*Includes pictures *Includes accounts written about the construction and fall of the wall by people at the time
*Includes footnotes and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents “From Stettin in the Baltic to
Trieste in the Adriatic an ‘Iron Curtain’ has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of
the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and
Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are
subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of
control from Moscow.” – Winston Churchill, 1946 "This is a historic day. East Germany has announced that, starting
immediately, its borders are open to everyone. The GDR is opening its borders ... the gates in the Berlin Wall stand
open." – German anchorman Hans Joachim Friedrichs Though it never got “hot,” the Cold War was a tense era until the
dissolution of the USSR, and nothing symbolized the split more than the Berlin Wall, which literally divided the city.
Berlin had been a flashpoint even before World War II ended, and the city was occupied by the different Allies even as
the close of the war turned them into adversaries. After the Soviets’ blockade of West Berlin was prevented by the
Berlin Airlift, the Eastern Bloc and the Western powers continued to control different sections of the city, and by the
1960s, East Germany was pushing for a solution to the problem of an enclave of freedom within its borders. West Berlin
was a haven for highly-educated East Germans who wanted freedom and a better life in the West, and this “brain drain”
was threatening the survival of the East German economy. In order to stop this, access to the West through West
Berlin had to be cut off, so in August 1961, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev authorized East German leader Walter
Ulbricht to begin construction of what would become known as the Berlin Wall. The wall, be on Sunday August 13,
would eventually surround the city, in spite of global condemnation, and the Berlin Wall itself would become the symbol
for Communist repression in the Eastern Bloc. It also ended Khrushchev’s attempts to conclude a peace treaty among the
Four Powers (the Soviets, the Americans, the United Kingdom, and France) and the two German states. The wall would serve
as a perfect photo-rtunity for two presidents (Kennedy and Reagan) to hammer the Soviet Communists and their
repression, but the Berlin Wall would stand for nearly 30 years, isolating the East from the West. It is estimated about
200 people would die trying to cross the wall to defect to the West. Things came to a head in 1989. With rapid change
throughout Europe, the wall faced a challenge it could not contain, the challenge of democracy’s spread. On the night
of November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was effectively removed from the midst of the city it so long divided. It was
removed with pick axes and sledgehammers, but also removed from the hearts and minds of the people on both sides who
only hours before had thought the wall’s existence insurable. As one writer put it, “No border guard, no wall, can
forever shield repressive regimes from the power of subversive ideas, from the lure of freedom.” The fall of the Berlin
Wall is often considered the end of the Cold War, and the following month both President Bush and Gorbachev declared the
Cold War over, but the Cold War had been thawing for most of the 1980s. President Reagan is remembered for calling the
Soviet Union an “evil empire” and demanding that Gorbachev tear down the wall, but he spent the last several years of
his presidency working with the Soviet leader to improve relations. The end of the Soviet Union came when Gorbachev
resigned on December 25, 1991. The Soviet Union formally dissolved the next day.