1.
Western Bloc
–
The Western Bloc or Capitalist Bloc during the Cold War refers to the countries allied with the NATO against the Soviet Union and its allies. The latter were referred to as the Eastern Bloc, a common term in English than Western Bloc. The governments and press of the Western Bloc were more inclined to refer to themselves as the Free World or the Western world, new York, Simon & Schuster,1994
Western Bloc
–
Political situation in Europe during the
Cold War
2.
Berlin Wall
–
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992, the barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, fakir beds and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany, the West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the Wall of Shame—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Walls restriction on freedom of movement. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration, during this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany, crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall, contrary to popular belief the Walls actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, the capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the citys location, which was fully within the Soviet zone. Within two years, political divisions increased between the Soviets and the occupying powers. Property and industry was nationalized in the East German zone, if statements or decisions deviated from the described line, reprimands and punishment would ensue, such as imprisonment, torture and even death. Indoctrination of Marxism-Leninism became a part of school curricula, sending professors. The East Germans created a political police apparatus that kept the population under close surveillance. In 1948, following disagreements regarding reconstruction and a new German currency, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several countries began a massive airlift, supplying West Berlin with food. The Soviets mounted a public campaign against the Western policy change. Communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948, preceding large losses therein, in May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin. The German Democratic Republic was declared on 7 October 1949, by a secret treaty, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy. The Soviets permeated East German administrative, military and secret police structures and had full control, East Germany differed from West Germany, which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy and a democratic parliamentary government
Berlin Wall
–
View from the West Berlin side of
graffiti art on the wall in 1986. The wall's "death strip", on the east side of the wall, here follows the curve of the
Luisenstadt Canal (filled in 1932).
Berlin Wall
–
Satellite image of Berlin, with the wall's location marked in yellow
Berlin Wall
–
East German
Combat Groups of the Working Class close the border on 13 August 1961 in preparation of the Berlin Wall construction.
Berlin Wall
–
East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961.
3.
East Berlin
–
East Berlin existed between 1949 and 1990 and consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors became West Berlin, strongly associated with West Germany, from 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989, East Berlin was separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall. In East German official usage, it widespread in the 1970s to refer to the Western part of the city as Westberlin. In May 1945, the Soviet Union installed a city government for the city that was called Magistrate of Greater Berlin. After the war, the Allied Forces initially administrated the city together within the Allied Kommandatura, however, in 1948 the Soviet representative left the Kommandatura and the common administration broke apart during the following months. In the Soviet sector, a city government was established. When the German Democratic Republic was formed in 1949, it immediately claimed East Berlin as its capital - a claim that was recognized by all Communist countries, nevertheless, its representatives to the Peoples Chamber were not directly elected and did not have full voting rights until 1981. In June 1948, all railways and roads leading to West Berlin were blocked, however, more than one-thousand East Germans were escaping to West Berlin each day by 1960. In August 1961, the East German Government tried to stop that from happening by building the Berlin Wall and it was very dangerous for illegal migrants to cross because of the presence of armed guards that were trained to shoot people in such cases. East Germany was a socialist republic, but there was not complete economic equality, privileges such as prestigious apartments and good schooling were given to members of the ruling party and their family. Eventually, Christian churches were allowed to operate without restraint after years of harassment by authorities, in the 1970s wages of East Berliners rose and working hours fell. The United States Command Berlin, for example, published detailed instructions for U. S. military, in fact, the three Western commandants regularly protested against the presence of the East German National Peoples Army in East Berlin, particularly on the occasion of military parades. Nevertheless, the three Western Allies eventually established embassies in East Berlin in the 1970s, although they never recognized it as the capital of East Germany, treaties instead used terms such as seat of government. On 3 October 1990, West and East Germany and West and East Berlin were reunited, after reunification, the East German economy suffered significantly. Many East German factories were shut due to inability to comply with West German pollution and safety standards. Because of this, an amount of West German economic aid was poured into East Germany to revitalize it. This stimulus was part-funded through a 7. 5% tax on income, despite the large sums of economic aid poured into East Berlin, there still remain obvious differences between the former East and West Berlin. East Berlin has a visual style, this is partly due to the greater survival of prewar façades and streetscapes
East Berlin
–
Marx-Engels-Platz and the
Palast der Republik in East Berlin in the summer of 1989. The
Fernsehturm (TV Tower) is visible in the background
East Berlin
–
Flag
East Berlin
–
Easter Sunday 1988 Fernsehturm and Palast der Republik
East Berlin
–
Karl Marx Allee apartments
4.
West Berlin
–
West Berlin was an enclave which comprised the western part of the city of Berlin during the Cold War. It was formally controlled by the Western Allies and formed a de facto part of West Germany, and was entirely surrounded by the Soviet-controlled East Berlin and East Germany. West Berlin had great significance during the Cold War, as it was widely considered by westerners as an island of freedom. A wealthy city, West Berlin was noted for its liberal and cosmopolitan character. With about two million inhabitants, West Berlin had the biggest population of any city in Cold War Germany and it was 100 miles east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from West Germany by narrow rail and highway corridors. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945 and was de facto part of West Germany and it had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies. East Berlin, de jure occupied and administered by the Soviet Union, was the de facto capital of East Germany, the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, physically divided West Berlin from its East German surroundings until it fell in 1989. The Potsdam Agreement established the framework for the occupation of Germany in the wake of World War II. The territory of Germany, as it existed in 1937, would be reduced by most of Eastern Germany thus creating the former territories of Germany. The remaining territory would be divided into four zones, each administered by one of the allied countries, according to the agreement, the occupation of Berlin would end only as a result of a quadripartite agreement. The Western Allies were guaranteed three air corridors to their sectors of Berlin, and the Soviets also informally allowed road, at first, this arrangement was intended to be only a temporary administrative structure, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began, the joint administration of Germany. Soon, Soviet-occupied Berlin and western-occupied Berlin had separate city administrations, in 1948, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors—the Berlin Blockade. The West responded by using its air corridors for supplying their part of the city with food, in May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade, and West Berlin as a separate city with its own jurisdiction was maintained. Following the Berlin Blockade, normal contacts between East and West Berlin resumed, however, in cases this proved only temporary. In 1952, the East German government began sealing its borders, as a direct result the electrical grids were separated and phone lines were cut. However, the culmination of the schism did not occur until 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall. From the legal theory followed by the Western Allies, the occupation of most of Germany ended in 1949 with the declaration of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic
West Berlin
–
West Berlin, as of 1978
West Berlin
–
Flag
West Berlin
–
In 1969 U.S. military vehicles pass through the residential district of
Zehlendorf, a routine reminder that West Berlin was still legally occupied by the Western Allies of World War II
West Berlin
–
President
John F. Kennedy addressing from
Rathaus Schöneberg the people of West Berlin on Rudolf-Wilde-Platz (today's John-F.-Kennedy-Platz), 26 June 1963.
5.
Cold War
–
The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
Cold War
–
Photograph of the
Berlin Wall taken from the West side. The Wall was built in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing and to stop an economically disastrous drain of workers. It was a symbol of the Cold War and its fall in 1989 marked the approaching end of the war.
Cold War
–
Allied troops in
Vladivostok, August 1918, during the
Allied intervention in the
Russian Civil War.
Cold War
–
The "
Big Three " at the Yalta Conference:
Winston Churchill,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Joseph Stalin, 1945.
6.
East German
–
East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
East German
–
GDR leaders: President
Wilhelm Pieck and Prime Minister
Otto Grotewohl, 1949
East German
–
Flag (1959–1990)
East German
–
SED First Secretary,
Walter Ulbricht, 1950
East German
–
Head of State:
Erich Honecker (1971–89)
7.
Walter Ulbricht
–
Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht was a German Communist politician. Ulbricht played a role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany. As the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party 1950 to 1971, from President Wilhelm Piecks death in 1960, he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973. He followed Stalins guidelines very closely, and made sure everyone else in East Germany did so as well. Ulbricht was born in Leipzig, Saxony, to Pauline Ida and Ernst August Ulbricht and he spent eight years in primary school. After leaving school, he trained to be a joiner, both his parents worked actively for the Social Democratic Party, which Walter joined in 1912. Ulbricht served in World War I from 1915 to 1917 in Galicia on the Eastern Front and he deserted in 1918, as he had opposed the war from the beginning. Imprisoned in Charleroi, in 1918 he was released as part of the collapse of Imperial Germany, in 1917 he became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party after it split off from the Social Democratic Party over support of Germanys participation in World War I. During the German Revolution, he became a member of the soviet of his army corps. Along with the bulk of the USPD, he joined the KPD in 1920 and he rose fast in the ranks of the KPD, becoming a member of the Central Committee in 1923. Ulbricht attended the International Lenin School of the Comintern in Moscow in 1924/1925, the electors subsequently voted him into the regional parliament of Saxony in 1926. He became a Member of the Reichstag for South Westphalia from 1928 to 1933 and served as KPD chairman in Berlin, in the years before the 1933 Nazi election to power, paramilitary wings of Marxist and extreme nationalist parties provoked massive riots connected with demonstrations. Besides the Berlin Police, the KPDs arch-enemies were street-fighters affiliated with the Nazi Party, the Monarchist German National Peoples Party, and radical nationalist parties. The Social Democratic Party of Germany, which dominated local and national politics from 1918-1931, for this reason, the Comintern ordered the KPD to cooperate with the Nazis against the SPD. At an event arranged by the Nazi Party in January 1931, Ulbricht was allowed by Joseph Goebbels, subsequently, Goebbels delivered his own speech. The attempt at a friendly discussion turned hostile, and a struggle between Nazis and Communists began, police officers divided them, both sides had tried to use this event for their election propaganda. The Nazi Party attained power in Germany in January 1933, and very quickly began a purge of Communist, following the arrest of the KPDs leader, Ernst Thälmann, Ulbricht campaigned to be Thälmanns replacement as head of the Party. Many competitors for the leadership were killed in the Soviet Union because of Ulbricht, Ulbricht lived in exile in Paris and Prague from 1933 to 1937
Walter Ulbricht
–
Ulbricht in 1970
Walter Ulbricht
–
Babylon Cinema, Berlin, site of the Anlauf-Lenck murders, as it appears today
Walter Ulbricht
–
Ulbricht (bottom left) on a
Berlin Police wanted poster calling Help Find the Red Murderers, September 1933
Walter Ulbricht
–
Mao Zedong, Stalin and Ulbricht at Stalin's 70th birthday celebrations in Moscow, December 1949
8.
Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
Soviet Union
–
Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920
Soviet Union
–
Flag
Soviet Union
–
Stalin and
Nikolai Yezhov, head of the
NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was
edited out of the image.
Soviet Union
9.
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
–
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection was a point of controversy during the Cold War. After World War II, emigration restrictions were imposed by countries in the Eastern Bloc, legal emigration was in most cases only possible in order to reunite families or to allow members of minority ethnic groups to return to their homelands. Eastern Bloc governments argued that limits to emigration were necessary to prevent a brain drain. The United States and Western European governments argued that they represented a violation of human rights, despite the restrictions, defections to the West occurred. After East Germany tightened its zonal occupation border with West Germany and this was closed with the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Thereafter, emigration from the Eastern Bloc was effectively limited to illegal defections, ethnic emigration under bilateral agreements, bolsheviks took power in Russia following the Russian Revolution of 1917. During the Russian Civil War that followed, coinciding with the Red Armys entry into Minsk in 1919, after more conflict, the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was declared in 1920. In 1922, the Russian SFSR, Ukraine SSR, Byelorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SFSR were officially merged as republics creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and these included Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, part of eastern Finland and northern Romania. By 1945, these additional annexed countries totaled approximately 465,000 additional square kilometers, or slightly more than the area of West Germany, East Germany and Austria combined. The Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia was also considered part of the Bloc, the Soviets promoted the reverence of Russian actions and characteristics, and the construction of Soviet Communist structural hierarchies in the other countries of the Eastern Bloc. Initially, Stalin directed systems that rejected Western institutional characteristics of market economies, democratic governance, the Soviets mandated expropriation and estatization of private property. Communist regimes in the Eastern Bloc saw even marginal groups of intellectuals as a potential threat because of the bases underlying Communist power therein. Empty shelves in shops even in East Germany provided a reminder of the inaccuracy of propaganda regarding purported magnificent. The reasoning was partly because emigration was conflated with opposition to the socialist state, the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk obligated Russia to allow emigration of non-Russians who wanted German citizenship, but the regime attempted to reduce this flow by allowing it during only one month. Beginning in 1919, travel abroad required the approval of the NKVD, in 1932, as Stalins first Five Year Plan forced collectivization, to allocate scarce housing and weed out nonproductive elements, internal passport controls were introduced. When combined with individual city Propiska permits, and internal freedom of movement restrictions often called the 101st kilometre, when the Soviet Constitution of 1936 was promulgated, virtually no legal emigration took place, except for very limited family reunification and some forced deportations. Very small numbers snuck into Romania, Persia, and Manchuria, moskovskaya Pravda later described the decision to emigrate as unnatural and like burying someone alive. Those wishing to leave were viewed not just as deserters, the mobilization of labor in the Soviet Union was not feasible if emigration remained an option with the relative low standard of living that existed at that time
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
–
Conrad Schumann leaping over
barbed wire into
West Berlin on August 15, 1961, three days after construction began on the
Berlin Wall
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
–
A line for the distribution of cooking oil in
Bucharest, Romania in May 1986
Eastern Bloc emigration and defection
–
Rare Soviet "type 2" visa for permanent emigration
10.
Berlin Crisis of 1961
–
The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union—the last to be attended by the Communist Party of China—was held in Moscow during the crisis. After the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, some of those living in the acquired areas of the Eastern Bloc aspired to independence. Between 1945 and 1950, over 15 million people emigrated from Soviet-occupied Eastern European countries to the West. Taking advantage of this route, the number of Eastern Europeans applying for asylum in West Germany was 197,000 in 1950,165,000 in 1951,182,000 in 1952 and 331,000 in 1953. By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to controlling national movement, restricting emigration, was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, up until 1953, the lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones could be easily crossed in most places. Consequently, the Inner German border between the two German states was closed, and a fence erected. When large numbers of East Germans then defected under the guise of visits, accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. The Berlin sector border was essentially a loophole through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still escape, the 4.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population. The loss was disproportionately heavy among professionals—engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers, in November 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev issued the Western powers an ultimatum to withdraw from Berlin within six months and make it a free, demilitarised city. In response, the United States, United Kingdom, and France clearly expressed their determination to remain in. With tensions mounting, the United States, United Kingdom and France formed a group with orders to plan for an eventual response to any aggression on West Berlin. The planning group was named LIVE OAK, and staff from the three countries prepared land and air plans to access to and from West Berlin. The Soviet Union withdrew its deadline in May 1959, and the ministers of the four countries spent three months meeting. Eisenhower and Khrushchev had a few together at the US presidential retreat Camp David. There was nothing more inadvisable in this situation, said Eisenhower, than to talk about ultimatums, Khrushchev responded that he did not understand how a peace treaty could be regarded by the American people as a threat to peace. Eisenhower admitted that the situation in Berlin was abnormal and that human affairs got very badly tangled at times, Khrushchev came away with the impression that a deal was possible over Berlin, and they agreed to continue the dialogue at a summit in Paris in May 1960. However, the Paris Summit that was to resolve the Berlin question was cancelled in the fallout from Gary Powerss failed U-2 spy flight on 1 May 1960
Berlin Crisis of 1961
–
East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall in 1961
Berlin Crisis of 1961
–
American tanks face an East German water cannon at
Checkpoint Charlie.
Berlin Crisis of 1961
–
Main article
11.
Eastern Bloc
–
The Eastern Bloc was the group of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact. The terms Communist Bloc and Soviet Bloc were also used to denote groupings of states aligned with the Soviet Union, although these terms might include states outside Central and Eastern Europe. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who viewed the Soviet Union as a socialist island, Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Bessarabia in northern Romania were recognized as parts of the Soviet sphere of influence. Lithuania was added in a secret protocol in September 1939. During the Occupation of East Poland by the Soviet Union, the Soviets liquidated the Polish state, Soviet authorities immediately started a campaign of sovietization of the newly Soviet-annexed areas. Soviet authorities collectivized agriculture, and nationalized and redistributed private and state-owned Polish property, the international community condemned this initial annexation of the Baltic states and deemed it illegal. In June 1941, Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact by invading the Soviet Union, from the time of this invasion to 1944, the areas annexed by the Soviet Union were part of Germanys Ostland. Thereafter, the Soviet Union began to push German forces westward through a series of battles on the Eastern Front, from 1943 to 1945, several conferences regarding Post-War Europe occurred that, in part, addressed the potential Soviet annexation and control of countries in Central Europe. I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he wont try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace. While meeting with Stalin and Roosevelt in Tehran in 1943, Churchill stated that Britain was vitally interested in restoring Poland as an independent country, Britain did not press the matter for fear that it would become a source of inter-allied friction. In February 1945, at the conference at Yalta, Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of influence in Central Europe. Stalin eventually was convinced by Churchill and Roosevelt not to dismember Germany, after resistance by Churchill and Roosevelt, Stalin promised a re-organization of the current pro-Soviet government on a broader democratic basis in Poland. He stated that the new primary task would be to prepare elections. In addition to reparations, Stalin pushed for war booty, which would permit the Soviet Union to directly seize property from conquered nations without quantitative or qualitative limitation, a clause was added permitting this to occur with some limitations. At first, the Soviets concealed their role in other Eastern Bloc politics, as a young communist was told in East Germany, its got to look democratic, but we must have everything in our control. Moscow-trained cadres were put into crucial power positions to fulfill orders regarding sociopolitical transformation, elimination of the bourgeoisies social and financial power by expropriation of landed and industrial property was accorded absolute priority. These measures were publicly billed as reforms rather than socioeconomic transformations, the bloc system permitted the Soviet Union to exercise domestic control indirectly. Crucial departments such as responsible for personnel, general police, secret police
Eastern Bloc
–
The Big Three:
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Premier of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin at the
Yalta Conference, February 1945.
Eastern Bloc
–
Political situation in Europe during the
Cold War
Eastern Bloc
–
World War II Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk fled Poland in 1947 after facing arrest and persecution.
Eastern Bloc
–
Germans watching Western supply planes at
Berlin Tempelhof Airport during the
Berlin Airlift.
12.
German reunification
–
The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity, celebrated on 3 October. Following German reunification, Berlin was once designated as the capital of united Germany. The East German regime started to falter in May 1989, when the removal of Hungarys border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain and it caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany and Austria via Hungary. The united Germany is the continuation of the Federal Republic. For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term reunification during the run-up to what Germans frequently refer to as die Wende, after 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events led up to the actual reunification, in its usual context. When referring to the events surrounding unification, however, it carries the connotation of the time. However, anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term Wende as it was introduced by SEDs Secretary General Egon Krenz, the capital city of Berlin was divided into four occupied sectors of control, under the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Germans lived under such imposed divisions throughout the ensuing Cold War, into the 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced a period of economic and political stagnation, and they correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall that had separated Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that Churchill had referred to as the Iron Curtain. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost, perestroika and taken to more progressive levels by Gorbachev. Further inspired by images of brave defiance, a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West, however, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germanys first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohls Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification, second, East Germanys economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. While East Germany had long been reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the East German mark had been practically worthless outside East Germany for some time before the events of 1989–90 further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began for a merger of the German economies
German reunification
–
Berlin Wall at the
Brandenburg Gate, 10 November 1989
German reunification
–
Map showing the division of
East and
West Germany until 1990, with
West Berlin in yellow.
German reunification
–
Brandenburg Gate in
Berlin, national symbol of today's
Germany and its reunification in 1990.
German reunification
–
Police officers of the East German
Volkspolizei wait for the official opening of the
Brandenburg Gate on 22 December 1989.
13.
Allied Museum
–
The Allied Museum is a museum in Berlin. The museum is located on Clayallee, a road named after General Lucius D. Clay. Until German reunification in 1990, the area was located in the American sector of postwar West Berlin, the buildings near the US Army headquarters then housed an American movie theater, called Outpost, and the Nicholson Memorial Library. The museum was inaugurated in 1998, on the anniversary of the Berlin airlift. Since the closure of Berlin Tempelhof Airport in 2008, the Allied Museum has announced its interest in relocating to the old airport at some point. The museum shows an important part of the military and political scenery of the Cold War in Berlin, from immediately after World War II, the early period of partition plans evolved by the European Advisory Commission is documented. In late April, Soviet Red Army troops fought their way into the city during the Battle of Berlin, in Summer they pulled out from the citys Western sectors according to the agreements concluded. The increasing tensions culminated in the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the building of the Berlin Wall, particular emphasis is on logistics and sacrifices of life by the British-American airlift to West Berlin. Lectures and screenings are held regularly, the collections include the reconstruction of an espionage tunnel built during the Operation Gold conducted by the American and British inteeligence services in 1955. Part of the hall is reserved for exhibitions on themes of modern-day relevance. Near the Allied Museum, in Clayallee, a sculpture by Veryl Goodnight remembers the event when the Berlin Wall came down. Five wild horses are shown jumping over the remains of the wall, a statue of General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben stands nearby. German-Russian Museum List of museums and galleries in Berlin Durie, W, the British Garrison Berlin 1945-1994 No where to go Berlin, Vergangenheits/Berlin
Allied Museum
–
The Allied Museum
Allied Museum
–
GDR watchtower
Allied Museum
–
Transport plane from the
Berlin Airlift
Allied Museum
–
Guardhouse from Checkpoint Charlie
14.
Dahlem (Berlin)
–
Dahlem is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in southwestern Berlin. Until Berlins 2001 administrative reform it was a part of the borough of Zehlendorf. Dahlem is one of the most affluent parts of the city, Dahlem is home to the renowned Freie Universität Berlin with its Philological Library by Norman Foster as an important local landmark. Several other research institutions, the Berlin Botanical Garden and many museums are located there, although Dahlem has a reputation of an idyllic and quiet area, it is very busy with students arriving by U-Bahn on weekdays. The western part of the locality includes parts of the Grunewald forest, the first written account of Dahlem dates to the year 1275. The history of the village is connected to the Dahlem Demesne first mentioned in 1450 and its estates were sold to the state of Prussia in 1841 and developed by dividing it into lots for building villas and mansions. The Demesne buildings today house a farm and an agricultural open-air museum. In 1920 the village was amalgamated into Greater Berlin, from 1931 on Martin Niemöller, a leader of the Confessing Church, was pastor of the United Protestant Sankt-Annen-Kirche until he was arrested by the Nazis in 1937. During the Cold War Dahlem belonged to the American Sector of West Berlin, from 1945 to 1991 the seat of the Allied Kommandatura of Berlin was in Dahlem on Kaiserswerther Straße. Today it serves as the office for the president of the local university, until 1994, the headquarters of the United States Army Berlin command and the Berlin Brigade were located on Clayallee street. Parts of the building are used by the Embassy of the United States in Berlin. The former library and Outpost theater across the street today house the Allied Museum, the newly founded university should uphold the traditional values of academic freedom and the educational ideal proposed by Wilhelm von Humboldt. Rudi Dutschke, spokesman of the German student movement in the 1960s, is buried at the cemetery of the Sankt-Annen-Kirche, stations in Dahlem include Breitenbachplatz, Podbielskiallee, Dahlem-Dorf, Thielplatz and Oskar-Helene-Heim. Berlin-Verlag, ISBN 3-87061-155-3 Media related to Dahlem at Wikimedia Commons
Dahlem (Berlin)
–
"Rost- and Silberlaube" complex of the
FU Berlin
Dahlem (Berlin)
–
Domäne Dahlem
Dahlem (Berlin)
–
The
Dahlem-Dorf U-Bahn station
15.
Berlin
–
Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
Berlin
16.
Inner German border
–
The inner German border was the border between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990. Not including the similar and physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was 1,393 kilometres long and it was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of former Nazi Germany. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed East German guards who faced tens of thousands of West German, British and US guards, in the hinterlands behind the border were more than a million North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Warsaw Pact troops. The border was a manifestation of Winston Churchills metaphorical Iron Curtain that separated the Soviet. It marked the boundary between two ideological systems – capitalism and communism and it caused widespread economic and social disruption on both sides, East Germans living in the region suffered especially draconian restrictions. The better-known Berlin Wall was a separate, less elaborate. On 9 November 1989, the East German government announced the opening of the Berlin Wall, over the following days, millions of East Germans poured into the West to visit. Little remains of the inner German borders fortifications and its route has been declared part of a European Green Belt linking national parks and nature reserves along the course of the old Iron Curtain from the Arctic Circle to the Black Sea. Museums and memorials along the old border commemorate the division and reunification of Germany and, in some places, the inner German border originated from the Second World War Allies plans to divide a defeated Germany into occupation zones. The boundaries between these zones were drawn along the boundaries of 19th-century German states and provinces that had largely disappeared with the unification of Germany in 1871. Three zones were agreed on, each covering roughly a third of Germanys territories, a British zone in the north-west, an American zone in the south, france was later given a zone in the far west of Germany, carved out of the British and American zones. The division of Germany was put into effect on 1 July 1945, the redeployment of Western troops prompted many Germans to flee to the West to escape the Soviet takeover of the remainder of the Soviet zone. The wartime Allies initially worked together under the auspices of the Allied Control Council for Germany, cooperation between the Western Allies and the Soviets ultimately broke down because of disagreements over Germanys political and economic future. In May 1949, the three occupation zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany with a freely elected government. The Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic, under communist rule, from the outset, West Germany and the Allies rejected East Germanys legitimacy. The creation of East Germany was deemed a communist/Soviet fait accompli, West Germany regarded German citizenship and rights as applying equally to East and West German citizens. East Germans thus had an incentive to move to the West. In the early days of the occupation, the Allies controlled traffic between the zones to manage the flow of refugees and prevent the escape of former Nazi officials and intelligence officers
Inner German border
–
Border installations at
Schlagsdorf
Inner German border
–
The Allied zones of occupation in post-war Germany, highlighting the Soviet zone (red), the inner German border (heavy black line) and the zone from which British and American troops withdrew in July 1945 (purple). The provincial boundaries are those of
Nazi Germany, before the present
Länder (federal states) were established.
Inner German border
Inner German border
17.
East Germany
–
East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
East Germany
–
GDR leaders: President
Wilhelm Pieck and Prime Minister
Otto Grotewohl, 1949
East Germany
–
Flag (1959–1990)
East Germany
–
SED First Secretary,
Walter Ulbricht, 1950
East Germany
–
Head of State:
Erich Honecker (1971–89)
18.
Occupied Germany
–
The four powers divided Germany into four occupation zones for administrative purposes, into what is collectively known now as Allied-occupied Germany. This division was ratified at the Potsdam Conference, in autumn 1944 the United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union had agreed on the zones by the London Protocol. The Final German Peace Treaty would result in the westward of Polands borders back to approximately as they were before 1722. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the boundaries for the future zones of occupation. The so-called line of contact between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border was temporary. After two months in which they had areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone. All territories annexed by Germany before the war from Austria and Czechoslovakia were returned to these countries, the Memel Territory, annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, the American zone consisted of Bavaria and Hesse in Southern Germany, and the northern portions of the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. The ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven were also placed under American control because of the American request to have certain toeholds in Northern Germany, the headquarters of the American military government was the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt am Main. Beginning in May 1945, many of the American combat troops and airmen in, Army, the Army Air Forces and the U. S. Navy upon their return home. The Canadian Army was tied down in surrounding the Netherlands until the Germans there surrendered on 5 May 1945 – just two days before the surrender of the Wehrmacht in Western Europe to U. S. Then in July 1945, the British Army withdrew from small slices of Germany that had previously agreed to be occupied by the Soviet Army. Within the British Zone of Occupation, the CCG/BE re-established the German state of Hamburg, also in 1947, the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen became an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation located within the British Zone. In 1946, the Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany had 4,000 soldiers in Hanover, despite its being one of the Allied Powers, the French Republic was at first not granted an occupation zone in Germany. This created a French zone of occupation in the westernmost part of Germany and it consisted of two barely contiguous areas of Germany along the French border that met at just a single point along the River Rhine. It included the Saargebiet, which was disentangled from it on 16 February 1946, by 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar area and allied occupied Germany. The French zone ceded further adjacent municipalities to the Saar, included in the French zone was the town of Büsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government agreed to limited numbers of French troops to pass through its territory in order to maintain law
Occupied Germany
–
The Allied zones of occupation in post-war Germany, highlighting the Soviet zone (red), the
inner German border (black line), and the zone from which American troops withdrew in July 1945 (purple). The provincial boundaries correspond largely to those of the
pre-war states, before the creation of the present
Länder (federal states).
Occupied Germany
–
The C-Pennant
Occupied Germany
–
Road sign delimiting the British sector of occupation in Berlin, 1984
Occupied Germany
–
Flag used by ships registered in the British zone.
19.
Brain drain
–
Human capital flight refers to the emigration of highly skilled or well-educated individuals. Research is mixed as to whether there are net benefits, a gain, or net costs. Benefits and costs might vary per case, geographical, The flight of highly trained individuals and college graduates from their area of residence. Industrial, The movement of skilled workers from one sector of an industry to another. As with other human migration, the environment is often considered to be a key reason for this population shift. At the individual level, family influences, as well as personal preferences, career ambitions and other motivating factors, the term brain drain was coined by the Royal Society to describe the emigration of scientists and technologists to North America from post-war Europe. Another source indicates that this term was first used in the United Kingdom to describe the influx of Indian scientists, there are also other relevant phrases, brain circulation and brain waste. „Brain-drain‟ is a phenomenon where, relative to the remaining population, after all, research indicates that there may be net human capital gains, a brain gain, for the sending country in opportunities for emigration. One of the last leading figures of this group was Simplicius, a pupil of Damascius, the students of an academy-in-exile may have survived into the ninth century, long enough to facilitate the Arabic revival of the Neoplatonist commentary tradition in Baghdad. After the end of the Catholic reconquest of Spain, the Catholic Monarchs pursued a religiously uniform kingdom, Jews were expelled from the country in 1492. Before that, the Queen had also expelled them from the Kingdom of Andalusia, the war against Turks and North African Moors affected internal policy in the uprising of the Alpujarras and motivated the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609. Despite being a minority group, they were a key part of the farming sector and their departure contributed to economic decline in some regions of Spain. This way, the conservative aristocracy increased its power over economically developed provinces, in 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and declared Protestantism to be illegal in the Edict of Fontainebleau. Many went to the Dutch colony at the Cape, where they were instrumental in establishing a wine industry, at least 10,000 went to Ireland, where they were assimilated into the Protestant minority during the plantations. Many Huguenots and their descendants prospered, henri Basnage de Beauval fled France and settled in the Netherlands, where he became an influential writer and historian. Abel Boyer, another noted writer, settled in London and became a tutor to the British Royal Family, henry Fourdrinier, the descendant of Huguenot settlers in England, founded the modern paper industry. Augustin Courtauld fled to England, settling in Essex and established a dynasty founded the British silk industry. Noted Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer was born in Geneva to Huguenot refugees, sir John Houblon, the first Governor of the Bank of England, was born into a Huguenot family in London
Brain drain
–
Theoretical physicist
Albert Einstein, who emigrated to the United States to escape Nazi persecution, is an example of human capital flight as a result of political change.
Brain drain
–
Berlin Wall in 1975
20.
Czech hedgehog
–
The Czech hedgehog is a static anti-tank obstacle defense made of metal angle beams or I-beams. The hedgehog is very effective in keeping tanks from penetrating a line of defense, although Czech hedgehogs may provide some scant cover for infantry, infantry forces are generally much less effective against fortified defensive positions than mechanized units. The Czech hedgehogs name refers to its origin in Czechoslovakia, the Czech hedgehog was widely used during World War II by the Soviet Union in anti-tank defense. They were produced from any piece of metal and sometimes even wood. Czech hedgehogs were especially effective in combat, where a single hedgehog could block an entire street. Czech hedgehogs thus became a symbol of defense at all cost in the Soviet Union, hence, Czech hedgehogs were part of the defenses of the Atlantic Wall and are visible in many images of the Normandy invasion. A Czech hedgehog made to specifications could be constructed from any material capable of withstanding at least 60 tonnes-force, such parameters, however were hard to achieve in makeshift hedgehogs, thereby reducing their usefulness. Two arms of the hedgehog were connected in the factory, while the arm was connected on-site by M20 bolts. The arms were equipped with feet to prevent sinking into the ground. During the Normandy Invasion the Allies cut up sizable numbers of intact and wrecked hedgehogs, known as Rhino tanks, they proved very useful for clearing the hedgerows that made up the bocages across Normandy. Caltrop Cheval de frise, a frame covered with many long iron or wooden spikes used in medieval times to deter cavalry. A23992, Royal Navy Commandos at La Riviere preparing to demolish beach obstacles
Czech hedgehog
–
Examples of Czech hedgehogs deployed on the
Atlantic Wall in the vicinity of
Calais.
Czech hedgehog
Czech hedgehog
–
Entry point of the West Berlin S-Bahn into East Berlin near the
Berlin Wall in Liesenstrasse/Gartenstrasse, 1980
Czech hedgehog
–
Prepared material at a highway in Switzerland
21.
Friedrichstadt (Berlin)
–
Friedrichstadt was an independent suburb of Berlin, and is now a historical neighbourhood of the city itself. The neighbourhood is named after the Prussian king Frederick I, Friedrichstadt is located south of the Dorotheenstadt neighbourhood, and southwest of the historical suburb of Friedrichswerder. It is located south of the twin-city zone of Berlin and Cölln, today, the northern part of the neighbourhood is located in the borough of Berlin-Mitte, while the southern part of the neighbourhood is located in borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The border between the two boroughs runs along the side of Niederkirchnerstraße and Zimmerstraße. A large portion of the Spittelmarkt and adjoining Hausvogteiplatz were once part of a military installation associated with the suburb of Friedrichswerder. In order to assist with the layout and the placement of buildings and houses, various architects and engineers, including Johann Nering, Johann Behr. The new city was founded in 1691, Friedrichstadt was the third expansion of the Berlin-Cölln city center, after Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder. Friedrichstadt was built outside of the Berlins fortifications, south of Dorotheenstadt, however, the city was protected both by the militia of Leipzig and a lengthening of the western city wall of Dorotheenstadt. Today, this is the site of Mauerstraße, toward the south, Friedrichstadt originally extended to the present-day Zimmerstraße. From that southern point, the city extended approximately to the fortifications of the city of Neu-Cölln, to enter the city from Friedrichswerder, one entered through the Leipziger Tor, and to enter from Dorotheenstadt, one came through the Friedrichs-Tor. This new area of the city, however, was not referred to as Friedrichstadt until 1706, Friedrichstadt was designed with an unusually austere geometric style for the time, with broad streets which intersected at right angles to each other. Because the ground upon which the new neighbourhood was to be built was boggy and unstable, many houses in the city had to be built on stilts and stakes. As a result of government sponsored building rush,300 houses stood in Friedrichstadt in 1692, many settlers in the city were Huguenots seeking refuge from the French government. Jerusalems Chapel, which used to stand outside of the area before, was included into Friedrichstadts municipal borders. In 1701 the Judge Krause at the neighboured Kammergericht added a chapel for his family to the church building. To accommodate more German and French settlers, ground was broken on the constructions of two churches, the French Church of Friedrichstadt, and the German New Church, in 1701. Construction of new homes continued in the city until 1708, in 1711 at the corner of Jäger and Markgrafen streets a new building for the Societät der Wissenschaften, founded by Gottfried Leibniz, opened. Today the building is occupied by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, with that, the independence of Friedrichstadt ended, as it was incorporated as a part of the new Berlin
Friedrichstadt (Berlin)
–
An early drawing of the Friedrichstadt street layout.
Friedrichstadt (Berlin)
–
Friedrichstadt within Berlin
Friedrichstadt (Berlin)
–
A map of Berlin in 1710. Friedrichstadt appears in the lower left.
Friedrichstadt (Berlin)
–
King Frederick William I observes construction in Friedrichstadt, background:
Trinity Church.
Tanks at 1961 checkpoint
Virtual e-Tour (Shockwave Player required)
Media related to Checkpoint Charlie at Wikimedia Commons
