World War 2 devastated the entire world for over six years from 1939-45. In brief; Germany and Japan lost the war and US, UK, France and USSR( modern day Russia which also included Central Asian nations, Eastern European nations) amongst others emerged victorious.
The victorious powers met in Potsdam in Germany from 17th July to 2nd August, 1945. In that it was decided to partition Germany into two parts: West and East. The western part was to be administered by US, UK and France and the eastern part by Russia. This happened due to differences and distrust between the members. It became a reason for the subsequent Cold war. The sides became part of alliances.
“The fall of the Berlin wall deeply impacted not only me but all Germans & Europeans,” says Berlin-based guest artist Max Guther, creator of today’s #GoogleDoodle.
“I felt very honored to have the opportunity to be working on this.”#DoodlerUpClose → https://t.co/bWxEnSe0FT
— Google Doodles (@GoogleDoodles) November 9, 2019
US, UK, France and certain other nations became part of the ‘Capitalistic’ world; Russia, Poland and certain other nations became a part of the ‘Communist’ world.
It was in this regard that the Berlin wall came up. Let us look at this briefly.
Details of the wall
The wall came up in Berlin on 13th August, 1961. It was constructed by the government in East Germany. Berlin was part of East Germany; however, it was divided between the two camps.
It prevented the residents of Berlin from traveling across the wall. It divided Berlin into two and prevented its residents from crossing over to the other side. The East German authorities believed that the idea of fascism was creeping into the minds of its people and this had to be stopped.
Various check points, barrier was erected near the wall to stop residents from traveling across. Families were separated and it became a traumatic episode for many.
Here are some of the features of the wall:
Ø It evolved from a border of barbed wire to a fully concrete barrier armed with Eastern German border guards controlling it.
Ø There were more than a million mines laid to prevent people from escaping. There were also 3000 attack dogs present.
Ø It was nearly 12 feet high and approximately 27 miles long with 302 guard towers and 55,000 anti-personnel explosive devices.
Ø To prevent border crossings, it was made all the more difficult. Atleast 140 people died while trying to cross over by either gun shot wounds or by accident.
The wall was finally brought down on November 9th, 1989.
This led to the end of the Cold war in 1991 with the disintegration of USSR.