Miesiąc: lipiec 2024

Based on sources follow the questions. Make conclusion.

a. Look at the picture. Give the names politicians showed on the picture. Talk about the main assumptions of the agreement signed between the FRG and the GDR. Is it a change of thinking about the two German states?

b. Watch the fragments of film https://www.1989.centropa.org/1989-the-film How did the Autumn of Nations affect the situation in Germany?

c. Listen or read the text of the song of Scorpions 'Wind of change’. Is there a connection between the German and the Middle-East Europe situation? Find information about the genesis of this song. Do you know any other songs with similar themes?

Source 1.

In 1972 was signed an agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. (www.juridiconline.com)

Source 2 FILM

Source 3 Scorpions – Wind of change

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change

The world is closing in
And did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers?
The future’s in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

The wind of change
Blows straight into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring the freedom bell
For peace of mind
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to say

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

(https://www.tekstowo.pl/piosenka,scorpions,wind_of_change.html)

Based on sources follow the questions. Make conclusion.

a. Look at the map. Compare the size of the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany to the territory of the German Democratic Republic. Which cities are the capitols of these States?

b. Follow on map. What about the situation of Berlin? In which way Berlin was divided in 1961? How did people react on it?

c. Look at the pictures. How does the life in the FRG and in the GDR look like? Was it similar or completely different? Why becomes the Berlin wall a symbol? What does it symbolize?

d. “ICH BIN EIN BERLINER’ – Who, when and why told it? Discuss why this sentence was so important for Berliners. Find the origin of the Latin expression “Civis Romanus sum” and explain if Kennedy used it in a good context.

Source 1 Map of Germany before reunification

Source 2 Pictures

East German border guard Konrad Schumann leaping over barbed wire to defect to West Germany during construction of the Berlin Wall. (1961) 

Fechter’s body lying next to the Berlin Wall after being shot in 1962 while trying to escape to the West. (1962)

Two mothers with children facing each other across barbed wire placed in advance of the construction of the Berlin Wall. ( 1961)

Entrance to the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears). (1962)

The Berlin Wall at the Brandenburge Gate. (1961)

Bowie’s Berlin Concert on 6th June 1987 was clearly audible to people in East Berlin. Rock music was treated as a destabilising threat and Bowie-loving East Berliners were not allowed to attend the concert.

„Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The Berlin Wall Speech of Ronald Regan on June 12, 1987.

Berliners take a hammer and chisel to a section of the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate after the opening of the East German border was announced on November 9, 1989.

East Berliners scaled the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, bringing down the Iron Curtain in Germany

Source 3  The speach of President John F. Kennedy, West Berlin, June 26, 1963.

[…] Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was „civis Romanus sum.” Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is „Ich bin ein Berliner.”[…]

Based on sources follow the questions. Make conclusion.

a. Look at the photo. Who was the person in the picture?

b. Read the quote. Explain why it is considered to be the beginning of the Cold War. Name the economic implications of the Iron Curtain.

c. Read a fragment of the Truman Doctrine. Explain why the programme is a manifestation of the Cold War?

d. Watch the film and answer the question below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra6FeVwAQeo

Why did the USSR begin the Berlin Blockade?
How did the West react to the Blockade.
What was the Berlin Airlift?
Discuss the impact of the Berlin Crisis on political situation.

Source 1

Source 2 Quote – „The Sinews of Peace” („Iron Curtain Speech).

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Police rules come from Moscow […]”

Source 3 Thruman doctrine (fragment)

Today nearly every nation must choose between two options.One way of life is based on the will of the majority, with […] free elections, […] freedom of speech and belief, and freedom from political oppression. The other option is based […] terror and oppression,[…] the lack of free elections, and limited personal freedom. […] U.S. policy must help the free nations that oppose the oppression of armed minorities or aggression from outside.

(https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/trudoc.asp)

Source 4 The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

Based on sources follow the questions. Make conclusion.

a. Look at the maps. Consider the situation of Germany after WWII. How Germany and Berlin was divided?

b. Look at the picture, recognize people in the photo. Who were they?

c. Read parts of the Potsdam Conference resolution, talk about the political and economic changes which were agreed to be implemented in Germany.

d. Which paragraphs of the quoted passages can be associated with changes of borders in post-war Europe? In which way?

SOURCE 1. The division of Germany into the Occupation Zones

Source 2. The Big Three

Source 3 The Potsdam Conference resolution (fragments)

THE PRINCIPLES TO GOVERN THE TREATMENT OF GERMANY IN THE INITIAL CONTROL PERIOD

A.POLITICAL PRINCIPLES […]

3. The purposes of the occupation of Germany by which the Control Council shall be guided are:

(i) The complete disarmament and demilitarization of Germany and the elimination or control of all German industry that could be used for military production. […]

(a) All German land, naval and air forces, the SS., SA., SD., and Gestapo […] shall be completely and finally abolished […]

(b) All arms, ammunition and implements of war and all specialized facilities for their production shall be held at the disposal of the Allies or destroyed […] all aircraft and all arms. ammunition and implements of war shall be prevented.

(ii) To convince the German people that they have suffered a total military defeat and that they cannot escape responsibility for what […] the fanatical Nazi resistance have destroyed German economy and made chaos and suffering […]

(iii) To destroy the National Socialist Party and its affiliated and supervised organizations, to dissolve all Nazi institutions, to ensure that they are not revived […]

4. All Nazi laws which provided the basis of the Hitler regime or established discriminations on grounds of race, creed, or political opinion shall be abolished. No such discriminations, whether legal, administrative or otherwise, shall be tolerated. […]

B. ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES.

12. […] the German economy shall be decentralized for the purpose of eliminating the present excessive concentration of economic power as exemplified in particular by cartels, syndicates, trusts and other monopolistic arrangements.

13. In organizing the German Economy, primary emphasis shall be given to the development of agriculture and peaceful domestic industries.

[…] The Three Governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, […] Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. They agree that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner.

[…]The Czechoslovak Government, the Polish Provisional Government and the Control Council in Hungary are at the same time being informed […]

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/decade17.asp

LESSON 1

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YOUR GOALS:

-The Post – War Agreement in Germany 
-The Berlin Crisis and the Creation of the FRG and GDR
-The economic, political and social situation in the FRG and in the GDR
-The Autumn of Nations in Germany and fall of the Wall

Before the lesson:

Ask your family members about the Berlin Wall and division of Germany (personal stories of parents/grandparents, memories about The East and The West Germany).

Go to https://www.1989.centropa.org Get a look, do some research.

The World War II and bipolar world.

Look at the maps.
Do you remember the agreements of the Potsdam Conference?
What was a situation of Germany after the WWII?
Why Berlin was 'the island in the red Sea’?

WORKING GROUPS:

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Present your answers and conclusions during the next lesson.

LESSON 2

SHORT REVIEW

POST-ITS!
Write short information related to life in Germany States and put them in right places. Discuss.

LET’S PRESENT YOUR TASKS

CONCLUSION

Is the division of Germany a symbol of Cold War?

Why wall is the symbol?

What does it symbolize?

The wall:
-separated families, friends, and lovers.
-was built to prevent people from the Eastern Bloc from escaping to the West.
-was not only a physical barrier but also a psychological one (people lost their homes and their jobs) .
-was a result of political tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western powers, which had been growing since the end of World War II.

For this reasons, the wall became a symbol of the Cold War and the division of Europe. The fall of the wall was a significant moment in history and marked the end of the Cold War. The fall of the wall also led to the reunification of Germany, which had been divided for almost thirty years.

HOMEWORK

Write an essay on one of the following topics:

1. Did the Berlin wall divide or unite the inhabitants of Berlin? Take a side on the problem. Give political, social and economic arguments.
2. Why could the division of Germany be considered as a manifestation of the Cold War? Justify your answer. Give political, social and economic arguments.