w. 41

Berlin Wall + East Germany

Here’s the first video we looked at in class:

I showed some other films about the building of the wall in the early 1960s and how the wall looked from the air. I've not been able to find them online. However, there are a number of films on YouTube about the history of the Wall.

I noted that the Berlin Wall became a symbol of the Cold War. And eventually with it comes a somewhat comfortable understanding of the balance of power between the West and the East. Even if there are still many places around the world where the U.S. and the Soviet Union are in conflict because they support different sides in various conflicts, there is a certain acceptance of the split of power in Europe.

But by the time we get to the 1980s, this acceptance starts to be less secure, because there is greater discontent in Eastern Europe, particularly regarding the economic challenges. Whereas people in the West are experiencing increased wealth (which is evident, for example, in the ability to own cars, appliances, more expensive clothing, as well the ability to travel, and access to new music), families in the East are still on waiting lists for cars (of which there is usually one mediocre sort), telephones, appliances, apartments they don’t need to share with other families, and they are forced to wait in line to get basic foodstuffs, because stores regularly run out of popular items, including meat and fresh foods. 

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the new Soviet leader. Here’s a little graphic of the Cold War Soviet leaders and U.S. presidents:

Gorbachev determined that reforms needed to be made in the Soviet Union – and also in the other countries of the Eastern bloc. He introduced the concepts of perestroika and glasnost.

 But the system had become so inflexible that it was difficult to introduce change easily. For decades, change had been stifled (kvävt), because there was the fear that if any change was allowed, the Soviet Union would lose control. Gorbachev acknowledged that this still might be the case – that it would lose control. But he argued that change was necessary nonetheless.

In 1989, a number of changes started to develop as a result of perestroika and glasnost. For example, Hungary took down its border with Austria, which thus created an opening in the Iron Curtain.

In the fall of 1989, East Germans began protesting – but not knowing if there would be repercussions (återverkan; that is, would the police arrest them). Up until the Berlin Wall actually opened, and it became clear that East Germany wasn’t going to be able to put the toothpaste back in the tube, there was the very real fear of the Stasi and what it would do.  

I noted that in May–June of 1989, there were protests with thousands of demonstrators in Beijing China, at the very large Tiananmen Square. These protests ended with the Chinese government sending in the tanks and soldiers and firing on unarmed demonstrators, killing thousands. We don’t know exactly who or how many were killed, because the Chinese government is not transparent about such things.

In Germany there was the very real question of whether or not East Germany/Warsaw Pact troops would behave like China in November of 1989.

Thursday:

We started by taking a quiz; after that you read in your book, chpt. 33, section 1. The purpose of the quiz and reading was to help you see which concepts and events you may be having problems with. You’ll notice that most of the terms are connected to the events of the Cold War we’ve been discussing, including

the Truman Doctrine

the Marshall Plan

the Berlin Blockade and Airlift

the formation of West Germany (FRG) and East Germany (GDR)

NATO

Warsaw Pact

Hungarian Revolution

Prague Spring

Berlin Wall

Information about Mikhail Gorbachev and glasnost and perestroika are in chpt. 35, section 3, pp. 1046-1047.

Stasi

The Stasi was the secret police of East Germany was officially formed in 1950. It was modeled off the Soviet secret police (the NKVD, later the KGB).

goals:

discourage dissent among the population

manipulate and control the minds of citizens

It dealt with things such as

-       political surveillance

-       internal security

-       supervision of political trials

-       administration of Gulags and other prison camps

-       border security

By 1989, Stasi had

-       91,015 full-time staff

-       173,000 informants

privileges for informers

-       education

-       access to work

Behavior that could get people into trouble with the Stasi:

-       slandering the state

-       any criticism toward the SED (the communist party in control of East Germany)

-       refusal to cooperate with a state security official

-       conspiracy to leave the GDR

In the early years of East Germany, 100,000s of East Germans were fleeing to the West. One of the purposes of the Stasi was to stop people from leaving.

We look at a couple of clips from the movie “The Lives of Others” to help us understand how the Stasi worked:

And here is a link to a video about the real Stasi files, where former East Germans can go to read their files. At around the 5-min. mark, a woman talks about the amount of time it takes before a people starts dealing with their past. 

And on the Britannica website, there are a couple of short films about the Stasi.