East german escape into west germany
Jenny huo, Sanjana Vinjamuri, Emily Mastroly, An Nguyen, Akshata Nataraja
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The Cold War consisted of the US and the Soviet Union who never engaged in battle for fear of nuclear weapons being used and the bigger effects that entire population.
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The Berlin Wall was made on 13 August 1961 by the Communist East Germany to separate East and West Germany. It was made of concrete and barbed wire. It was made in order to keep the “fascist” West Germany out of the socialist East Germany. The wall was a physical marking of the Iron Curtain (which itself was a political, physical, and military border between the Soviet Union and Democratic West).
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Around three million are estimated to have left East Germany. Hundreds of people are said to have died trying to escape. The people who attempted to escape snuck through checkpoints, hid in vehicles, and tunneled under concrete.
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After the building of the Berlin Wall, Communist East German life drastically worsened. Citizens often didn't have enough food to go around and many were homeless because there weren't enough homes for them. Media like books and newspapers were heavily censored in order for East Germany to seem like a luxury. For these reasons (and many others), East Germans felt it necessary to leave. They were like many other international refugees; they needed a better life. And that life couldn't be found in East Germany. In fact, they would face many dangers just to get this better life.
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Escaping was dangerous for a number of reasons. For one, if someone tried to get across and were caught in the act, most often they would be killed. Also, there were soldiers protecting almost all of their land, so it was hard for those trying to leave to actually escape unless using daring tactics that sometimes never worked out.
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There are many different daring escape attempts many people created in order to cross the border. One of the famous stories is of the man named Hartmut Richter, an 18-year-old, who swam for four hours across the Teltow Canal to reach West Berlin. A few years later, he returned to East Germany and smuggled at least 30 people in the trunk of his car. In 1976, he was caught and sentenced to 15 years in jail but was released after 4 years.
Another daring escape was created by Ingo Bethke, who fled East Berlin in 1975 with a friend and had to navigate through a metal fence, over a trip wire, and finally across a mine field where he and his friend crossed the river with an air mattress. His brother, Holger, soon followed him by shooting a wire cable over the Wall using a bow and arrow. Ingo, waiting on the other side, tied the wire to his metal pulley, letting Holger ride the zip line and meet his brother on the other side. |
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Alfred, Charlotte. “10 Great Escapes Across The Berlin Wall.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/berlin-wall-escape-stories_n_6090602.html.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Iron Curtain.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 Sept. 2018, www.britannica.com/event/Iron-Curtain. Editors, History.com. “Berlin Wall.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 15 Dec. 2009, www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall. |
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