Download Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall
Germany Divided
• At the end of WWII, there was a trend to show
that neither the Western Powers nor the Soviet
Union was willing to retreat from territory that
had been taken during the war.
• The Western powers (Britain & United States of
America) would divide territory (countries) rather
than leave it to the Communists. Therefore,
Germany (and Austria), and Korea and Vietnam
were divided and occupied, with a call for
elections to come for them to vote to select their
form of government.
Berlin Divided
• Not only was Germany divided into
four occupation zones (British,
French, United States of America,
and the Soviet Union), the city of
Berlin, located in the Soviet zone,
was also divided into four zones.
• These zones were created by the
powers and were simply “lines on a
map” with no regard to what the
lines divided (neighborhoods,
families, etc). West Berlin and West
Germany were connected by a
Railroad line and road with no exits
so that you could not get off into
the Soviet zone.
Recovery from War
• Learning their lesson from World
War I, the Western powers
poured economic aid (The
Marshall Plan) into Western
zones and recovery came quickly.
• In the Soviet zone, most of the
valuable machinery and industrial
resources were stripped from
their zone and taken to Russia as
reparations.
• During the war, the United States
had provided much needed aid to
the Soviet Union through the
Lend Lease Act which ended in
1945. The economic conditions of
East (Communist) Berlin and
Germany quickly deteriorated,
while West Berlin began to grow
and prosper.
Uniting West Germany
• In 1948, the western powers
decided to unite the British,
French, and United States of
America zones into one
country (West Germany).
• The Soviets responded by
closing the road/railroad
connecting West Berlin to
West Germany, thus ending
all the needed supplies to
keep the city going.