Germany Blog #4
By watching the BBC’s documentary film on Berlin, there were
so many interesting historical moments in time that I was able to learn more
about that I did not know before. I
really found Fredrick the Great and East Germany’s building of the Berlin Wall
to be very fascinating.
Fredrick II was born on January 24th, 1712 in
Berlin. Later in life he was hailed as a
military genius and given the name Fredrick the Great. He extended his empire by conducting a series
of vicious wars. In commemoration of
Fredrick the Great’s successes on the battle field, the statue, Quadriga was
placed on top of the Brandenburg Gate in 1791.
The statue is of the goddess of victory riding a chariot that is pulled
by four horses. The Brandenburg Gate was
once the main entrance to the gated city and is not an icon that tells the
story of Berlin. This building demonstrates
the clash of ideas that define Berlin such as militarism, idealism, oppression,
and liberation. I find it so interesting
that since he won so many wars, they built a statue on top of the Brandenburg
Gate to commemorate everything he had accomplished in war.
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
Fredrick the Great
On August 31st, 1961, Germany was divided into
East Germany and West Germany by the Berlin Wall. This division would last until November 9th,
1989. The Berlin Wall stood as a
dividing point for the Communist East Berlin and the Capitalist West
Berlin. The wall was built by East
Germany to keep West Germany from being able to leave after three million individuals
had fled the city. West Berlin citizens
were basically imprisoned in their territory by the Berlin Wall. This separated families and people from jobs
and opportunities between the sides. The
wall served the State but chattered the City by creating a dividing line
between ideologies. The East side was
the Soviet Union and the West side was made up of the United States, Great Britain,
and later on, France. The night the
Berlin Wall finally came down that changed the world forever, was actually just
an accident that was unplanned and unanticipated. The head of East Germany’s Communist Party announced
that citizens of the German Democratic Republic, otherwise known as East Germany,
could cross the border freely. People
celebrated that night by crossing the border and knocking away pieces of the
wall. The Berlin Wall will always be a
symbol for the Cold War but the fall of the wall marks the end of the war.
I find the division between East and West Germany to be very
interesting. I had never known that the
fall of the Berlin Wall was an accident and not intended to happen that
way. It makes me wonder if it would have
taken a lot longer for the wall to fall.
My Grandpa was stationed in Germany during the Cold War. Since he was in the United States army, he
would have been on the West side. At the
time my Grandpa was deployed my Dad was just born so he lived in Germany for
the first three years of his life. By
learning a little bit about the Cold War, I was able to better understand what
my Grandpa was fighting in and for at the time.
Although my Grandpa never told me a lot about the war, there were many
stories he had told me about his time in Germany and the places he had traveled
to. Later in his life, my Grandpa and Grandma
traveled back to Germany but so many things had changed since the last time
they were there. One thing I will always
remember is how they explained to me that Berlin looked so different to them
when they saw it without the Berlin Wall for the first time. I am looking forward to seeing this part of
Germany so I can see it for myself and tell my Grandma all about my own experience.
Berlin Wall
Celebrating the Berlin Wall coming down
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