TSMU - USMD program - History of civilization

2. The Partitioning of Berlin
o As World War II came to an end in 1945
o Yalta conference
o Germany was defeated
o Germany would pay reparations
o split the defeated nation into four “allied
occupation zones”
o four-way occupation of Berlin began in June 1945
o Potsdam conference
o Details about the boundaries and reparations
were argued
Yalta – Feb, 1945 Potsdam- Jul, 1945
Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin Attlee, Truman, Stalin

3. o Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev
o Russians began maneuvering to drive the United
States, Britain and France out of the city
o In 1948, a Soviet blockade of West Berlin
o Berlin Airlift by USA
o The Soviets called off the blockade in 1949

4. o endless flow of refugees from democratic republic (GDR)
to west (nearly 3 million since the end of the blockade)
o young skilled workers such as doctors, teachers and
engineers.. – The Brain Drain
o Federal republic (FRG) didn’t close the borders
o 1961 June – 19 000 people left GDR through berlin
o 1961 July– 30 000
o 1961 August – 16 000
o 1962 August 12 – 24000 – the largest number of
defectors to leave east Germany in a single day

5. Building the Wall
o 1961, August 12-13
o East German army, police force and volunteer
construction workers
o barbed wire and concrete block wall–the Berlin Wall
o it became impossible to get from East to West
o Three checkpoints: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
o Eventually 12 checkpoints
o Soldiers screened diplomats and officials leaving and
entering the border

6. 12 foot high
4 foot wide
Concrete
Barbed wire
Eastern “death strip” –
soft sand (to show
footprints)
Floodlights
Vicious dogs
Tripwire Machine guns
Soldiers
171 people killed
But it was not impossible!

7. Escaping East
berlinTightrope Zip line Without windshield
Fake passports Hot air balloonTunnels Speeding train

8.  On November 9, 1989, Cold War ending started
 East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s
relations with the West
 citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders.
 People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall
 Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since
1945
Eduard Shevardnadze - the last foreign
minister of the Soviet Union, who had an
insider's view of the wall's collapse and the
repercussions it had throughout the Soviet
empire and the West.
Fall of the wall

9. ThankYou!