WELCOME

President Kennedys Famous Speech In Front of the Berlin Wall

"To explore the social and historical impacts the Berlin Wall had on Germany and its people. And to remediate the history of the wall using; pictures maps and information to create a multi media website."
(this quote above summarizes the goals of my project for Dr. Megan Timmney's Huma 150 class, at the University of Victoria.)


   The digital Humanities site on the history of the Berlin Wall, from 1961 to 1989 was made for people who have an interest in post-WW2 History, and more specifically events that took place in Germany during the Cold War. However, some of the sites remediated content could be used for a more in depth research . For example; if someone wants to know about the exact location of the wall and some Historical points along the wall, my map will have the pertinent information. 

 
   The entire site was created by Gabe Baron, a Social Science undergraduate student at the University of Victoria.






Remediation:


   After 1989, Germany became a unified nation and so the Berlin Wall, which had devided the two nations, was abandoned.  Artists from across the world came to make their mark on the Berlin Wall, By painting pictures or placing their tags of events that had occurred. The Wall turned into an art piece and a canvas that depicted the pain and suffering of those who living under the oppresive regime of Communist East Germany. I created a collage in commemoration of the whole period from 2010 to 1962 when it was built, including the 28 years of turmoil while the Wall was still operational. My collage starts from the present (top left) 2010, and works its way down to the laying of the first brick (bottom right) in 1962.

(It is amazing, how something that had caused so much personal pain and turmoil, could become something that brings people happiness; a work of art)

TEXT ANALYSIS: "THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL"

   When Gorbachev came into power and the Cold War started to thaw. It was patently evident that Germany would be unified. The Berlin Wall was chosen to be the first symbol of reunification. It had to go. As rumors spread across Germany of the boarders opening, a press release from an Italian journalist Riccardo Ehrman, (the Berlin correspondent of ANSA news agency) confirmed that the checkpoints along the East West boundary had been opened "As far as I know effective immediately, without delay"(Nov. 9, 1989).



   After hearing this news, East Germans began gathering at the Wall, demanding that the border guards immediately open the gates. The overwhelming number of citizens surprised the guards at the gates' checkpoints. No guard or official wanted to take responsibility for ordering the opening of the gates, so soldiers were given no orders and didn't know what to do. As the gates got more and more crowded the guards Finally gave up trying to hold back the masses, and so opened the gates. Thousands of East Berliners immediately rushed into West Berlin. The separation and oppression of Berlin was finally over.

   Word spread like a wild fire across the world. Every News agency across the globe wanted coverage of this momentous event. It was the opening of the Gates that marked the end of of the Cold War. Journalists from the United States, were first on the scene in Berlin to get coverage on the actual tearing down of the wall. Big News agencies like ABC and NBC were there to film and write about this land mark event in history.

   This historic event was observed and highlighted by all the world press. The NewYork Times throughout the month of November 1989, headlined  the Fall of the Berlin Wall in many editions. For the purpose of this project, I have compiled four newspaper articles written by the NewYork Times and subjected them for text analysis and visualization through the 'ManyEyes Text Analysis' application. Through the use of ManyEyes, I have created both a Word Cloud and a Word Tree, both of which I will expand on below and provide an analysis.

   for my first step of my text analysis, I downloaded the four articles off the NewYork Times website that were written in November 1989 when the Wall fell. Then I synthesized all the documents into one large document and analyzed this document with the ManyEyes program. After that, for my first task I created a word cloud in order to understand and identify some key phrases that wold help me get a general idea of the themes associated with the destruction of the Wall. The Word Cloud or Wordle is presented below:

     Analyzing the Wordle, I noticed words such as; "Revolution", "History", "Fall", "United" and "crossing" come up frequently. All these words relate to freedom and a start of a new era. Also I saw words such as: "Cold" (relating to Cold War), "Soviet"(relating to the Soviet Union) and "war"(relating to the Cold War) which are all elements that had either ended or was no longer applicable as a result of the "destruction" of the Berlin Wall. When observing these words it paints a picture of happy faces as they run across to West Berlin to start a new life. A life with freedom of speech and a freedom of movement and occupation. Taking what I gathered from the word cloud, I put my information into the Word Tree program. By Using Word Tree I was able to go even further in analyzing the text.


    When I picked a very insignificant word from the Word Tree that I thought would relate to the destruction of the Berlin Wall, I was surprised by my results. Only two of the branching sentences were about the Berlin Wall as it relates to revolution. The remaining references were totally off topic. For example; the 1956 Suez crisis, this Historical event has nothing to do with the Berlin Wall. This is why is was so surprised to see it in my results. Most of the results related to pre- not post WW2 events. what I learned from the Word Trees results were that revolution had nothing to do with the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The word "Revolution" is more customarily used for wars and Communist revolutions. Note that all the big words found on the Wordle were mostly locations and dates. Note that the word freedom is no bigger than revolution on the cloud.

(I couldn't fit the whole picture in because sentences were to long.)


   The next key word I put into the Word Cloud program was "fall". Unlike the surprisingly inaccurate results that I got from "revolution", my results for "Fall" were very accurate. Most of the sentences related to the fall of the Soviet powers in Berlin. There were also sentences that related directly to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The best sentence I got from my analysis on "Fall" was; "The fall of the Wall was the first step toward German unification". This is a great quote because it summarises what the Wall stood for and what changed when it was torn down. To this date, the mere mention of the word "the Wall" will get people to associate the word with the division between East and West Germany and the end of an era.

(Once again, can't fit whole pic in, sentences were too long.)

   The final word I typed into the program was "crossing" as in crossing from East Berlin to west Berlin. Most of the results for this word search yielded information about East Germans trying to escape over the Wall; or about confrontations of West Berlin forces with East Berlin forces which wold usually end in a stalemate. The results for "crossing" really reflected well on the struggle people had trying to be free and be with their loved ones on the other side. Security around the Wall was tight and guards were told to shot on site. East Berliners came up with ingenious ways to get across like "crossing through the holes" that were made in the wall.

(sentences too large, could not fit on page)



    Overall I was happy with the results I got from my key word searches. Except for the ones I got for the word "revolution". Although the word "revolution" did not yield any significant information or insights, my other searches were very informative and on topic. The other two key words had a sufficient amount of information on the Berlin wall in 1989. The key word "crossing", summarized the struggle people had to get across the wall to escape Communism. The word "fall" helped explain events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall. What surprised me, was the fact that most of the sentences that came up for my key word search search were of events that took place before 1989. I was expecting more sentences that related to how East and West Germans felt about the destruction of the wall and the end of the Cold War,  instead of non-descriptive information about events leading up to the destruction of the wall. The reason for this shallow is analysis was because the events were too recent and raw to allow any in depth analysis. If I had chosen newspaper articles later date, several months later, I would have yielded richer and more analytical information. Just like the dropping of the first atomic bomb, the destruction of the Berlin Wall was such a momentous event that people needed time to digest and understand the implications of what had just happened.

Map and Timeline: history of the Berlin Wall

TIMELINE:

1945: World War II ends in Europe when Nazi Germany surrenders. The Potsdam Conference divides Germany and Berlin into four occupation zones: British, French, American, and Soviet. 1948: Separate governments form for East and West Berlin. The Berlin Blockade begins, and marks the first major international crisis of the Cold War. The blockade is removed by a massive airlift executed by the allied forces. 1949: The United States, Britain and France create the Federal Republic of Germany, a democratic West Germany. The Soviet Union creates the German Democratic Republic, a communist East Germany. 1950 - 1960: The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union continues. West Berlin starts to prosper. East Berlin doesn't. More than 3 million East Germans flee to the West for a better life.  1961: President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev hold a summit in Vienna. It's unsuccessful. Khrushchev threatens nuclear war. Berliners hear rumors of the Soviet Union closing the border. On Aug. 11, 1961, more than 4,000 East Germans flee to West Berlin. On Aug. 13, East German troops close the border between East and West Berlin with barbed wire. Two days later they place concrete slabs and trenches at the border, signaling their intention to build a permanent wall. By the end of October, American and Soviet tanks confront each other guns loaded at Checkpoint Charlie, along the border between the American sector and East Berlin. The confrontation ends in a stalemate. After the final stages of construction, the Berlin Wall is 96 miles long. It is 12 feet high with a tube like top. 1970s-1980s: East and West Germans live with the Berlin Wall. There are thousands of escape attempts and 100's of deaths. Berliners find ways to communicate with friends and families on the other side of the wall. 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev takes power of the Soviet Union. He begins democratic reform. The Cold War begins to die down. East Germans demonstrate against Communism by protesting and hacking pieces out of the wall to demonstrate a symbolic end to their separation. 1989: The Hungarian government opens its border with Austria in May. Many East Germans use that route to escape to the West. At that point, President Reagan visits the wall and asks Premier Gorbachev to "tear down the Wall". On Nov. 9, the Berlin Wall is opened. Travel restrictions are lifted. More than 10,000 East Germans cross the border to West Berlin. Mass celebrations last for days. People break pieces – even chunks – off the wall. The wall is no more and Berlin is once again united!

MAP:

the map is the outline of, both the Boarders of Berlin (blue line) and the outline of the Berlin Wall (red line).  There are three points along the Wall. All the points are of importance in the Wall's history leading up to its destruction. The first point (yellow) is of the famous "Checkpoint Charlie which was positioned along the US and Soviet boarders. The second point (purple) is on "Embertrasse", a famous street that is home to one of the biggest Holocaust Memorials in the world. The third point (green) is on the famous "Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg gate was located on the West side of the wall. The gate stood for freedom, when the borders were finally removed, West Berliners helped East Berliners up on to the wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate, standing together as a unified Nation for the first time in over 40 years!