The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the reunification of East and West Germany after decades of division following World War II. The wall was originally constructed in 1961 by East Germany to prevent mass emigration to the west. Its fall was precipitated by growing civil unrest in East Germany and a miscommunication by an East German official that travel restrictions would be eased. Thousands of East Germans flooded checkpoints and began dismantling the wall. Germany was officially reunified on October 3, 1990, ending over 40 years of separation. Today, Germany is a powerful democratic nation and economic powerhouse.

1. The Fall of Berlin Wall
(1945 – 1990)

2. “Every battle is
won before
it is fought.”
- sun tzu

3. Overview:
▪ In this Presentation I’m going to discuss about a country who got
divided into two parts Ideologically and Demographically.
▪ A country who was once known for it’s Dictatorship, Power and
Military War.
▪ How the people of this same country after the World War II, Fought
for their Rights, Life and Integrity.

4. Content
Sr.
no.
Chapters Source Slide No.
1 WorldWar II Wikipedia 5-9
2 PostWorldWar Germany(History) Wikipedia,
history.com
10-16
3 The Formation of Berlin wall gale.com 17
4 Impact on Civilians (Berlin wall) Nationalcoldwarex
hibitio.org
18-20
5 Development Wikipedia,
Britannica
21-28
6 The fall of BerlinWall BBC 29-32
7 Present Germany World bank, IMF 34-36
8 Conclusion Self 37

5. World War II (1939-1945)
 In Allies Country there were i) Soviet Union,
ii) USA, iii) UK and iv) France.
 In Axis Countries there were i) Third Reich
(Germany), ii) Italy and iii) Japan.
 TheWorldWar was started in year 1939.
 There were two alliance i) The
Allies and ii)The Axis.

6. The war involved more than 100 million personnel from
more than 30 countries.
The major countries threw there entire
economic, industries and scientific capability
behind war.
 The world war II so far was the deadliest conflict in human
history and resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities. There was a
huge impact on civilians.

7. Tens of millions of people died due to genocides
(including the Holocaust), starvation, massacres, and
disease.
In the wake of the Axis defeat, Germany and
Japan were occupied, and war crimes tribunals
were conducted against German and Japanese
leaders.

8. With so much going on the great world war finally
came to it’s were the Axis country got defeated.
 Finally, a long lasting bloodshed war ended.
Allies won the war with price to millions of death.

9. World War II Death data:

10. Post World war Germany(History)
 The history of Germany from 1945–1990 spans the period following
WorldWar II during the Division of Germany.
 The Potsdam Agreement was made between the major winners of
WorldWar II (US, UK, France and USSR) on 1 August 1945.
 A held high-level discussions was held to determine how to
administer Germany after it had been defeated.
 At the Potsdam Conference (17 July to 2 August
1945), after Germany's unconditional surrender on 8
May 1945.

11.  The Allies officially divided Germany into the four military
occupation zones
* France in the Southwest
* the United Kingdom in the Northwest
* the United States in the South
* the Soviet Union in the East
 These four zones in total were denoted as
'Germany as a whole’.

12.  Berlin, as the German capital, was also to be divided
into four administrative zones.
The city of Berlin, though technically part of the
Soviet zone.
 However, Berlin was located deep within the zone
allocated to the Soviets, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from
the western zones.

13.  After the pastdam meeting the Post-war military rule by the four
powers was intended to be a short term measure.
 As it was assumed a suitable German civilian government would be
quickly formed, and the Allies would then sign a peace treaty with
this new authority and withdraw their troops.
 However due to cold war When relations between the Soviet Union
and the Western powers began to deteriorate.
 All sides found themselves with a geographical problem that caused
political problems.

14. West Germany East Germany
The two sides became i)The Federal Republic of Germany and ii)The
German Democratic Republic .

15. The history of the nation-state known as the German Reich is commonly divided into three
periods:
• German
Empire
• (1871–1918)
1
• Weimar
Republic
• (1918–1933)
2 • Nazi
Germany
• (1933-1945)
3

16.  The first major crisis between East and West regarding post-war Germany began
on June 24, 1948, whenWestern land access to Berlin was blocked by the Soviets.
 Berlin relied on shipments of almost every good its population used, from food
and medicine to coal for heating and power generation.
 Traffic was prevented from crossing, including the underground railway trains.
 When Berliners awoke on the morning of August 13 their city had been split in
two.

17. The Formation of Berlin wall:
 On the night of August 12, 1961, on the Eastern side of
Berlin, large numbers of army units, militiamen, and
People's Police (Vopos) began to assemble near the
border.
 Beginning shortly after one in the morning the troops
were posted along the border and the wire and posts
were deployed to seal East fromWest Berlin.
The secret planning and execution of Ulbricht, Erich Honecker (1912–1994), and their
forces, who managed to stockpile 40 kilometers of barbed wire and thousands of posts
without arousing suspicion.
 Even as the border was being sealed, many people on both sides had no idea what
the ultimate purpose was, including those laying out the barbed wire.

18. Impact on Civilians (Berlin wall)
For many years, the Berlin Wall separated East Germany from
West Germany, acting as a physical barrier that symbolized the
political divisions of the time. From a small structure of sandbags and
barbed wire to a permanent concrete monolith with guard towers
and patrolling soldiers, the Wall grew into one of the most prominent
political symbols of the twentieth century.
As tensions grew after the four-power rule was decided at
Potsdam, the ideological differences between them led to the
construction of a barrier

19. The Berlin wall divided families who
found themselves unable to visit each
other.
 Many East Berliners were cut off from
their jobs.
West Berliners demonstrated against the
wall and their mayor Willy Brandt led the
criticism against the United States who
they felt had failed to respond.
The East German government claimed the wall was an 'anti-fascist protection
barrier'.
The wall had caused many families considerable hardship and the western view
was that the wall was a means of preventing the people of East Germany from
entering West Berlin was widely seen as being the truth.

20.  During the wall's existence there were around 5000
successful escapes into West Berlin. Varying reports claim
that either 192 or 239 people were killed trying to cross the
wall and many more were injured.
 Early successful attempts involved people jumping over
the barbed wire fence or leaping from the windows of the
apartments that lined the wall. These building were soon
boarded up and then demolished.
 Later successful attempts include long tunnels, sliding
along aerial wires, flying ultra lights and even driving under
a checkpoint barrier in a very low sports car.
 East Berliners became very ingenious in their attempts to
flee to theWest but sadly many attempts ended in tragedy.
 17, 1962 when Peter Fechter who was shot and left to die
in full view of the western media.

21. Development:
East Germany:
The development in both the side was very
uneven. because of the heavy influence of Soviet
Union in east everything over there was state
owned.
because of the communist economy the Health and
Education was free but there were no jobs.
 It was very difficult for to survive and the life of east Germans was not good. they
were struggling.

22. West Germany:
 The Western Allies turned over increasing authority
to West German officials and moved to establish a
nucleus for a future German government by creating
a central Economic Council for their zones.
 The program later provided for a West German
constituent assembly, an occupation statute
governing relations between the Allies and the
German authorities, and the political and economic
merger of the French with the British and American
zones.
 On 23 May 1949, the Gründgesetz (Founding Law), the constitution of the Federal
Republic of Germany, was promulgated.

23.  Following elections in August, the first federal government was formed on 20
September 1949, by KonradAdenauer (CDU).
KonradAdenaue
(1876-1967)
Quick Note:
Konrad Adenauer was a German statesman who served as
the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
from 1949 to 1963.
From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian
Democratic Union, a Christian democratic party he co-
founded, which under his leadership became the dominant
force in the country.

24.  After election the occupation statute came into force, granting powers of self-
government with certain exceptions.
Occupation Statute
(1949)
Quick Note:
The Occupation Statute of Germany of April 10, 1949
specified the roles and responsibilities of the newly
created government of the Federal Republic of Germany
and the Allied High Commission.

25.  After the Petersberg agreement West Germany quickly progressed toward fuller
sovereignty and association with its European neighbors and the Atlantic community.
Quick Note:
The Petersberg Agreement is an international
treaty that extended the rights of the government
of West Germany vis-a-vis the occupying forces of
the United Kingdom, France, and the United
States.
It is viewed as the first major step of West
Germany towards sovereignty.
It was signed by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Allied High
Commissioners Brian Hubert Robertson (United Kingdom), André François-Poncet
(France), and John J. McCloy

26.  The London and Paris agreements of 1954 restored most
of the state's sovereignty (with some exceptions) in May
1955 and opened the way for German membership in the
North AtlanticTreaty Organization (NATO).
 In April 1951, West Germany joined with France, Italy and
the Benelux countries in the European Coal and Steel
Community.
 Between 1949 and 1960, the West German economy grew at an unparalleled rate.
 Low rates of inflation, modest wage increases and a quickly rising export quota
made it possible to restore the economy and brought a modest prosperity.
 According to the official statistics, the German gross national product (GNP)
grew in average by about 7% annually between 1950 and 1960.

27. The initial demand for housing, the growing demand
for machine tools, chemicals, and automobiles and a
rapidly increasing agricultural production were the initial
triggers to this 'Wirtschaftswunder' (economic miracle)
as it was known, although there was nothing miraculous
about it.
The era became closely linked with the name of
Ludwig Erhard, who led the Ministry of Economics
during the decade.
 Unemployment at the start of the decade stood
at 10.3%, but by 1960 it had dropped to 1.2%.

28.  In fact, there was a growing demand for labor in many industries as the
workforce grew by 3% per annum, the reserves of labor were virtually used up.
The millions of displaced persons and the refugees from the eastern provinces
had all been integrated into the workforce.
With the construction of the Berlin wall in August 1961 they hoped to end the loss
of labor and in doing so they posed the West German government with a new
problem—how to satisfy the apparently insatiable demand for labor.
Then, the west Germany government decided to recruit unskilled labour in its
workforce and with this the era of Gastarbeiter (foreign labour) began.
 In October 1961 an initial agreement was signed with the Turkish government and
the first Gastarbeiter began to arrive.
 By 1966, some 13,00,000 foreign workers had been recruited mainly from Italy,
Turkey, Spain, and Greece. By 1971, the number had reached 2.6 million workers.

29. The fall of Berlin Wall:
 June 26, 1963 John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most famous addresses of his
presidency to a crowd of more than 120,000 gathered outside West Berlin’s city hall,
just steps from the Brandenburg Gate. Kennedy’s speech has been largely
remembered for one particular phrase. "Ich bin ein Berliner" meaning, " I am a
Berliner."

30.  It was on 9 November 1989, five days after half a million people gathered in East
Berlin in a mass protest, that the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from
West Germany crumbled.
 East German leaders had tried to calm mounting protests by loosening the
borders, making travel easier for East Germans. They had not intended to open the
border up completely.
The changes were meant to be fairly minor - but the way they were delivered had
major consequences.
 Notes about the new rules were handed to a spokesman, Günter Schabowski -
who had no time to read them before his regular press conference.
 "Private travel outside the country can now be applied for without
prerequisites," he said. Surprised journalists clamoured for more details.

31.  Shuffling through his notes, Mr. Schabowski said that as far
as he was aware, it was effective immediately.
 In fact it had been planned to start the next day, with details
on applying for a visa.
 But the news was all over television - and East Germans flocked to the border in
huge numbers.
 Harald Jäger, a border guard in charge that
evening, he had watched the press conference in
confusion - and then watched the crowd arrive.
 Mr. Jäger frantically called his superiors, but
they gave no orders either to open the gate - or
to open fire to stop the crowd. With only a
handful of guards facing hundreds of angry
citizens, force would have been of little use and
That's why the order was passed: “Open the
barrier!"

32. Thousands flowed through, celebrating and crying, in
scenes beamed around the world.
 Many climbed the wall at Berlin's Brandenburg gate,
chipping away at the wall itself with hammers and
pickaxes.
 Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. Finally the
Wall was down and the people got reunited.
West Germans welcomed East Germans with deep
heart.
The reunification of East and West Germany was
made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year
after the fall of the BerlinWall.

33. Present Germany:
Today Germany is one of the most powerful Nation in the World. A fully developed
economy with:
GDP – Nominal: $3.78 trillion (4th) (2020)
GDP per Capita: $45,466 (2020)
GDP – Purchasing Power Parity (PPP): $4.45 trillion (2020)

34. GDP graph of Germany 1990-2020

36. Struggles and Challenges are the part of life. one cannot avoid this things.
everything in this world is temporary. Nothing is permanent. we should be thank
full to our self because we are living in such exception where the concept of
democracy exists compare to 100 years ago. when there was only monarchy. we
should not take this democracy for granted. this democracy is something for
which many have given their lives. democracy is for the people, by people and of
the people. respect your freedom and respect your life.
Conclusion:

37. THANKYOU
by Arvind Pandit