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N0KFQ > TODAY 21.12.14 08:47l 42 Lines 1857 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 42609_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Dec 20
Path: IZ3LSV<IV3ONZ<IW8PGT<I3XTY<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 141220/1559Z 42609@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.62
Dec 20, 1963:
Berlin Wall opened for first time
More than two years after the Berlin Wall was constructed by East
Germany to prevent its citizens from fleeing its communist
regime, nearly 4,000 West Berliners are allowed to cross into
East Berlin to visit relatives. Under an agreement reached
between East and West Berlin, over 170,000 passes were eventually
issued to West Berlin citizens, each pass allowing a one-day
visit to communist East Berlin.
The day was marked by moments of poignancy and propaganda. The
construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 separated families
and friends. Tears, laughter, and other outpourings of emotions
characterized the reunions that took place as mothers and
fathers, sons and daughters met again, if only for a short time.
Cold War tensions were never far removed from the scene, however.
Loudspeakers in East Berlin greeted visitors with the news that
they were now in "the capital of the German Democratic Republic,"
a political division that most West Germans refused to accept.
Each visitor was also given a brochure that explained that the
wall was built to "protect our borders against the hostile
attacks of the imperialists." Decadent western culture, including
"Western movies" and "gangster stories," were flooding into East
Germany before the wall sealed off such dangerous trends. On the
West Berlin side, many newspapers berated the visitors, charging
that they were pawns of East German propaganda. Editorials argued
that the communists would use this shameless ploy to gain West
German acceptance of a permanent division of Germany.
The visits, and the high-powered rhetoric that surrounded them,
were stark reminders that the Cold War involved very human, often
quite heated, emotions.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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