only open border between East and West. As Kennedy said: “A wall is better than