After watching the Berlin History videos, one subject that
really caught my attention was the rise of the communist party in 1919. The communist party and there revolutionary
ideas were gaining popularity throughout Berlin. Run by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg,
the people of Berlin took to the streets to take control of the
Government. The Kaiser of Prussia
organized a group of volunteer soldiers to put the uprising at rest, and things
got violent. The communists had taken
control of many important buildings in Berlin including the Brandenburg Gate. Eventually the volunteer soldiers were able to take back control of the city, and the gate through the use of
weapons. They then received a tip on
where they could find Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg so they surrounded the
building, and murdered them by shooting them in the head. The body of Rosa was dumped into the canal.
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| A Picture of Karl Liebknecht; the leader of the Communist Party |
This story
about the history of Berlin interests me because it is something that I had
never learned about or even heard of before.
To think that an idea of a classless society could spark a mini
revolution in a major European city is intriguing. Karl Marx who was a main leader of communism
believed that if you controlled Germany, then you controlled Europe. This thought was driving the people of Berlin
in their fight because if Berlin fell to Germany then the entire country would
shortly follow. Once the Country was
communist there was a great chance that neighboring countries would follow. We saw this with the Domino Effect during the
cold war. Russia turned communist and
shortly after countries surrounding Russia were communist as well. It is also a scary thought that a government
can murder the leaders of a political party just because they thought radically
about the way a government should be run.
I found it interesting that they didn’t even leave the bodies to be
buried by loved ones, they just disposed of them as quickly as they could.
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| A book written by Karl Marx that was a huge influence on the spread of Communism |
Another
topic in the video that was interesting to me was that East Berlin and West
Berlin were not only competing politically, but they were competing in
rebuilding their respective sides of the city.
After World War II I had learned that Berlin was in bad shape, but I
never really knew how bad until I watched these videos. When Winston Churchill flew to Berlin to get
Germany’s formal surrender from the war, he compared it to a classical city in
ruin. Buildings everywhere were either
completely demolished or had gaping holes in the side. I’m sure it left many people homeless, and
jobless. It was interesting that both
sides of the city were trying to rebuild and make it a model city that the rest
of the world would look to. The East
side built the wall, and there were many young people who were hired to build
social apartments for people to stay in because, as one woman in the video
said, it was impossible to even find a flat let alone a house. On the west side, they build a giant office
building right next to the wall. The
East responds right a way by building 4 brand new apartment buildings that made
the office building look obsolete. The
communists then built a huge tv tower that could be seen from both east and
west. They also began rebuilding the
Schloss which stood as a Palace of the republic. However, when the wall fell, and the Cold War
was over, the west Berliners were quick in demolishing the palace. This was a very important event in Berlin
History because the two sides competing against each other helped rebuild the
city much quicker, and much better. In a
way, they kept each other motivated to make Berlin great again, and to make it
what it is today.
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| A map that shows East and West Berlin during the Cold War. East belonged to the Russians while West was split between the US, Britain, and France |
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| The TV Tower built by East Berlin symbolized a new, and improved city |
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