Sunday, September 13, 2015

Berlin History Blog Post #4

           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.



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. 

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.

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



The TV Tower built by East Berlin symbolized a new, and improved city


Word Count: 643

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