In the year 1961, when Berlin Wall was put up, it not only pricked a geographic regional division in Berlin but was an icon of the political difference in between east and west. Therefore, this wall created a respective influence upon not only the citizens of Berlin but everybody on the entire territory of the Earth.
1. Reactions From The Internationa Community
When word got around that a wall was being built, there was apprehension all around the globe. Some people began immediately to express their utter loathsome and detest towards East Germany. The leaders of the western world including the then the US President John F. Kennedy condemned it. Kennedy addressed the people of West Berlin during his visit only several months after construction of this hideous wall had begun; he told the people of West Berlin that the United States stands with them.
Examples:
- The construction of wall by Mexico was deemed as unlawful issue on human rights and an effort to hinder freedom of mobility by the western countries.
- Unilateral construction of walls is not acceptable, and the United Nations even released an announcement asking the country to knock it down .
- Most of the western powers no longer accepted East Berlin as the capital of East Germany although they had their ambassadors placed in West Berlin.
2. Responses from the East forwarding
The reaction of the countries of the Western world to the construction of the Berlin Wall was categorical, but in the Eastern Bloc, it was different. The Wall was justified to quell socialist freedom and to prevent skilled workers and brain resources from emigrating from East Germany to West Germany and other western states, by the Soviet Union and its allies.
Example:
- The government of East Germany put sérieus measures to ensure that no one crossed the wall without their permission. Any fugitive who tried to flee to West Berlin was to be fired upon by the guards.
3. Impact on the Cold War
The building of the ‘Berlin Wall boosted the existing tension that characterized cold war between the United States and Soviet Union. It finally grew into the powerful image of international relations’ division between communism and capitalism. It always intensified conflict along the East West divide and also strengthened the distrust between the two superpowers.
Examples:
- The United States had containment policy which was check the spread of communism beyond Eastern Europe.
- This wall supported the West to make even stricter the will to protect West Berlin and its freedoms.
- There were several tries by the US to broker the downfall of the wall in the Soviet Union but failed efforts until 1989.
4. Solidarity with people around the world and reunification
Yet people and the world woke up to the reality and slowly and started coming to terms with divided Berlin. Nevertheless, a considerable part of the population of the world has many years continued to support the inhabitants of West Berlin and to seek the unity of the city.
Examples:
- So the annual West Berlin music festival called “Rock gegen den Ost-West-Dialog” (Rock Against the East-West Dialogue) had become a symbol of resistance, freedom.
- By the 1980s, calls were being made within and from outside Germany for Berlin to be reunified and the wall demolished.
- In 1989 peaceful protests by the East Germans and the change of events in Eastern Europe forced the opening of the Berlin Wall, which was followed by scenes of reunion and the beginning setting of reconstruction of Berlin as one city.
Conclusion
The Berlin Wall construction was a subject to a variety of reactions from people all over the world. The western countries criticized it as a tool of oppression and violation of the human rights, whereas the side of Soviet Union and its allies saw it as a shield. The wall served to exacerbate antagonism between east and west but also played a significant part in the unrelenting rise in tension of the cold war. But much more international support and attempts to promote reunification finally contributed to the demolition of the wall and reunification of Berlin as a symbol of victory over the divide.
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