Michael+Oral+History


 * For my oral history, I interviewed my parents, Joseph and Anne Kearney, who lived through the fall of the Berlin Wall. **


 * The story of the Berlin Wall begins as World War II ends. Berlin, along with the rest of Germany, was divided up into four occupation zones, one for each major members of the victors, the Allies (U.S., Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.) The zones of West Berlin, along with West Germany, became capitalist and democratic, while East Berlin and East Germany (under Soviet control) became controlled by a communist regime. By 1948, tensions between the east and the west were high. In the west, rebuilding was booming, but in the east, it was the opposite. Millions of East Germans had voted with their feet and fled to the west. By 1961, the Soviets knew they had to do something to stop the exodus. **


 * In the early morning of August 13, 1961, a low wall began to take shape. This wall effectively divided the city of Berlin in half. The wall was eventually built up, and the Soviets praised the wall. However, the citizens felt differently. Thousands of them left the communist regime for a completely new life in the west by defecting. All the time, the western powers were trying to find away to tear the wall down, but they decided it was not smart, as it could have caused a war. **


 * In the 1980s, it became clear that the Soviets had bled themselves dry and could not keep up the Cold War with the west. On November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, after nearly 28 years of Soviet occupation, East Germany was finally free. **


 * 1. How old were you and where were you in life in 1989? **


 * Dad: I spent the spring in Cambridge Mass., and I spent the summer in Chicago, and the fall in Portland. I was 25 years old. **


 * Mom: I was in law school, and 24 years old in Cambridge, Mass. I was in D.C. during the summer. **


 * 2. What was your feeling on the Cold War and East Germany during your early life? **


 * Dad: The Cold War seemed a regrettable but necessary approach to dealing with the Soviet bloc. It was better than a “hot war” **


 * Mom: I felt that the people who were being squeezed were in the East, and there was posturing by both sides. I thought that the Soviets were oppressing and breaking human rights laws in the East. **


 * 3. Did you hear anything major about the wall leading up to 1989? **


 * Dad: I heard about the wall all the time. It was the major symbol of the divide between the Soviet bloc and the west, and it was a somewhat routine occurrence to have someone try to cross from East to West. I heard much about it. **


 * Mom: The wall itself was a symbol of repression, the East and West families were separated, and people would be shot. **


 * 4. Do you remember where you were when the wall fell? **


 * Dad: Not more than the fact that I was somewhere on the West Coast. **


 * Mom: No, but someplace near Cambridge, Mass. I remembered thinking of the jubilation, which must have been similar to the same feeling of that of the newly freed people in occupied countries after the wall fell. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. What was your initial reaction to hearing that the wall fell? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dad: Delight, joy, and it was a proud moment for the west. We beat the Commies, the Ruskies. Never differed from that. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mom: I felt very happy, sore of joy and relief. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6. What was the media coverage of the wall like? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dad: It was on TV an immense amount. Cable TV was nearly new, so it was one of the events that demonstrated the power of TV to give everybody information. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mom: The media coverage was extensive. They broke into programs, and they had analysts and reporters on site, but much of the footage was just of the crowds themselves. The major networks had cameras and microphones and just letting people talk. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7. What impact did the wall have on you? **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dad: Well, the fall of the Berlin was the object sign of the triumph of the U.S> in the Cold War, son it affected me as an American to see that the soldiers that had given up their life to communism for the last forty years had not died in vain. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mom: We were very conscious. When I was at Harvard, we had good access to information. I took a lot of classes involving NGO’s and my interest in international politics was prevalent. It was exciting, because after the falling of the wall, you knew that the Soviets power was diminishing. **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Topic: The Fall of the Berlin Wall **
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Interview Subject: Anne Kearney and Joseph Kearney **


 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With the fall of the Berlin Wall being a big thing in the Cold War, and it symbolizing the end of communism, I was really interested to learn about it. I researched the topic, and it turned out to be very interesting. I learned a lot about one of the major events of the Cold War, and as a result, I enjoyed the project. **

Sources: http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm http://www.newseum.org/berlinwall/ http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Berlin Wall had a big impact on many of the people in Germany, and it was an important symbol of communism. I am glad to have learned about this important event in both American and World History. **