20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8349742.stm


Celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall are reaching their climax. Leaders from around the world have gathered at the Brandenburg Gate for a commemorative concert. Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel walked across a bridge that was the first crossing opened between East and West on 9 November 1989. The wall's fall led to the collapse of Communist power, German reunification and the Cold War's end.

Communist East Germany erected the 155-km (96-mile) concrete barrier in 1961 to encircle West Berlin and prevent citizens from fleeing into the capitalist enclave.


http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46694000/gif/_46694505_berlin_wall_226.gif


The 20 years ago since the end of Europe under one flag, but who says history doesn't repeat itself?

[Jordy]

Do you reckon Thatcher made the wrong decision in opposing the reunification of Germany?

[hah]

http://shopbase.finetunes.net/shopserver/BinaryCacheServlet?albumid=1171035245209&datatype=fc300

and lol at the French pres lying saying he was there the day the wall came down, then was proven wrong by someone

[-:Undertaker:-]

Do you reckon Thatcher made the wrong decision in opposing the reunification of Germany?

I suppose so; but when she opposed it did she mean she would not want a unified Germany under a socialist government/unity project type thing, or did she mean an independant government; not that it makes much difference anyway, Europe is again under one flag and not via choice.

[Black_Apalachi]

I always thought it came down on the same year I was born, not the year before! :O Gutted.

[Ardemax]

ahhh rob, tough luck :(

i didnt know why it was put up in the first place

can anyone explain

[-:Undertaker:-]

ahhh rob, tough luck :(

i didnt know why it was put up in the first place

can anyone explain

After the Third Reich fell, of course we know that the west (British Empire, United States) came in from the west and the Soviet Union came in from the East. The Soviets got as far as Germany and so Germany was split, Berlin as the capital was also split but was on its own within East Germany.

Josef Stalin tried to get the west to leave Berlin and put a blockade on Berlin, however the British and Americans decided we would airlift supplies to Berlin to keep it going. The Berlin Wall was erected in the name of Soviet propaganda to 'keep the capitalist enemies out' but we all know it was erected to keep people from fleeing the Soviet Union and East Germany to West Germany/Berlin. West Berlin was often called 'the hole in the iron curtain' of Soviet dominance.

It was built in the 1960s I think, and was originally only a roll of barbed wire across Berlin but then they put the wall up, and of course behind the wall was churned up ground with mines planted, along with guard after guard patrolling along the top of the wall.

[Ardemax]

ahhhh so it was the USSRs fault?

[Jordy]

ahhhh so it was the USSRs fault?Well the USSR ran East Germany and it was pretty crap over there. They all hated it.

US, UK and France ran West Germany (Although I believe it was pretty much self-governed) and West Berlin.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Deutschland_Besatzungszonen_-_1945_1946.svg

That map shows how Germany was divided up. The smaller bits in the East are Berlin and it was split in half by the wall. It's no one's fault that the wall fell down, the USSR essentially decided to give up on East Germany, and when people started going over the wall etc the army was told to do nothing. Eventually they began knocking down the wall and they were allowed to, no one wanted to stop them. The West Berliners' also began knocking down the wall as they wanted a united Germany and were happy to see the East Berliners'.