Two Cultures, One population, One Concrete Wall
Two Cultures, One population, One Concrete Wall
Russia and U.S. once allies during WWII, were now enemies ready to explode into all-out war at any given moment with each other. The tension between the two nations was due to the fact that Russia (communist) wanted to spread its political influence throughout Europe; however, the United States (capitalist) wanted to halt the spread of communism through an act called containment. The political hostility that could have potentially reached to the brink of war was referred to as the Cold War. In Berlin, Germany the major powers that were France, British and U.S. had a disagreement with Soviet Russia on what to do with the capital city on how to sustain it, and so they split the German capital into two, the East and West. The East side of Berlin was controlled by Soviet Russia while the West was controlled by the three western powers, France, Britain, and the United States. The Eastern portion of Berlin then built up a wall that was meant to separate any western influence from coming into communist influenced East. How was the East side of Berlin different from the West side of Berlin? What did the split of one city, one united population, one race, do to the people of Berlin one both sides? In Lisa Selvide’s interview, “My memories of the Berlin Wall”, her journey into Berlin during the years of the cold war, she talks about the sense of oppression of the eastern side and the much more alive western side. Selvide states that while on the eastern side, she saw no one on the streets and explained it as empty while just seeing guards in grey uniforms. In addition, she talks about the crazy, fast paced side of West Berlin. Selvide experienced the West as being full of lights, bars open for twenty-four hours, and where everything was permitted. Further describing the West, Selvide adds on to say that getting a job was easy, cost of living was affordable, and the West was the place to be. These experiences can directly say that the East Berlin was not as prosperous as the West, and the people living in the east were not getting fairly treated from a communist system that supposedly looked after the workers and the families. Her account shows how a once, united German race, was split into living two entirely different new cultures and environments they were not accustomed too. The split into two different cultures led to German residents growing apart from their own culture, experiencing emotional breakdowns, and prejudice forming amongst the East and West Berliners.
The split of one population, one culture, meant that the German people no longer had their own identity and grew apart from their own culture. Once the wall was finally built and put up, residents on both sides started to feel a sense of great isolation. German residents on both sides of the wall were eager to know how the other side was living; however propaganda used from both eastern and western governments kept that from ever happening. The west would say things such as and the easterners drink their miseries away and that they were not good, skilled workers. The east; however, told such things like, the young people in the west take huge amounts of drugs and fall apart (Heon-Klin). The propaganda used by both sides, in a sense, attempted to convince residents on both sides that they were doing horrible and not people you would want to associate yourself with. This then would cause easterners and westerners to grow further apart from each other. The fact that East and West German residents saw each other as a bunch of trouble makers or good for nothings, according to the propaganda, was the main cause in having each side lose interest in one another, and just focus on their selves. This then broke up a united race and culture. The people of Berlin were no longer a united population living in the same city or country; they were now two separate populations living in two separate cities. So close yet so different.
Experiencing emotional breakdowns were very common among the German people for being kept away from their friends, families and loved ones. Many loved ones were split from each other due to the wall that was placed. Families seemed to have had suffered more through the many years of being isolated from their own. Young adults, who had parents on the other side of the wall, suffered from sleep disturbances and even suffered from heart aches. These kids were lonely and the support and care of their parents were gone just like that. Another instance is when a mother, living on the east side, has all her children on the west side of Berlin, and because of it develops a nervous breakdown which in results causes her to suffer through many years (Heon-Klin). The suffering that many separated Berlin families went through was a devastating blow to the German population. I believe that being kept away from the people you love does great harm, especially if you do it to a whole population. The effect is growing apart from each other, which connects back to my first point of the population growing further apart and living in a different culture. The suffering of a mother, father, child, or even a friend has while being separated for many years will cause them to not be the same anymore; therefore, turning them into whole different people. Having a population that was separated into two separate populations and suddenly having them reunified can only mean bad news. What happens to a bond a family had? What happens to a friendship? And what happens to a relationship? They all will never be the same. Suddenly being brought together creates a social gap. Keeping in mind that residents on both the east and west were treated differently, it can be assumed that two different populations, once united, will not be able to react or respond the same to one another. It would be as if they never met. Since the easterners and westerners were sustained by two different governments and each told two different things about one another, it can be predicted that prejudice then becomes a problem among the east and west. I will explain this point next.
When a population is part of a different culture and environment, there comes prejudice among each other when put together. Let’s say you and I were part of two different cultures and have been taught certain ways and values for a long time. Let us also say that our culture and the environment we lived in each said certain things about our culture, and we were made to believe in those things about that culture. You put us together for the first time and of course there is going to be some kind of prejudice with one group over the other. This happened when both the westerners and easterners were reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is a cartoon that shows a guide telling the group of people bunched up together in the middle that “Once a terrible wall separated the people here”. Then you see the westerners and easterners still on opposite sides even with the wall not being there (Heon-Klin). The cartoon is basically making the statement that even with the wall being broken down, both sides are still getting used to each other. This often occurs when being isolated for so long and being in a different world basically. Two groups of people who have different opinions about each other are sort of hesitant to meet and greet. This often causes a socially- awkward barrier. It would take some time and getting use to for the people to be reunited as one again and get along. It can only be imaginable how hard and weird it must have been to live in one city together after being used to living separately. It is almost like throwing people from Mexico to work together with tribal Africans. It needs some getting used to. This connects us to the effects of how one, single culture, which was split into two groups of people for 28 years, suddenly gets put together for the first time. That one culture is no more. Instead, two cultures exist.
The separation of one, united culture and group of people into two different worlds led to them growing apart from each other and their culture, caused emotional breakdowns on both sides, and developed prejudice towards each other after reunification. The social history of the rise and fall of the Berlin has been one for the ages and one that Berliners still feel today. Berlin was caught between the dispute and tension that was going on between Soviet Russia and the United States, and there was nothing they could have done about it. The separation left the Berlin population emotionally and socially scarred for many years since the fall in 1989.
Russia and U.S. once allies during WWII, were now enemies ready to explode into all-out war at any given moment with each other. The tension between the two nations was due to the fact that Russia (communist) wanted to spread its political influence throughout Europe; however, the United States (capitalist) wanted to halt the spread of communism through an act called containment. The political hostility that could have potentially reached to the brink of war was referred to as the Cold War. In Berlin, Germany the major powers that were France, British and U.S. had a disagreement with Soviet Russia on what to do with the capital city on how to sustain it, and so they split the German capital into two, the East and West. The East side of Berlin was controlled by Soviet Russia while the West was controlled by the three western powers, France, Britain, and the United States. The Eastern portion of Berlin then built up a wall that was meant to separate any western influence from coming into communist influenced East. How was the East side of Berlin different from the West side of Berlin? What did the split of one city, one united population, one race, do to the people of Berlin one both sides? In Lisa Selvide’s interview, “My memories of the Berlin Wall”, her journey into Berlin during the years of the cold war, she talks about the sense of oppression of the eastern side and the much more alive western side. Selvide states that while on the eastern side, she saw no one on the streets and explained it as empty while just seeing guards in grey uniforms. In addition, she talks about the crazy, fast paced side of West Berlin. Selvide experienced the West as being full of lights, bars open for twenty-four hours, and where everything was permitted. Further describing the West, Selvide adds on to say that getting a job was easy, cost of living was affordable, and the West was the place to be. These experiences can directly say that the East Berlin was not as prosperous as the West, and the people living in the east were not getting fairly treated from a communist system that supposedly looked after the workers and the families. Her account shows how a once, united German race, was split into living two entirely different new cultures and environments they were not accustomed too. The split into two different cultures led to German residents growing apart from their own culture, experiencing emotional breakdowns, and prejudice forming amongst the East and West Berliners.
The split of one population, one culture, meant that the German people no longer had their own identity and grew apart from their own culture. Once the wall was finally built and put up, residents on both sides started to feel a sense of great isolation. German residents on both sides of the wall were eager to know how the other side was living; however propaganda used from both eastern and western governments kept that from ever happening. The west would say things such as and the easterners drink their miseries away and that they were not good, skilled workers. The east; however, told such things like, the young people in the west take huge amounts of drugs and fall apart (Heon-Klin). The propaganda used by both sides, in a sense, attempted to convince residents on both sides that they were doing horrible and not people you would want to associate yourself with. This then would cause easterners and westerners to grow further apart from each other. The fact that East and West German residents saw each other as a bunch of trouble makers or good for nothings, according to the propaganda, was the main cause in having each side lose interest in one another, and just focus on their selves. This then broke up a united race and culture. The people of Berlin were no longer a united population living in the same city or country; they were now two separate populations living in two separate cities. So close yet so different.
Experiencing emotional breakdowns were very common among the German people for being kept away from their friends, families and loved ones. Many loved ones were split from each other due to the wall that was placed. Families seemed to have had suffered more through the many years of being isolated from their own. Young adults, who had parents on the other side of the wall, suffered from sleep disturbances and even suffered from heart aches. These kids were lonely and the support and care of their parents were gone just like that. Another instance is when a mother, living on the east side, has all her children on the west side of Berlin, and because of it develops a nervous breakdown which in results causes her to suffer through many years (Heon-Klin). The suffering that many separated Berlin families went through was a devastating blow to the German population. I believe that being kept away from the people you love does great harm, especially if you do it to a whole population. The effect is growing apart from each other, which connects back to my first point of the population growing further apart and living in a different culture. The suffering of a mother, father, child, or even a friend has while being separated for many years will cause them to not be the same anymore; therefore, turning them into whole different people. Having a population that was separated into two separate populations and suddenly having them reunified can only mean bad news. What happens to a bond a family had? What happens to a friendship? And what happens to a relationship? They all will never be the same. Suddenly being brought together creates a social gap. Keeping in mind that residents on both the east and west were treated differently, it can be assumed that two different populations, once united, will not be able to react or respond the same to one another. It would be as if they never met. Since the easterners and westerners were sustained by two different governments and each told two different things about one another, it can be predicted that prejudice then becomes a problem among the east and west. I will explain this point next.
When a population is part of a different culture and environment, there comes prejudice among each other when put together. Let’s say you and I were part of two different cultures and have been taught certain ways and values for a long time. Let us also say that our culture and the environment we lived in each said certain things about our culture, and we were made to believe in those things about that culture. You put us together for the first time and of course there is going to be some kind of prejudice with one group over the other. This happened when both the westerners and easterners were reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is a cartoon that shows a guide telling the group of people bunched up together in the middle that “Once a terrible wall separated the people here”. Then you see the westerners and easterners still on opposite sides even with the wall not being there (Heon-Klin). The cartoon is basically making the statement that even with the wall being broken down, both sides are still getting used to each other. This often occurs when being isolated for so long and being in a different world basically. Two groups of people who have different opinions about each other are sort of hesitant to meet and greet. This often causes a socially- awkward barrier. It would take some time and getting use to for the people to be reunited as one again and get along. It can only be imaginable how hard and weird it must have been to live in one city together after being used to living separately. It is almost like throwing people from Mexico to work together with tribal Africans. It needs some getting used to. This connects us to the effects of how one, single culture, which was split into two groups of people for 28 years, suddenly gets put together for the first time. That one culture is no more. Instead, two cultures exist.
The separation of one, united culture and group of people into two different worlds led to them growing apart from each other and their culture, caused emotional breakdowns on both sides, and developed prejudice towards each other after reunification. The social history of the rise and fall of the Berlin has been one for the ages and one that Berliners still feel today. Berlin was caught between the dispute and tension that was going on between Soviet Russia and the United States, and there was nothing they could have done about it. The separation left the Berlin population emotionally and socially scarred for many years since the fall in 1989.
Bibliography
Primary Source
Dias Anthony, Lisa Selvide.“My Memories of the Berlin Wall” Guardian Weekly. Guardian News And Media, 06 Nov. 2009. Web. 2 March. 2014http://<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/06/berlinwall-germany>.
Secondary Source
Heon-Klin V, Sieber J, Huebner J, Fullilove M T. “The Influence of geopolitical change on the well-being of a population: the Berlin Wall.” Amercian Journal of Public Health 91.3(2001):369-374.
‘My memories of the Berlin Wall’
The person who conducted the interview of Lisa Selvide, an author/journalist and an eye-witness of both the east and west side of the Berlin Wall, was Kolkata-based journalist Anthony Dias. The person that was being interviewed went to Berlin, Germany in the year 1984-1989 when the Berlin Wall was still up. The interview was conducted on November 6th 2009. The event took place in East and West Berlin during the cold war but mostly the West side of the Berlin Wall. My primary source is an interview given to an eye-witness. This source was written to give an explanation on how both the East and West side of the German capital was different by the naked eye and experiences during the cold war. It was to show how a communist controlled part of Berlin was different from a democratic, western controlled part of Berlin. I believe the source was written to really show how both countries, who had a lot of tension rising among each other during that time, were different in culture, how they run things, and how people who were under the communist and democratic control were both treated. It gave a little taste as to how the USSR and United States were both different and what ideals each country had during the time. The other reason why I believe it was written was to show how an experience by an author of two different sides of the Berlin wall can help the author think of ideas on what to write for their next novel.
Excerpt from primary source: "It may have been my age, or West Berlin. Whichever, the night life was excessive. Bars and clubs were open 24 hours and there were no limits. Everything was permitted. Some of the bars were works of art in themselves. And some of them were complete dives"
"I felt part of a community of people who were living life a little differently. I often went to the East and grew fascinated by this other world, so close and yet so different. There was a sense of oppression, hopelessness but, often, humor."
Significance of excerpt: The significance of both of these excerpts is that it explains the difference of both the East and West part of Berlin. This can be connected to how two different cultures of people, who once were one culture and one population, merged within the East and West. Both sides were controlled a lot differently than the other was. In addition,both sides were told different things and exposed to different life styles as well that had to do a lot with them being part of a new culture.
Excerpt from primary source: "It may have been my age, or West Berlin. Whichever, the night life was excessive. Bars and clubs were open 24 hours and there were no limits. Everything was permitted. Some of the bars were works of art in themselves. And some of them were complete dives"
"I felt part of a community of people who were living life a little differently. I often went to the East and grew fascinated by this other world, so close and yet so different. There was a sense of oppression, hopelessness but, often, humor."
Significance of excerpt: The significance of both of these excerpts is that it explains the difference of both the East and West part of Berlin. This can be connected to how two different cultures of people, who once were one culture and one population, merged within the East and West. Both sides were controlled a lot differently than the other was. In addition,both sides were told different things and exposed to different life styles as well that had to do a lot with them being part of a new culture.
Gallery
The Tour guide in the cartoon is saying " Once a terrible wall separated the people here."
This picture is relevant to my topic because it shows how the two groups of people, even though the wall is down, still remain on their side. This demonstrates how both sides felt it weird to meet each other after a while of separation thus creating a awkward- social moment.
This picture is relevant to my topic because it shows how the two groups of people, even though the wall is down, still remain on their side. This demonstrates how both sides felt it weird to meet each other after a while of separation thus creating a awkward- social moment.
This picture shows a map of the different sectors of Berlin during the Cold War and also shows that communist controlled Germany is surrounding the majority of the western sectors. This picture is relevant because it demonstrates the different changes the Berlin population had to adapt to being in different sectors.
This picture shows Berliners from the East helping each other out to in taking down a piece of the wall while the Russian military spectates. You can tell by their faces that they are really eager to take the wall down.
The picture here shows the different culture, art, and feelings that was painted on the Berlin wall on both the East and West sides. A lot of emotions and deep opinion and thought went into these meaningful paintings.