With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Germany became reunified after over forty years of physical and ideological division. Discuss the costs and benefits of German unification.

With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Germany became reunified after over forty years of physical and ideological division. Discuss the costs and benefits of German unification

Despite the fact that there are few remnants left of the Berlin Wall and nowadays, it is widely seen as a popular tourist attraction, it is still very much present in the mind-set of the Germans as a bitter reminder of when the families, friends and the entire nation were divided in 1961.

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After the Second World War, Germany was split into four occupation zones with the Soviet Union taking control of East Germany and France, the United Kingdom and United States taking control of parts in West Germany.

Similarly, Berlin was split into 4 sectors despite the fact that it was located deep in the Soviet zone. It soon became apparent that there were extreme political divisions between the Soviet Union and the other three occupying powers; whilst West Germany was developed into a capitalist democracy with financial help from the Marshall Plan, East Germany became a communist, socialist republic.

In East Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic, the indoctrination of Marxism-Leninism was introduced as a compulsory part of school curricula and the media became completely controlled by the state’s communist government in order “to direct the thinking of the people into correct political lines.”

The East German population were becoming increasingly repressed under these economical and political conditions and as a result, people started emigrating to the West, known as the Federal Republic of Germany.

Almost 3.5 million East Germans had left the GDR by 1961 and this totalled approximately 20% of the entire East German population.

Perhaps most importantly, East Germany suffered a ‘brain drain’ with thousands of doctors, teachers, engineers and technicians emigrating to the West…………………………….