page_title: Berlin Wall Monument (Chicago)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Berlin Wall Monument (Chicago) / Background
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ostberliner Bauarbeiter errichten die Berliner Mauer. English: East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall. Français&#160;: Ouvriers du bâtiment de Berlin-Est édifiant le mur de Berlin.
context_page_description: The Berlin Wall Monument in Chicago is an exhibit on display at the Western Brown Line CTA station. The monument contains a large segment of the Berlin Wall and a plaque describing its dedication to the city. The Berlin Wall represented one of the great political, economic, and ideological divides of the twentieth century between two major powers: the United States and the Soviet Union.
context_section_description: World War II affected many countries, Germany in particular. After the years of total war, the Nazi regime in Germany finally surrendered to the Allied countries in spring of 1945. Later, the Empire of Japan surrendered shortly after the second atomic bomb devastated their country. In the post-war years, tensions between two of the victorious powers, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged. The former was growing ever more capitalistic and the latter pursued communism. Germany, not only geographically located in the center of Europe, was the center of the divided between the powers. Germany, especially its capital, Berlin, was partitioned by the victors of the Second World War; there were a few parts but the major division was east-west dividing the capitalist countries from the communist one.
  A great wall was erected almost two decades later to strengthen the division, literally and figuratively. Built in 1961, the Berlin Wall represented one of the great political, economic, and ideological divides of the twentieth century between two major powers: the United States and the Soviet Union. It was 96 miles in length. The conflict between these two powers affected the global community, namely Germany. Even after it was demolished, the wall symbolized divisions in Germany and the rest of the world, ones that arguably still exist today. Cornell sociologist Christine Leuenberger described the effects of the wall and its ultimate fall by arguing that "It became the landmark that symbolized the Cold War… the Berlin Wall also left a lasting impression on the psyche of the German people". She further argues that The Berlin Wall "provides a salient and powerful example of how material culture intersects with knowledge production in the psychological sciences".
caption: This image is of the construction of the Berlin Wall. The wall existed from 1962 to 1989. After its demolition, pieces of the wall were broken with some taken as souvenirs.
exif: {}