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The Night The Berlin Wall Went Up
The building of the Berlin Wall happened on August 13th, 1961. It separated East and West Germany. West Germany was completely surrounded by barbed wire and a concrete wall.
The night that the barbed wire fence was put up was called “Barbed Wire Sunday”. After that there was the concrete wall being constructed overnight. People woke up in the morning and many were separated from their families. -
Family is Separated
Gerta, her mother and her oldest brother Fritz become separated from her middle brother Dominic and her father when the Berlin Wall was built during the night. Dominic and Papa where out to the West searching for new jobs to sustain their family, however when the wall is built during the night and they will not see each other until they find a way to get to the other side. -
Attempts At Crossing The Wall
Over 100 people died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall when it was separating East and West Germany. Many people were shot on the wall, many were found and killed, and some fell off sustaining major injuries that they could not recover from and would eventually die from. The security on the wall was high, but many people created intricate plans such as going through buildings on the wall or even digging under or through the wall. -
Digging The Tunnel
Gerta and Fritz start digging a tunnel as they receive notes that they think are from their father, signaling to dig to the west. They start working every day and coming out with their clothes very dirty so they start wearing different clothes so that they do not get their house all dirty. If their house becomes dirty, the statsi (state security) would be suspicious and arrest them. -
Friendship of Gerta and Anna
Gerta and Anna are great friends in the beginning, but start to drift apart when Anna's brother, Peter attempts escaping but gets killed by the Grenzers. Gerta tells Anna that Fritz was involved and she knew about his escape attempt. Anna is mad and does not want to talk. Gerta tells Anna that they have a tunnel and that Anna's family should come escape. -
Tunnel is Discovered by Officer Muller
While the tunnel is being made, Officer Muller discovers it but decides that he will not help Gerta and Fritz but he will report that he did not see anything suspicious when they tell him that he can take his family to the West to start a new life. In the end he does go with them and ends up protecting them on their way across the border. -
Family is Reunited
When Gerta, Fritz and Mama are digging the tunnel as they hear the song that Papa used to sing to Gerta before bedtime. They yell to him and they decide they both need to dig to each other so that they can live their lives in the West as a full family. They get Officer Muller and his family to come with them but he gets shot fighting the officers trying to stop them. His wife and baby live with the Lowes for the rest of their lives in West Germany. -
The Night The Berlin Wall Fell
It happened November 9th, 1989. More than 2 million people came from both East and West Germany to celebrate the fall of the wall and the day that Germany was reunited. Lots of bulldozers, hammers and picks to take portions of the wall. The pieces were called, “mauerspechte”. Some of the wall is still there today, but there are no guards and people can cross the border freely. -
Mikhail Gorbachev President of the USSR
Mikhail Gorbachev was the president of the USSR. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for his effort to stop the communism and make the USSR a democracy. He was born in the Stavropol territory in southwest Russia. He Made his way up through communist communist party politics and as soon as the former USSR leader died he took control of the USSR, quickly making relationships and signing treaties towards the fall of Communist Russia. -
The Fall Of The USSR
The USSR was a communist organization that took over many countries and united them to create one big communist country. (Starting with Russia) After the death of Yuri Andropov, Mikhail Gorbachev took over and agreed to a treaty to get on better relations with the rest of the world. This ended the communist rule and Russia gave up other countries that they ruled over.
