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 | Berlin History Reviews | Tips 1 - 10 of 27 |  |
 | |  |  | History: Two Berlins from 1945 to 1989 | Tip Rating:    |  |  | |  |
Berlin was divided after World War II. Every part of the allies got one part of Berlin to control. Zehlendorf, Steglitz, Schöneberg, Kreuzberg, Tempelhof and Neukölln were in the American sector. Tiergarten, Charlottenburg, Spandau and Wilmersdorf formed the British sector. In the French sector there were Reinickendorf and Wedding. Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, Pankow, Weissensee, Hohenschönhausen, Lichtenberg, Marzahn, Hellersdorf, Treptow and Köpenick were in the sector ruled by the USSR. The Western and the Sovjet allies couldn't agree on anything though. When the West wanted to put the East under pressure the Sovjets blocked all roads to West Berlin in June 1948. This blockage lasted until September 1949! West Berlin was provided with food, coal and everything they needed by allied planes from the air during this long time. This part of German history is called "Luftbrücke". On 13 August 1961 the East built a wall that divided Berlin. Over night people who lived in the same street couldn't meet anymore. The people in the East were "trapped". People who wanted to escape were put in prison (if they were lucky!) or shot at the border. The wall wasn't only a wall, there was a death zone behind it on the Eastern side with everything that kept people from escaping (Machine guns, dogs, self shooting mechanisms, watch towers etc) After a lot of people demonstrated for freedom in 1989 and other seeked asylum in West German embassies in Budapest, Prague etc the wall fell on 9 November 1989. A spokesman of the East German parliament accidently announced the opening of the border for the same day in a press conference. Now the people couldn't be stopped anymore, they climbed the wall in that night and started to destroy it bit by bit. This happened only half a year after the last wall victim lost his life at Berlin wall... Leave a Comment
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| | | | History: More than 12 years after the... | Tip Rating: | | | | |
More than 12 years after the wall fell, you still can remark some differences between people from East and West Berlin. There has been some movility, but I think most people have stayed in their old neighborhoods. After the euphoria of the first years after the reunification, some people in Germany have started to question the way it was done. And, of course, many people in East Germany were disappointed by a Western style life that was not so glittering as the city lights on the other side of the wall announced. In my opinion, since the reunification, the city is losing the liberal and a little bit anarchic attitude there was before in West Berlin. But of course it is easily understandable: the city has become the capital of the nation again, and people are not in a limit situation as they used to be: an island totally surrounded by the 'enemy'. Anyway, there is so much history in this city, that your stay will be rewarded with incredible experiences. Leave a Comment
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on May 24, 2003
Berlin
on April 5, 2004
on May 28, 2003
on August 26, 2002
on August 26, 2002
on August 25, 2002
on August 24, 2002
