A German Fate At The Fence Of Barbed Wire
Some of our followers may recognize these photos from when we first posted them on the 50th anniversary of Berlin Wall in August of 2011: Making the Impossible Decision. With their family unexpectedly divided by the fledgling Berlin Wall, the mother makes a split-second decision to pass her son over the wire to her husband during a momentary lapse by the border guards.
Slate’s history blog, The Vault (also on Tumblr), is now trying to identify the family from this heart-wrenching series of photos:
Do you know who this family is?
August 3, 1936 - Jesse Owens wins the 100m sprint at the Summer Olympics in Berlin.
Admittedly, this is a totally gratuitous reblog, but it seemed necessary considering we’re now in the midst of the Summer Olympics. Also, this was our first post to ever get featured on the Tumblr Radar, so it holds a special place for us on the Today’s Document team.
On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech that electrified a crowd gathered in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. As he paid tribute to the spirit of Berliners and to their quest for freedom, the crowd roared with approval upon hearing the the President’s dramatic pronouncement, “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner).
President Kennedy used this handwritten note card while delivering his speech. On it, he phonetically spelled German phrases from his speech, including “Ish bin ein Bearleener.” Read More
“GAP IN THE WALL—Communist border guards inspect a gap in the Berlin wall where two East German construction workers broke through and escaped to freedom in early April. The refugees rammed the wall with a heavy truck and then fled on foot into the French Sector of West Berlin when their truck stalled in the rubble. The East German guards fired several shots at them but missed. In the background are Communist military vehicles posted after the incident to prevent further escapes.” April 1962
August 3, 1936 - Jesse Owens wins the 100m sprint at the Summer Olympics in Berlin.
“All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words Ich bin ein Berliner”
-John F. Kennedy, June 26, 1963
This Sunday will mark the 48th anniversary of President Kennedy’s address to the people of Berlin. On June 26, 1963, President Kennedy stood before a huge crowd gathered in the plaza of the West Berlin City Hall and said, “Ich bin ein Berliner… I am a Berliner.” With those words he confirmed his country’s commitment to the freedom of Berlin. The crowd responded with a roar that reached far beyond the massive wall that divided East and West Berlin.
The Soviet and East German governments had erected the wall only two years before to shut off the flow of East Germans fleeing to the freedom of the west. When he spoke in Berlin, Kennedy called it “the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the communist system… we take no satisfaction in it, for it is an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.”
The Berlin Wall stood for 28 years. But in 1989 the peoples of Eastern Europe took matters into their own hands and in a bloodless revolution brought Soviet domination to an end. As part of those uprisings, citizens of Berlin tore down the Wall, piece by piece.
This motion picture excerpt from President Kennedy’s “One Day in Berlin” is from the Kennedy Library’s Digital Archive.
Over the next few days we’ll be posting more from our archives of JFK’s trip to West Berlin.
via The Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.
GENERAL SECRETARY GORBACHEV, IF YOU SEEK PEACE — IF YOU SEEK PROSPERITY FOR THE SOVIET UNION AND EASTERN EUROPE — IF YOU SEEK LIBERALIZATION: COME HERE, TO THIS GATE.
MR. GORBACHEV, OPEN THIS GATE.
MR. GORBACHEV, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL.
June 5 - George Marshall proposes a plan for the economic reconstruction of Europe
West Berlin, Germany. Marshall Plan aid to Germany totaled $1,390,600 and enabled that country to rise from the ashes of defeat, as symbolized by this worker in West Berlin. Even a year before the end of the Marshall Plan in 1951, Germany had surpassed her prewar industrial production level.
When World War II ended in 1945, Europe lay in ruins: its cities were shattered; its economies were devastated; its people faced famine. To meet this emergency, Secretary of State George Marshall proposed in a speech on June 5, 1947, that European nations create a plan for their economic reconstruction and that the United States provide economic assistance. On April 3, 1948, President Truman signed the act that became known as the Marshall Plan.
