Readings on Ukraine
Tag: cold war
Berghahn’s Best-selling Books in History
We are delighted to present a list of our History bestsellers in honor of the American Historical Association’s 2020 – 2021 Virtual Conference. Visit our Virtual AHA Booth for special opportunities for discounts and engagements.
Continue reading “Berghahn’s Best-selling Books in History”Summer Simulated Shelves
Browse our latest in Anthropology, Archaeology, Sociology, History, Literary Studies, Film & Television Studies, and Mobility Studies/Refugee and Migration Studies below.
Continue reading “Summer Simulated Shelves”A Divided Germany
This week marks the fifty-eighth anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. The Iron Curtain was assembled in the middle of Berlin in August 1961 and expanded over the following months to ultimately divide West Berlin from the surrounding East Germany, prohibiting East Germans to pass into West Germany for decades. Browse our relevant titles on the history and ramifications of a divided Germany.
Continue reading “A Divided Germany”The Berlin Wall Is Built
On August 13, 1961, Berlin woke up to a shock: the East German Army had begun construction on the infamous Berlin Wall. The Wall was initially constructed in the middle of Berlin, and expanded over the following months. It entirely cut off West Berlin from the surrounding East Germany, prohibiting East Germans to pass into West Germany.
The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period. The Berlin Wall came to symbolize the “Iron Curtain” that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.
Browse Berghahn relevant titles on History of divided Germany:
MEMORIALIZING THE GDR
Monuments and Memory after 1989
Anna Saunders
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War.
The Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall happened nearly as suddenly as its rise. On the evening of November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official Günter Schabowski stated, “Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the GDR (East Germany) into the FRG (West Germany) or West Berlin.” Crowds of euphoric East Germans crossed and climbed on to the wall in celebration. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. “Only today,” one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, “is the war really over.”
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Browse Berghahn relevant titles:
THE PATH TO THE BERLIN WALL
Critical Stages in the History of Divided Germany
Manfred Wilke
Translated from the German by Sophie Perl
“…constitutes a superlative model of combining biography with the study of nationalism. The latter constitutes the most novel contribution of this well-researched, straightforward historical depiction of Kohl’s ideology and its impact upon the continuing development of German national identity… Recommended” · Choice
25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall
From 1961 to 1989, the city of Berlin was divided by the most visible sign of the Cold War: a wall more than 140km (87 miles) long. On 9 November 1989, East German authorities announced they would allow free access between east and west Berlin. Crowds of euphoric East Germans crossed and climbed on to the wall, leading to a reunited Germany.
Berlin is marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall by “rebuilding” it with glowing white balloons. Some 8,000 illuminated helium balloons will trace a 15km-long section of the wall, snaking around the city, for just one weekend (7 to 9 November). The installation will come to an end on the evening of 9 November, when volunteers will release the balloons and set them free, soaring into the night sky to the strains of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, played by the European Youth Orchestra. The balloons are made out of a biodegradable material so will not harm the environment. For a full story and more information on the event please visit ibtimes.co.uk
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Browse Berghahn relevant titles:
THE PATH TO THE BERLIN WALL
Critical Stages in the History of Divided Germany
Manfred Wilke
Translated from the German by Sophie Perl