In discussing Germany post WWII, it is impossible to overlook what happened to the capital city of Berlin. During the class we briefly looked at a map depicting how Berlin, like the rest of Germany, was split into four sectors: French, British, American, and Soviet. The dividing of the city mimics the division of the rest of the country. Although Berlin was entirely in East Germany, each of the Allied powers got a sector to govern and keep control of until a new, approved government was established.
After the war, there really wasn't much of a city to return to. Due to the bombings from the Allies, large swaths of the city was nothing but rubble. Only about 65% of the original population remained, the rest had either moved to safety or perished in the bombings. The subject of missing people and homes was touched upon in the reading and discussion of The Man Outside by Wolfgang Borchert during the class this past week. The main protagonist, Beckmann, comes home from the POW camp to discover his house in ruins, his dead child among the rubble, and his wife with another man. The loss of not only house but home and the people he loved wrecked him, much like the rest of Germany was stripped of what they loved.
It wasn't just the city that the Allies destroyed. The people themselves were ruined in one way or another. Many lost homes, family, and friends. Others lost their dignity and humanity. While those learning history are focusing on the cleaning up of the soldiers and concentration camps at the end of the war, many ignore what else the Allied soldiers were up to. A mass rape was underway while the Allies were "taking care of" Germany. Because the subject may not be suitable for all readers, those who are interested may read more here:
In the video below, British soldiers are entering Berlin at the end of the war. The footage shows the ruins of city, comparing images of before and after the war. Many pieces of gorgeous architecture were ruined from the bombs. Places of culture and art, destroyed by the fires of war. They may not have been the homes of the people but they were important nonetheless.
While the well-known Berlin wall wasn't started until 1961, the division between East and West Berlin could be felt. While the Allies jointly ran West Berlin, the Soviets ran the East. This created a hotspot of turmoil for the Cold War. With the birth of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)(West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR)(East Germany), the tensions mounted higher. As West Berlin was still in East Germany, the people living in the French, British, and American sectors felt isolated. The 1948 West Berlin blockade and airlift mentioned in class portrays this well. We talked about West Berlin and how the Soviets cut off supplies going into the city, and thus the airlift was created to relieve the citizens of West Berlin. The event just goes to show how the struggle for control between the communist and democratic powers was shown by their use of Germany and its citizens, especially in Berlin. The differences between the Soviets and the other Allies kept Germany divided through the Cold War and long after. The divide lasted until the reunification of Germany in 1990 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991, several decades after the end of WWII.
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