Berlin Wall and War

Berlin Wall's History And Significance

The Berlin Wall was a physical, concrete barrier erected to divide East Germany from West Germany during the Cold War Era. The wall was constructed in 1961 and stayed erected until the early 1990s when it began to be demolished as a result of the Cold War ending and the fuller implementation of the Soviet policies of perestroika and glasnost under Gorbachev.[footnoteRef:1] While the Wall had practical applications, it ultimately served as a symbol of the ideological divide between the East and the West -- between the social, economic and political forces of the U.S. in particularly and the social, economic and political forces of the Soviet Union. [1: Rupert Cornwell, "Fall of the Berlin Wall: It was thanks to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that this symbol of division fell." Independent, 2014. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/fall-of-the-berlin-wall-it-was-thanks-to-soviet-leader-mikhail-gorbachev-that-this-symbol-of-9829298.html]

This paper asks how the Wall came into being -- what its history can tell us about the nature of the Cold War conflict -- and what its significance as a symbol can tell us about our own time's seeming continuation of the Cold War sentiment that pitted the U.S. against Russia. The research question this paper aims to answer is this: What did the Berlin Wall signify for the men and women of the Cold War Era, and what was the nature of the hope that its fall inspired in the early 1990s? This paper will attempt to answer that question by examining the post-War period prior to the Wall's construction, the history of the Wall and its meaning for both East and West Germany, and its larger symbolic significance as a sign of two cultures clashing.

The Post-War Period

WW2 ended in 1945 with the Allies victorious over the Axis. One of the peculiarities of this war was that the Allies were not very trusting of one another at all -- and this would become all too evident in the post-War period when the Soviets and the U.S. would become rivals on the global stage. Having forged a useful alliance with the Soviets in the defeat of Germany (essentially the only real power in Europe to oppose the spread of Communist forces), the U.S. immediately backtracked from this relationship in the aftermath of WW2 as it sought to influence the world in the light of its own newfound power and ambition. This ambition became more and more evident as the U.S., through its use of the Marshall Plan's purse, began funding covert operations and CIA front organizations (like Radio Free Europe) to monitor and destabilize the forces of Communism in Europe, Asia and South and Central America.[footnoteRef:2] The tension that erupted between the Soviet Union and the U.S. came to a head over Cuba in 1962 when Kennedy and Khrushchev nearly came toe-to-toe to launching a nuclear strike against one another. The crisis was averted through negotiations between the two leaders at the last minute -- and a "hot line" was erected between the Kremlin and the White House as a result of this stand-off to help future conflicts from escalating to the point of such hysteria.[footnoteRef:3] However, with the assassination of Kennedy the following year, the escalation of the war in Vietnam (ostensibly as a containment effort to keep Communism from spreading throughout Asia), and the continuation of spy-versus-spy efforts on both sides, the Cold War became a full-blown reality, with the all the military, intelligence, social, cultural, political, economic and religious tools available to both sides made use of in order to monitor or undermine the other's rival. The Berlin Wall was erected during this period for both practical and ideological purposes, which shall now be examined in more detail. [2: Oliver Stone, Peter Kuznick, The Untold History of the United States (NY: Gallery Books, 2012), 338. https://books.google.com/books?id=hZlFAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=stone+and+kuznick+untold+history+radio+free+europe&source=bl&ots=BIseaOM2aH&sig=OFu12b8tOkeVuK4Kd-BA0n0M5vc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiHjeP7-L_TAhXDZCYKHSIhA64Q6AEIMjAD#v=onepage&q=stone%20and%20kuznick%20untold%20history%20radio%20free%20europe&f=false] [3: "Cuban Missile Crisis." History. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisis]

Germany after the War

Germany was divided after WW2, as part of the Potsdam Conference of 1945 following Germany's unconditional surrender. The Allies separated Germany into four zones with France overseeing the southwest, the U.S. overseeing the south, the English overseeing the northwest, and the Soviets taking the whole of the eastern half. The divide ran right through the city of Berlin, which between WW1 and WW2 was the source of Germany's Weimar Republic culture with its nightlife of cabarets and decadence.[footnoteRef:4] Berlin was thus pulled in two different directions at once -- neither of which was essentially Germanic or true to the culture of the Berlin. The U.S. effectively became overseer of West Germany and the Soviets of East Germany -- with Berlin being the heart of the occupied territories. [4: Emily Cleaver, "Sin City: Decadence and Doom in Weimar Berlin." Litro, 2013. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. https://www.litro.co.uk/2013/02/decadence-and-doom-in-weimar-berlin/]

From the beginning, tensions existed. In 1948, the Soviets attempted to blockade West Berlin (believing that the entire city should be under Soviet control) -- but an Allied airlift foiled this attempt. As a result, the Soviets tightened their grip over East Berlin. A mass exodus of millions began from East to West Berlin, as Germans sought to escape the stronghold of the Soviets over their life and culture. By the beginning of the 1960s, roughly 1000 Germans were fleeing Soviet occupied Germany on a daily basis.[footnoteRef:5] [5: "1961: Berlin is Divided." History. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/berlin-is-divided]

Tensions Come to a Head: the Wall is Erected

With the crisis in Cuba simmering in the background (the Soviets were in contact with Castro, whom the U.S. had attempted to oust in the Bay of Pigs invasion of April, 1961),[footnoteRef:6] Khrushchev made the bold move to send the West a message about meddling in its affairs: the Soviets blocked all ingress and egress of East Berlin in August, 1961. The "wall" initially consisted of over 100 miles of barbed wire just inside the East Berlin border -- though this was eventually replaced with a 96-mile long, six-foot high concrete wall with machine gun posts, searchlights and patrolling officers working 24-7 to protect the border.[footnoteRef:7] Berliners in the West voiced their opposition and called on the U.S. to come to their aid, as they were now totally cut off from friends and family in the eastern half of the city. [6: Stone, Kuznick, Untold History, 295.] [7: "1961: Berlin is Divided." History. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. ]

While Kennedy would declare in 1963, "Ich bin ein Berliner," in an attempt to show solidarity and sympathy with the plight of those suffering from the divide, Kennedy's own life would be cut short months later and the situation between the U.S. and the Soviets would only deteriorate from there. Kennedy's speech was iconic in its own right, delivered as it was in front of the Wall as a protest aimed at the Soviets. He stood as the symbol of Western freedom -- the Wall stood as the symbol of Soviet totalitarianism. In truth, both symbols were superficial. The Soviets had neither total control over their own realm nor the ability to solve their engulfing domestic problems at home.[footnoteRef:8] The West, likewise, was neither as "free" as it projected nor as dedicated to the idea of liberty -- as its numerous coups, assassinations, wars and covert operations throughout this Era demonstrated.[footnoteRef:9] [8: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago (NY: Harper & Row, 1973), 3. https://archive.org/details/TheGulagArchipelago-Threevolumes] [9: Steve Kangas, "A Timeline of CIA Atrocities." Global Research, 2016. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. http://www.globalresearch.ca/a-timeline-of-cia-atrocities/5348804]

The Berlin Wall as a Symbol of the Cold War

Just as the Soviets would purge any opposition to government policy -- as shown in Solzhenitsyn's numerous narratives smuggled out of the Soviet Union and published in the West during this time period, the U.S. was engaged in covert operations in attempts to counter leaders opposed to their own imperialistic aims.[footnoteRef:10] In this context, the Berlin Wall emerged as a stark reminder of the rift between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. On the surface it was ideological -- but underneath it was really about control, power and influence. The U.S. was keen on controlling geopolitics behind the scenes in countries around the world -- and while the Soviets were also engaged in similar activities, the latter did not want the former participating in any provocations on Soviet soil. The Wall signified the Soviet Union's firmness in the face of what it took to be Western antagonism. Khrushchev had, for instance, pointed out to Kennedy that the U.S. had missiles in Turkey aimed at Russia -- which for the Soviet leader was just as threatening as Soviet missiles in Cuba was for the U.S. Both countries were engaged in the same Cold War arms race and intelligence race -- and the Berlin Wall was the symbolic manifestation of this race. It represented the Cold War in all its monstrous, ugly, unyielding, and inherently militaristic glory. While from a geopolitical perspective, the message was loud and clear from the Soviets to the U.S., for the common people in Berlin, the message was much different. [10: Stone, Kuznick, Untold History, 298-300.]

For the men and women of the Cold War Era, the Wall was a symbol of oppression -- of miscommunication -- of brutal force attempting to crush the spirit of humanity. The reflections of individual Germans like Barbara Dignan, who was a child in Berlin when the Wall went up, help to provide a better understanding of the experience for everyday Berliners:

The night the Wall went up (the beginning of the process, anyway), my family was in our home. We began to hear people outside yelling, crying, louder and louder. We went into the street to witness tragic panic and fear. Neighbours were telling each other (and us) that they had relatives in East Berlin -- they had tried to contact them, but couldn't -- that no one knew what was happening. Rumours spread. Some thought their relatives had been killed, or would soon be killed. I had never witnessed anything like this. Everyone cried.[footnoteRef:11] [11: Guardian Readers and Caroline Bannock, "Berlin Wall -- readers' memories: 'It's hard to remember how scary the Wall was'." The Guardian, 2014. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/guardianwitness-blog/2014/nov/07/-sp-berlin-wall-readers-memories-its-hard-to-remember-how-scary-the-wall-was]

Dignan's personal recollection of the Wall is a poignant and vivid reminder of how geopolitical interests often trump human interests, as though the lives of ordinary persons are somehow expendable in the relentless pursuit of geopolitical power. The confusion that reigned during this time -- the separation that Germans in Berlin experienced as families and friends were literally cut off from one another overnight -- all served as the toll paid by the common Berliner as a result of the dictatorial regimes of the U.S. and Soviet powers running rampant round the globe. If the Wall was a message from the Kremlin to Washington about not interfering in Soviet business, it was a boot on the necks of ordinary Berliners. Indeed, an entire generation of Germans would be deeply shaped by the erection of the Wall: some would be born and grow into adulthood never knowing a time when the Wall did not exist.

Petra Tobihn was another ordinary German whose family was a casualty of the Berlin Wall: when it went up, Petra's mother was cut off from her family in the East. With young children to care for and a husband away working in another village, Petra's mother finally resolved to return back to the GDR -- to East Germany -- to the Soviets to be with her family. The effect was shattering, as brothers and sisters suffered the escalating pressure of Soviet monitoring, with one brother eventually being lost to a GDR jail cell, while the father was left on the other side of the Wall.[footnoteRef:12] The family disintegrated literally -- just as in the West, families were disintegrating socially, with divorces rising and the generation gap widening. [12: Guardian Readers and Caroline Bannock, "Berlin Wall -- readers' memories: 'It's hard to remember how scary the Wall was'." The Guardian, 2014. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. ]

For people in the West, the Wall represented something abstract -- a symbol of the nature of the times, best represented in art by Pink Floyd, whose 1979 album The Wall used the image of the Berlin Wall as a metaphor for what was happening culturally all over the West: the oppression of free thought, of intellectual curiosity, creativity, soulfulness, expression, warmth, love, humane intercourse, and humanity itself. Songs like "Comfortably Numb" were indications of the degenerate flight into oblivion that the Western youth were seeking in their desire to escape the cultural oppression they themselves were experiencing on the Western side of the Berlin Wall. If the Soviets were attempting to stifle Western corruption through totalitarian means, the West was equally totalitarian in its supply of what the Frankfurt School had already identified as a cultural sickness manifesting itself in music, television, literature, films, and social life.[footnoteRef:13] [13: Michael Minnicino, "The New Dark Age," The Schiller Institute. Accessed Apr 25, 2017 https://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_91-96/921_frankfurt.html]

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

As the Soviet Union continued to decline throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Gorbachev arose as a leader with a far more humane outlook on the world and a far more tempered approach towards reconciling with the West than those who came before him. Gorbachev implemented the policies of perestroika and glasnost -- reformation and openness, respectively -- to address the Soviet Union's own "sickness" while reaching out to the West in a geopolitical effort to stop the bleeding. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War was signified to be at an end -- the arms race, the geopolitical antagonism, the spy-vs.-spy games, the covert operations -- all of it was seemingly put behind them. For the West, the destruction of the Berlin Wall was hailed as a victory for freedom and democracy. As Cornwell puts it, "faced by mounting internal unrest, and the knowledge that Moscow would not intervene, the satellite Communist parties fell like dominoes and Eastern Europe was reborn."[footnoteRef:14] The control and influence that the Soviet Union had once demonstrated over Eastern Europe was no longer felt: the strength of the Union was depleted. A war in the Middle East had cost it dearly -- just as a current war in the Middle East is costing the U.S. dearly. It is as though history is repeating itself, and the Wall imagery is emerging again -- though this time it is to be erected between neighboring countries -- the U.S. and Mexico. While geographically and geopolitically different from the Berlin Wall, Trump's promise to his base of supporters to cut off illegal immigration and the corruption of American society through drugs and violence allegedly coming in from Mexico is similar to the message sent by the Soviets to Washington in 1961. A wall is visible, concrete, tangible, effective and meaningful: it demonstrates to those on the outside that they are not welcome, not wanted, and not able to gain access. It is, in a sense, the last ditch effort of a nation when all else has failed, when diplomacy has been seen to be weak and ineffective and when hysteria is at such a fever-pitch level the only thing to do is to block it out, literally, with a wall. [14: Rupert Cornwell, "Fall of the Berlin Wall: It was thanks to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that this symbol of division fell." Independent, 2014. Accessed Apr 25, 2017. ]