The Berlin Blockade
The country of Germany had been fragmented and occupied after the Second World War, and between the war and the construction of the wall, cold war tensions rose during the Berlin Blockade and Airlift. As West Germany and East Germany would become their own states and form allegiances, West Berlin would become a bone in Khrushchev's throat. The Berlin Wall was constructed with the primary objective to contain fleeing denizens of Eastern Germany, however, multiple other social, political and economic objectives of varying precedences also motivated the kremlin to order its erection.
The primary motivation for the creation of an ‘iron curtain’ around West Berlin was to contain fleeing denizens of Eastern Germany. West Berlin had acted as an 'escape …show more content…
West Berlin as an island of democracy in a sea of soviet territory had created major political problems that both Ulbricht and Khrushchev felt needed to be addressed. The Marshall plan had delayed the removal of American forces from Europe, and this left a pocket of them in occupied Western Germany and the occupied section of West Berlin. And so, the wall was built as an extension of the iron curtain in Germany, the telephone lines were cut, the bus and tram service was indefinitely suspended, barbed wire watchtowers and minefields created an uncrossable corridor, a genuine iron curtain. All modes of communicating with the West was cut off, and thus the Berlin Wall became not only a physical barrier, but also a social one. Moreover, the secondary wall on the eastern side, which would come to be patrolled by guards with machine guns would not be directed at keeping people out, but entrapping the denizens like prisoners. Furthermore, it was speculated that the isolation of West and East Berlin could plausibly cause the allies to secede from occupying that zone, leaving all of the capital under soviet control. Moreover, it was thought that Berlin was the spot most likely to trigger a nuclear conflict, and so West berlin became a bone in Khrushchev's throat. The combination of these economic, social and political influences, tied together with the prospects of building an ‘iron ring’ around Berlin to staunch emigration, led up to the construction of the
The primary motivation for the creation of an ‘iron curtain’ around West Berlin was to contain fleeing denizens of Eastern Germany. West Berlin had acted as an 'escape …show more content…
West Berlin as an island of democracy in a sea of soviet territory had created major political problems that both Ulbricht and Khrushchev felt needed to be addressed. The Marshall plan had delayed the removal of American forces from Europe, and this left a pocket of them in occupied Western Germany and the occupied section of West Berlin. And so, the wall was built as an extension of the iron curtain in Germany, the telephone lines were cut, the bus and tram service was indefinitely suspended, barbed wire watchtowers and minefields created an uncrossable corridor, a genuine iron curtain. All modes of communicating with the West was cut off, and thus the Berlin Wall became not only a physical barrier, but also a social one. Moreover, the secondary wall on the eastern side, which would come to be patrolled by guards with machine guns would not be directed at keeping people out, but entrapping the denizens like prisoners. Furthermore, it was speculated that the isolation of West and East Berlin could plausibly cause the allies to secede from occupying that zone, leaving all of the capital under soviet control. Moreover, it was thought that Berlin was the spot most likely to trigger a nuclear conflict, and so West berlin became a bone in Khrushchev's throat. The combination of these economic, social and political influences, tied together with the prospects of building an ‘iron ring’ around Berlin to staunch emigration, led up to the construction of the