Berliners watching a C-54 land at Berlin Tempelhof Airport, 1948
The City of Berlin Germany was a prominent hotspot during the Cold War and was the first place the war started.
- Immediately following WWII, Berlin was split in half by the Soviets and the remaining allies (US, England, and France). Each side would stand face to face armed and ready to battle.
- The US wanted all of Germany to become a democracy but only had control over the west part of the nation.
The Berlin Airlift (1948-49)
At the end of World War II, Berlin was a divided city with different sections controlled by American, British and Russian forces.
- June 24, 1948 the Soviets blockaded rail, road and water access to allied-controlled areas of the city
- The US launched the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49.
- The US air-dropped supplies to aid the civilians there and also to promote pro-US/western sentiments through propaganda.
The Hero of the Berlin Airlift: The Candy Bomber
The Berlin Airlift Student Activity, from Harry S. Truman Presidential Library
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Story of the Berlin Airlift using Maps
Building the Berlin Wall (1961-1989)
Video of the Construction of the Berlin Wall featuring Interviews
- Berlin Wall Art: The Wall Before the Fall includes a gallery of Wall artwork.
- Documents from the history of Berlin Wall, Woodrow Wilson International Center
The continuing existence of the two German states increased Cold War tensions throughout the 1950s.
- West Berlin was surrounded by East German territory. East Germany, however, proclaimed East Berlin as its capital, a move that was not recognized by the western powers.
- The tensions between east and west culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall. This was exacerbated by a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961.
- The wall represented the animosity the two sides felt toward one another and would divide the German capital for years while it was under the occupation of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the Warsaw Pact.
- This wall would stand until 1989 when the wall was torn down, effectively and symbolically ending the Cold War.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)
Crane removing a section of the Berlin Wall, December 21, 1989
The Berlin Wall Falls and the USSR Dissolves, Office of the Historian, United States Department of State
How the Wall Came Down, November 10, 1989
- One of the people who came through the wall that day was Angela Merkel, later became Chancellor of Germany
How the Fall of the Berlin Wall Really Happened, New York Times (November 6, 2014)
NBC News Coverage of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall and Women
The building of the Berlin Wall had an effect on women in society that still carries on in present-day Germany.
- When the Berlin Wall was first erected, Germany was split into two: the West, which went to the United States, Great Britain and eventually France, and the East, controlled by the Soviet Union.
- Although Communism had failed civilians in the East in many ways, one group it did not fail was women. Eastern women had the ability to send their children to free day cares and all-day schools in order to clear time for work. The East lost men to labor in the West and therefore had to turn to women as a key component of the workforce.In addition, women had a year of paid maternity leave, shorter work hours after the second child, and an extra vacation day per month.
- When the Berlin Wall fell, employment among women in the East was up to 90 percent, whereas in the West it was only 55 percent. Even today, Eastern women are more likely to hold top management positions than women in the West.
Eastern Women Working
[1] Bennhold, Katrin. “20 Years after Fall of Wall, Women of Former East Germany Thrive.” The New York Times. The New York Times, October 5, 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/europe/06iht-letter.html.