The Path to the Berlin Wall
The Path to the Berlin Wall

Author: Manfred Wilke

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1782382895

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The long path to the Berlin Wall began in 1945, when Josef Stalin instructed the Communist Party to take power in the Soviet occupation zone while the three Western allies secured their areas of influence. When Germany was split into separate states in 1949, Berlin remained divided into four sectors, with West Berlin surrounded by the GDR but lingering as a captivating showcase for Western values and goods. Following a failed Soviet attempt to expel the allies from West Berlin with a blockade in 1948–49, a second crisis ensued from 1958–61, during which the Soviet Union demanded once and for all the withdrawal of the Western powers and the transition of West Berlin to a “Free City.” Ultimately Nikita Khrushchev decided to close the border in hopes of halting the overwhelming exodus of East Germans into the West. Tracing this path from a German perspective, Manfred Wilke draws on recently published conversations between Khrushchev and Walter Ulbricht, head of the East German state, in order to reconstruct the coordination process between these two leaders and the events that led to building the Berlin Wall.

Driving the Soviets up the Wall
Driving the Soviets up the Wall

Author: Hope M. Harrison

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-06-27

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1400840724

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The Berlin Wall was the symbol of the Cold War. For the first time, this path-breaking book tells the behind-the-scenes story of the communists' decision to build the Wall in 1961. Hope Harrison's use of archival sources from the former East German and Soviet regimes is unrivalled, and from these sources she builds a highly original and provocative argument: the East Germans pushed the reluctant Soviets into building the Berlin Wall. This fascinating work portrays the different approaches favored by the East Germans and the Soviets to stop the exodus of refugees to West Germany. In the wake of Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviets refused the East German request to close their border to West Berlin. The Kremlin rulers told the hard-line East German leaders to solve their refugee problem not by closing the border, but by alleviating their domestic and foreign problems. The book describes how, over the next seven years, the East German regime managed to resist Soviet pressures for liberalization and instead pressured the Soviets into allowing them to build the Berlin Wall. Driving the Soviets Up the Wall forces us to view this critical juncture in the Cold War in a different light. Harrison's work makes us rethink the nature of relations between countries of the Soviet bloc even at the height of the Cold War, while also contributing to ongoing debates over the capacity of weaker states to influence their stronger allies.

At the Edge of the Wall
At the Edge of the Wall

Author: Hanno Hochmuth

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2021-03-03

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 1789208750

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Located in the geographical center of Berlin, the neighboring boroughs of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg shared a history and identity until their fortunes diverged dramatically following the construction of the Berlin Wall, which placed them within opposing political systems. This revealing account of the two municipal districts before, during and after the Cold War takes a microhistorical approach to investigate the broader historical trajectories of East and West Berlin, with particular attention to housing, religion, and leisure. Merged in 2001, they now comprise a single neighborhood that bears the traces of these complex histories and serves as an illuminating case study of urban renewal, gentrification, and other social processes that continue to reshape Berlin.

Wall Disease
Wall Disease

Author: Jessica Wapner

Publisher: The Experiment

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1615197346

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We build border walls to keep danger out. But do we understand the danger posed by walls themselves? East Germans were the first to give the crisis a name: Mauerkrankheit, or “wall disease.” The afflicted—everyday citizens living on both sides of the Berlin wall—displayed some combination of depression, anxiety, excitability, suicidal ideation, and paranoia. The Berlin Wall is no more, but today there are at least seventy policed borders like it. What are they doing to our minds? Jessica Wapner investigates, following a trail of psychological harm around the world. In Brownsville, Texas, the hotly contested US-Mexico border wall instills more feelings of fear than of safety. And in eastern Europe, a Georgian grandfather pines for his homeland—cut off from his daughters, his baker, and his bank by the arbitrary path of a razor-wire fence built in 2013. Even in borderlands riven by conflict, the same walls that once offered relief become enduring reminders of trauma and helplessness. Our brains, Wapner writes, devote “border cells” to where we can and cannot go safely—so, a wall that goes up in our town also goes up in our minds. Weaving together interviews with those living up against walls and expert testimonies from geographers, scientists, psychologists, and other specialists, she explores the growing epidemic of wall disease—and illuminates how neither those “outside” nor “inside” are immune.

The Collapse
The Collapse

Author: Mary Sarotte

Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)

Published: 2014-10-07

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0465064949

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On the night of November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall—infamous symbol of divided Cold War Europe—seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates that night was not planned by the East German ruling regime—nor was it the result of a bargain between either Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was an accident. In The Collapse, prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, and dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig and up to the armed checkpoints in Berlin. We meet the revolutionaries Roland Jahn, Aram Radomski, and Siggi Schefke, risking it all to smuggle the truth across the Iron Curtain; the hapless Politburo member Günter Schabowski, mistakenly suggesting that the Wall is open to a press conference full of foreign journalists, including NBC’s Tom Brokaw; and Stasi officer Harald Jäger, holding the fort at the crucial border crossing that night. Soon, Brokaw starts broadcasting live from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, where the crowds are exulting in the euphoria of newfound freedom—and the dictators are plotting to restore control. Drawing on new archival sources and dozens of interviews, The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall.

After the Berlin Wall
After the Berlin Wall

Author: Hope M. Harrison

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-09-26

Total Pages: 483

ISBN-13: 1107049318

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A revelatory history of the commemoration of the Berlin Wall and its significance in defining contemporary German national identity.

The Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall

Author: John Cox

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789185779024

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The Berlin variation of the Spanish is one of the most popular chess openings among world-class players. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 Black can play a completely sound opening based mainly on understanding rather than memorizing theory. Many opening books make this claim, but the scarcity of forcing lines in the Berlin mean that in this case it is true. The trick is to gain the requisite understanding, and this is where John Cox's eloquent prose comes into its own. After reading his explanations it will be clear why this robust opening has been nicknamed The Berlin Wall.

Berlin in the Cold War
Berlin in the Cold War

Author: Thomas Flemming

Publisher: Berlinica

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781935902805

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Vividly describing the conflict between the two superpowers--the U.S. and the Soviet Union--as it played out in Berlin, this book highlights the dramatic events that occurred in the divided city that was the frontier town, the spy post, and the battlefield. It was a time in Berlin that touched the whole world: the blockade, the airlift, the uprising of June 1953, the construction of the Wall, and the fall of the Iron Curtain. Stories of escape and espionage are included in this concise but detailed book which describes key points from 1945 up through the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Where in the World is the Berlin Wall?
Where in the World is the Berlin Wall?

Author: Anna Kaminsky

Publisher: Berlin Story Verlag

Published: 2014-11-09

Total Pages: 1110

ISBN-13: 3957231868

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A symbol of freedom, of the human strength of will and a relic of the Cold War. Countless pieces of the Berlin Wall were scattered around the globe after the Wall fell in 1989. These pieces of Wall embody the Berliners fight for freedom. More than 240 of these sections - each weighing tonnes - can be found in over 140 countries and on every continent. They have been located for this book. Amongst those who now own sections of the Wall are Japanese businessmen, famous art collectors and all US Presidents from the last century. There are some exciting and strange, but also tragic stories behind the pieces of the Wall. The stories in this book highlight the many ways in which the Wall has been used to commemorate the Berlin Wall and the Cold War.

Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall

Author: Hans-Hermann Hertle

Publisher: Ch. Links Verlag

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9783861534631

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Over 200 previously unpublished photographs document the building and development of the many check points, barbed wire barriers, and alarmed fences which formed the concrete wall around Berlin. This book tells dramatic tales of spectacular escapes and terrible deaths, and explains the history making events surrounding the building and fall of the Wall. Contemporary photographs are contrasted with photographs from the eighties to offer surprising insights into how the former death strip has changed since 1990. Relics of the wall in the current cityscape are prominently illustrated, including remnants of the Wall itself, expanded metal lattice fences, observation towers, barbed wire and concrete posts. Also included are statistics showing the numbers of refugees and victims of the Wall, a guide to the museums and memorials and a summary of the literature and cinema treatment of the Wall, along with a brief chronicle of its history.