Berlin in the Cold War: The Battle for the Divided City and the Rise and Fall of the Wall

by Thomas Flemming

Berlin in the Cold War vividly describes the conflict between the two superpowers-the USA and the Soviet Union-as it played out in Berlin, the divided city that was the frontier town, the spy post, and the battlefield. The book highlights the dramatic events that touched the whole world: the blockade, the airlift, the uprising of June 1953, the construction of the Wall, stories of escape and espionage, and the fall of the Iron Curtain. Includes numerous pictures and a map. The author is Thomas Flemming, an historian and philosopher who studied at Free University Berlin. He has written numerous books and news stories about postwar history focusing on Berlin. He has also curated exhibitions on the topic, most importantly, The History of World War I at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.

Genres: History

92 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dipanjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the first one about the cold war i have gone through recently. In 2009 I passed nearly 1 month in Berlin. I have many sweet memories in this city. Every morning i used to stroll through the places where once the wall stood erect dividing the city into two halves. While reading the book , the memory of my Berlin days came back to me. I feel communism in one hand did show the path of freedom to the down-trodden people while on the other it also had deprived the people of their right of freedom of speech and the right to liberty. It is an irony that the Bolsheviks liberated the people of Soviet Union from the tyranny of the Tsar, but the same Bolsheviks, while in power, tyrannized them by sending millions into the dark gulag after putting the label of 'counter-revolutionary' upon them. The Stalinist system itself became a thorn in the throats of freedom-loving people of the Soviet Union. Definitely the sacrifice of the communists for the sake of defeating the fascists cannot be denied by even the keen anti-communists. But Stalinist Russia definitely committed an unpardonable crime by dividing the people of Berlin through the forceful division of the city itself. This book is an eye-opener to thousands like me , who think that the common innocent people suffer the most due to the nasty power politics of narrow-minded politicians ( be it Hitler, Stalin, kennedy or George Bush). How shocking it is when i imagine a wall dividing my city Kolkata into two halves and myself being forced to confine my existence into the periphery of North Kolkata for 30-40 years without any opportunity to visit my relatives who r staying in South Kolkata on the other side of the wall!! What right do the politicians have to decide which part of the city i am willing to live in?? I also express my utter sympathy for those poor souls like Peter Fechter , who lost their lives for daring escape attempts from East to West.

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM