Importance of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

When the planet was divided into two different worlds facing each other, there was a wall that symbolized that separation and the growing tension between both parties. That wall was the Berlin Wall, and its fall in 1989 marked the end of an era and the beginning of a whole new period.

What did this wall represent and why was it built?

In order to answer this question, we must go back to the Second World War, a historical moment of the 20th century in which several European and First World nations fought each other over what would become domination of vast territories and ultimately the world. whole. The alliance that held together countries like Great Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union against Germany, Japan, and Italy was an unrealistic and fictitious alliance.

When the allies won the war and Germany (possibly growing power and probable world power if victorious) collapsed as a territory to control Europe. The disputes entered the group of allies and thus among the four countries they decided to divide up Germany and especially the city of Berlin. The country was divided into 4 regions and the city was separated by a wall that marked the western territory (in the hands of the United States, France and Great Britain) and the eastern territory (in the hands of the Union Soviet).

The symbology behind the wall

Much has been written about the Berlin Wall, therefore, to simplify and better understand things, we must say that this wall It mainly meant the confrontation between two worlds that were fighting to win: the Western capitalist world and the communist world. Soviet. Both were clearly capable of defeating the other and it is then, after the construction of the Wall in 1961 that consolidated the idea of Cold War (that is to say, a war neither fought nor warmongering) between both parts. The tension between 1961 and 1989, when the wall finally falls, was unprecedented.

The regions that faced each other fostered two different lifestyles: against consumption and the shock of economic dynamism that West Germany entailed with its capitalism at full blast, the eastern region was sinking into stagnation and unwise economic policies that could not be sustained in the long term.

At the same time, the quality of life of the population which was located in the region known as the German Democratic Republic (under Soviet power) worsened day after day with excessive inflation, lack of food, low consumption and stagnation widespread. This resulted in a permanent desire of the German population to move to the western side where the territory began to flourish.

The fall of the Wall and reunification

When the economic situation and policy on the eastern side it became more and more untenable, with short-lived governments due to instability, it went making visible the possibility of ending the division and promoting the reunification of Germany under the symbol capitalist.

So it was that in 1989, very slowly the idea of ​​tearing down the wall and attending one of the most important events of the 20th century was consolidated: the victory of the capitalist world over the communist world and the passage of the United States to become the power that would dominate the world from then until the present.

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