East Germany

The Berlin Journal by Robert Darnton provides an account on the reunification of East and West Berlin. Throughout the journal, Darnton reveals how confronting the past is an important step in moving forward. Darnton also examines the different meanings the Berlin Wall symbolized for East and West Berliners. Finally, the effects of reunification on the economic system were a concern among East Berliners as they did not want to let go of socialism. The three major themes in Darnton’s Berlin…

inevitably come to an end. Capitalist West Germany and socialist East Germany have been reunified. Our setting is the post-socialist East Germany. “The winds of change blew on the ruins of our republic”, Alex recounts. The separation between the eastern and western cultures, communism and capitalism, authoritarianism and democracy was no longer. How far will a son go to shelter his beloved mother’s idealism towards the communist nation she pledged…

soldier, Conrad Schumann jumping over the barbed wire, of the to be Berlin Wall, from East Germany to West Germany, during the Cold War. During this time the Soviet Union had control over East Berlin, and West Berlin was under the control of America, Britain and France. The people of the East were very unhappy about the lack of political and economical freedom. The USSR had industrialised and militarised East Germany, causing many people to fear the Stasi; the most pervasive secret police…

were celebrating the fall of the Berlin wall. This was after a period of three decades where the West was kept apart from the East Berliners. The communists’ rulers/leaders in the East Germany authorized the gates along the wall to be opened. Huge amount of individuals had converged at the walls crossing point before the permission was granted. People from the East Germany shouted and cheered while surging towards the wall as those from West met them with jubilations. On this particular day he…

the 1940s on Germany itself had become a monster of the communist-capitalist conflict. It divided West Germany into the ‘Federal Republic of Germany’ and the smaller East Germany the ‘German Democratic Republic’.”(Taylor,1) It divided a city from the outer world and completely separated family and friends. At the end of World War II Germany as well as Berlin was divided up into four sectors. East Germany and East Berlin was made up of the Soviet portion of the regime. West Germany and West…

for 28 years. The Wall completely cut off relations between East and West parts of Germany. Prior to the Wall being built, more than 3.5 million German citizens crossed between the two areas before 1961 to their jobs and to get basic supplies to survive. During the Cold War the two main powers were NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, led by U.S. forces and communist countries led by the Soviet Union. After WWII, Berlin, Germany was divided into four sections, and was distributed…

their lives within unified Germany, Funder acknowledges that the horrors of the GDR are still controlling those who once lived under its communist regime. Through the victims Funder interviews, she identifies that as East Germany is rebuilt, so too are its people, as they attempt to find a place within a society once characterised by suppression and oppression. Funder acknowledges the lingering impact of the GDR through depiction of her experiences in unified Germany. Through her…

Schutzstreifen along the Grenze (the inter-German border during the Cold War), residents of Kella experienced strict surveillance from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and lived with additional regulations. Berdahl presents Kella as floating between the East and West; however, the impenetrability of the inter-German border from 1952 to 1989 instituted Eastern economic and cultural practices in Kella until the entire GDR experienced the fall of socialism. In this paper, I will demonstrate…

unsustainable to the economy of the German Democratic Republic, the Soviet Union prompted their East German counterparts to tighten control over their borders. Joseph Stalin ordered very strict control over the border towards the GDR leadership, stating “The demarcation line between East and West Germany should be considered a border—and not just any border, but a dangerous one” . The border between the West and East Germany was locked down with a large barbed-wire fence with guard towards…

For the unit 4, we watched movies that were focusing on the problems that Germany was facing after the wall came down and the unification. During this period citizens from both sides were kind of forced to get along and help each other so they can help the country and the government grow. But the problem was that these people were alien to each other and it was not really easy for them to get along. Also after the wall, there was a lot of economic issues that they were facing. A lot of people…