Berlin August 15, 2015

Cold War: Today we visited sites as they relate to the cold war between the United States and Soviet Union. We visited a piece of the old Berlin wall, the "death field", east Berlin neighborhoods, and monuments to those that tried to escape the totalitarian system.
We met our excellent tour guide Heidi and her extremely well trained dog Daisy. We took the subway to East Berlin where we saw parts of death field, Berlin Wall, apartment buildings along wall, video of Soviet occupation of East Germany, stood on rail where Berlin wall ran. The Berlin wall was built two meters behind East West Berlin border so West Berlin people could not help East Berliners over wall.
Went to east Berlin neighborhood with beautiful buildings, streets, architecture, and shops used as a showcase for communism. Saw pictures of people killed attempting to escape east Berlin. So sample tunnel built by east Berliners attempting to escape.
Ended the day with the three of us going to a pub in east Berlin. Lou and Heidi had a beer while Carol drink sparkling water. Of course Lou had dark beer.

 

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Tourguides Heidi and Daisy. Note that Heidi is not German. She is from Great Britain but has lived in Germany for many, many years.

A scale at the Berlin Wall Memorial complex showing where the Berlin Wall used run.

The Berlin Wall was built to prevent people from escaping from the eastern half of Berlin into Western

separated the city of Berlin in Germany from 1961 to 1989. It separated the eastern half from the western half. Many people thought it was a symbol of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall was taken down on November 9, 1989. It was built to prevent people from escaping from the eastern half of Berlin.

A section of the Berlin Wall.

Photos of a few of the people who died while trying to cross the wall.

Daisy, Carol and Lou in front of the Berlin Wall.

A line of wreaths commemorating the anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Wall with gap that allows people to look through the wall into the kill zone.

 

Berlin Blockade

The Berlin Blockade (1 April 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutschmark from West Berlin.
In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin airlift to carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, a difficult feat given the city's population. Aircrews from the United States Air Force, the British Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and the South African Air Force:338 flew over 200,000 flights in one year, providing to the West Berliners up to 8,893 tons of necessities each day, such as fuel and food. The Soviets did not disrupt the airlift for fear this might lead to open conflict.
By the spring of 1949, the airlift was clearly succeeding, and by April it was delivering more cargo than had previously been transported into the city by rail. On 12 May 1949, the USSR lifted the blockade of West Berlin. The Berlin Blockade served to highlight the competing ideological and economic visions for postwar Europe.