Lloyd Abramic
Mr. Corrigan
AP European History
6 August 2018
The Collapse Questions
After World War II, the winning countries (United States, Britain, France, and the USSR) split Germany into two halves, with America, Britain, and France leading the western half and the USSR leading the eastern half. This split happened because the nations that formed West Germany thought the best way to help Germany recover was to make it a republic. However, the USSR did not agree, so they made East Germany a communist country. Berlin was the capital of Germany before the split, but after the split it was deep into East German territory. The countries that formed East and West Germany agreed to split Berlin to make East Berlin and West Berlin. West Berlin became part of West Germany.
Not long after the split, because of its superior economic infrastructure and better living conditions, West Germany became a much better country overall than East Germany. Because of this, large numbers of people from East Germany started to move to West Germany, with most people moving from East Berlin to West Berlin. East German leaders decided to build the Berlin Wall to prevent the tremendous loss of population. This wall proved to be effective, and got even more effective over time as different features were added to the wall. Despite the population of East Germany being 16.1 million, there were only 5,000 reported escapees over the 28 years the Berlin Wall was up.
Almost all of the people who tried to get around the wall were trying to escape into West Germany, but a few tried to get into East Germany. People tried to get around the Berlin Wall for many different reasons. One reason for escaping was to reunite with families. For example, someone might have been working in West Germany when the wall went up even though their family lived in East Germany. People moving from East Germany to West Germany had more reasons to escape, such as gaining more freedom and going to a country with a higher living standard. West Germany’s economy and quality of life were what drove most people to try to cross the wall.
The opening of the wall was an accident mostly because of the tremendous amount of pressure put on the East Germans by many different groups of people. The people of East Germany were fighting for their freedom and the countries leading West Germany put pressure on East Germany to take down the wall. As a result of this pressure, the East German government started to make mistakes. On November 9th, 1989, senior East German official Guenther Schabowski was unprepared for a question on East German travel rules at a news conference. He said that East Germany would immediately allow its citizens to leave through any border crossing, but this statement was not consistent with the policy of the East German government. Before East Germany could try to fix the mistake in communication, many people escaped over the Berlin Wall. This accidental opening of the wall played a key role in the official tearing down of the wall.
The group that should be given the most credit for the fall of the Berlin Wall is the East German people, who continually fought for the freedom to cross the border. No matter how hard the East German government pushed and no matter how extreme it was to try to escape, the East German people kept fighting for their freedom. This relentlessness put immense pressure on the East German government to act on the wishes of the people. This fight also drained the East German government’s resources. For example, the government had to use a large portion of its military to patrol the border and it had to use many resources to reinforce the wall. All of this caused the government to doubt if it was even worth fighting the people.
Even though Sarotte is a very credible author, Sarotte using interviews from people who experienced the event firsthand makes the book much more authentic. Using firsthand accounts of what happened is almost always preferable to secondary sources. The firsthand accounts do not just add to the credibility; they also add different perspectives and emotions felt by the actual people that were affected by the events. Sarotte is a very credible author by herself, and she has all the right facts about the events, but without the interviews in the book, the story would lose a lot of emotion and perspective.
One effect television had on the accidental opening of the wall was TV interviews. The most important interview came on November 9th, 1989, when Guenther Schabowski said that the people would be allowed to travel out of East Germany. However, there was a short interview held a few hours later that Schabowski had with NBC in English. The American interviewer, Brokaw, clearly used Schabowski’s lack of English knowledge to corner Schabowski into telling NBC what they wanted to hear. In the book, it says, “Brokaw tried again: ‘Is it possible for them to go through the wall at some point?’ ‘It is possible for them to go through the border,’ was Schhabowski’s response” (Sarotte 129). Because of this response, people thought Schabowski meant that the people of East Germany could freely travel anywhere they wanted. What Schabowski meant by his response was that the people of East Germany would be allowed to travel out of the country through a visa program, but then they would have to return eventually.
Another effect TV had on the opening of the wall resulted from the need for the media to get the best shot of a significant event. After the Schabowski interview, which spread quickly throughout East Germany and the whole world, the media wanted to film people fleeing across the wall because it was such a significant event. Since it was dark outside, NBC and other news stations set up floodlights by the wall, which made getting over the wall easier than if there had been no floodlights. The book states that, “…the NBC floodlights made it much easier for climbers to scramble up to the top of the wall, and in turn, NBC’s cameras filmed the striking sight” (Sarotte 150-151). In this case, television directly affected the outcome after the accidental opening of the wall.
I learned a lot from The Collapse. I learned many different facts about the Berlin Wall and what it was like living in Germany at the time. For example, I learned a lot about what measures East German people took to try to get around the wall. I liked how the author used various perspectives from different people because it made the book much more interesting. What surprised me most from the book was the fact that I did not know beforehand that the accidental opening of the wall even happened. This book was a very interesting read and it cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had about the Berlin Wall.