Berlin Between East and West

Abstract

Europe is in fact a divided continent, and this state of division is most sorely evident in Germany, specifically in Berlin. If you were in Germany today, in 1988, and asked the man on the street, “Why does this situation exist?”, you would probably get the answer, “Because of the East-West conflict and because of the Communists.” Yet, that response would be only partially correct. The exacerbated East-West tension has certainly deepened the division of Europe, of my country, and of the city of Berlin, but—as history knows—the division lines in Europe were already chosen and drawn by the anti-Hitler coalition during and after World War II. Whoever discusses the division of Berlin must start by discussing Yalta as a direct consequence of World War II, a war which Germany began and lost. The results of that war are most obvious in Berlin. Thus, this city is the place in Germany to think about what Germans have done; it is the place to think about our history and about its consequences for our future. Berlin, once the capital of the German Reich, now exists between East and West.