Berlin Before The Wall

This first crisis surrounding the control of Berlin was the beginning of a sharp divide between the eastern and western way of life in the city. This divide came into full view with the forming of West Germany into one country, which became Federal Republic of Germany. Along with the melding of the western allies’ territory, the Deutsche Mark became the new Republic’s currency. With the introduction of the new currency, it became apparent that Britain, France, and the United States planned on forming a German democracy based on a capitalist economy. While the Soviet influenced German Democratic Republic joined the eastern communist bloc under a socialist economy. After some time, the difference in economies was easily seen in Berlin. In the west, you had an economically active population, while the eastern side was much more impoverished. It was stated in one account by Curtis Cate that “the prewar elegance of Berlin seemed to have emigrated westward (Cate pg 7). The diary of Hsi-Huey Liang also goes into great depth about life in Berlin before the wall. It includes descriptions of how Stalin Allee and the rest of the city “stupendous”, with Stalin Allee lined with decorative balconies and windows and the rest of the city very much destroyed (Liang pg 50). Due to this visible imbalance of wealth and quality of living, many people in east Berlin began to move over to the western side as early as …show more content…
On the night of August 13th 1961 Operation Rose began, and the East German police force began to lock down the western side of the city once again. This time they started to pull up railroad tracks and blockaded all roads leading into the western side. Most noticeably, they began to have a wall constructed around the entire perimeter of west Berlin. Following the construction of the wall, East German police would then begin to prevent movement between