History outline of the Berlin Wall and its effects Essay Example

The theme for this year’s National History Day is the rights and responsibilities achieved through history. The topic we chose for our project was the Berlin Wall and the life of the people behind it. This will explain what it was like to be behind the communist side of the Berlin Wall – the East side, East Germany (German Democratic Republic) – controlled by Stalin. I believe that it fits this year’s theme because the events of the Berlin Wall explain how the German Democratic Republic was wretched; food shortages, poor housing, low wages, and 25% of the production went into the Soviet Union. The citizens of the East side had no rights and had struggle living. The people were not permitted to leave, and if they tried to escape, they’d be shot… That took away rights that they were born with; in the words of John Locke, took their human rights of life, liberty, and estate (pursuit of happiness). People could not leave their homes and were forced to stay out of fear of death or torture… which contradicts one of our – considerable – human guidelines, and in the words of Montesquieu, “… the government should be set so that no man need be afraid of another.” The destruction of the Berlin Wall demonstrates the rights – or lack ere thereof – that we have now gained since. There were many figures who not only assisted in the creation or destruction of the wall; politically or in a more clandestine way; such as, George C. Marshall (founder of “The Marshall Plan”), -Presidents- Eisenhower, Truman, Reagan, and Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev –the Soviet premier- , and Mikhail Gorbachev among others. They all played a role in –either- creation or destruction of the Berliner Mauer (German name for Berlin Wall). The building of the Berlin wall in August of 1961 separated families and communities between what was the capital of Germany. The