Rise And Fall Of Berlin Wall Essay

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The Cold War & The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall was far more than just a physical barrier that separated East and West Berlin, it was symbolic of the boundary between Capitalism and Communism. Stemmed from lasting tensions of The Cold War, the Russian’s divided the German city of Berlin into two sides, not only creating political tensions, but cultural rifts and great tales of escape, too.
The origins of the Berlin Wall came directly from what is now known as the Cold War, which originated from tensions following WW2. During the second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers. However, the relationship between the two nations was a tense one. Soon after the Germans’ defeat, Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe fueled many Americans’ fears of a Russian plan to control the world. In addition, President Reagan believed that the spread of communism anywhere threatened freedom everywhere. In such a hostile atmosphere, it almost seemed like the Cold War was inevitable. It wasn’t a typical war in the sense that it didn’t have traditional warfare or an abundance of casualties; instead, the Cold War was a subtle battle of control between the United States and Russia. For the United States, they were resisting the …show more content…

Thousands of people from East Berlin crossed over into West Berlin to reunite with families and escape communist repression. In response to the sudden influx of population in the west, “on August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete ‘Antifaschistischer Schutzwall,’ or ‘antifascist bulwark,’ between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to

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