East and West Germany
By: DOris Hoyos
Division of Germany
After the collapse of Hitler's realm the U.S, Soviet Union, Britain, and France divided Germany and its capital for administrative purposes. Through their invasion, the Federal Republic of Germany was formed in the west by US, Britain and France, while the German Democratic Party Republic emerged in the east out of Soviet occupation. A similar process was implemented in Berlin, which was deep within the Soviet zone. The soviet sector formed east Berlin and was made the capital of the new East Germany. The remaining three sectors, however, were united to form West Berlin, where the capital was moved to the small town of Bonnie in West Germany.
|
Goals of The U.S and Soviet Union
The division of Germany clearly demonstrated the conflicting goals of the U.S and Soviet Union, as they both tried to spread their political and economical systems among European states. While the US embraced parliamentary political systems and capitalist economic structures and adjusted their foreign-policy's to the US vision of the postwar world, the Soviets preferred socialist political and economic visitations and supported Moscow's foreign policy goals.
|
Significance of the Berlin Wall
By 1961 the communist East German state began to experience a steady rate of emigration from refugees who preferred life in capitalist West Germany. Nearly 3.5 million East Germans, most of them young and highly skilled, left their homeland due to their embarrassment towards East Germany's Communist leaders. Because of this, in 1961 the border between East and West Germany was reinforced by communists, and the construction of a fortified wall dividing the city of Berlin was implemented. The wall, which began as a layer of barbed wire, quickly turned into a barrier several layers deep, replete with watchtowers, searchlights, antipersonnel mines, and border guards ordered to shoot to kill. Although the erection of the Berlin wall was an obvious by violation of power control in Germany, the US and it's British and French partners avoided direct confrontation with the Soviet union for fear that the crisis would turn into a full shooting war. After the wall was built some East Germans continued escaped to west Germany, but now risking their lives attempting to do so.
|