10 mark - Germany 1955-61 Flashcards
Re armemnt
Signed in May 1952 by French chancellor and Adaneur, ratified march 1953,
French assembly 30 August 1954, and failed by a vote of 319 against 264
Ultimately leads west Germany to instead join Nato on May 5th 1955
Leads to USSR to form the Warsaw pact on May 14th 1955
On January 18, 1956, the GDR established the National People’s Army (NVA) as a volunteer army
= arms race grows by 1957
=Economic weakness of GDR
Berlin wall
3.5 million make the journey between 1945-1961.
This destabilises East Germany.
Causes: Over 3.5 million leave, 1952-59 west take in 675000 eastern refugees
1960-199000 leave, by June 1961- another 103000
Over 15830 engineers, 11700 graduates left
Average 16 year wait for an car
4)Wall
3-5th august Warsaw pact meet, agree to form border
Events - 13th august 1961- wall set up ; 15000 border troops block 70 exits, over 20 killed crossing first 12 months, has a death strip and turrets, over 135 killed crossing throughout walls existence
Checkpoint Charlie standoff 29th-30th October 1961, tanks standoff for 16 hours over an us diplomat crossing – point of brinkmanship people fear will cause war
16th June 1963 – Kennedy gives ‘ich bein ein Berliner ‘speech —-à yet west are reluctant to be drawn into conflict over wall as already presents clear ideological loss, yet clear intentions to protect west berlin Vienna summit
Impact on east Germany; wall stabilizes east Germany, provides prevention to exodus of youth and educated people leaving, many accept life and work to improve east. However increased brutality, 1 in 166 are members of stasi secret police
Wall is ultimately economically unsustainable, costs ½ a billion per year, and over a 1000 a year are still leaving by 1975, Ussr sells over 35000 political prisoners to finance wall
