vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Berlin Wall
Wire fence and concrete block wall ( 1961 ) Improved wire fence ( 1962 -- 1965 ) Improved concrete wall ( 1965 -- 1975 ) Grenzmauer 75 ( Border Wall 75 ) ( 1975 -- 1989 )
Berlin Wall
The front of the convoy arrived at the outskirts of Berlin just before noon , to be met by Clay and Johnson , before parading through the streets of Berlin in front of a large crowd . At 04 : 00 on 21 August , Lyndon Johnson left West Berlin in the hands of General Frederick O. Hartel and his brigade of 4,224 officers and men . `` For the next three and a half years , American battalions would rotate into West Berlin , by autobahn , at three month intervals to demonstrate Allied rights to the city '' .
Berlin Wall
On 22 August 1961 , Ida Siekmann was the first casualty at the Berlin Wall : she died after she jumped out of her third floor apartment at 48 Bernauer Strasse . The first person to be shot and killed while trying to cross to West Berlin was Günter Litfin , a twenty - four - year - old tailor . He attempted to swim across the Spree Canal to West Germany on 24 August 1961 , the same day that East German police had received shoot - to - kill orders to prevent anyone from escaping .
World War II
The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union , culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops , the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 . Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms , the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively . With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent , the possibility of additional atomic bombings and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria , Japan formally surrendered on 2 September 1945 . Thus ended the war in Asia , cementing the total victory of the Allies .
World War II
In February , the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania , while Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river . By March , the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr , encircling the German Army Group B , while the Soviets advanced to Vienna . In early April , the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany capturing Hamburg and Nuremberg , while Soviet and Polish forces stormed Berlin in late April . American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe river on 25 April . On 30 April 1945 , the Reichstag was captured , signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany .
End of World War II in Europe
German forces in Berlin surrender : The Battle of Berlin ended on 2 May . On that date , General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling , the commander of the Berlin Defense Area , unconditionally surrendered the city to General Vasily Chuikov of the Soviet army . On the same day the officers commanding the two armies of Army Group Vistula north of Berlin , ( General Kurt von Tippelskirch , commander of the German 21st Army and General Hasso von Manteuffel , commander of Third Panzer Army ) , surrendered to the Western Allies. 2 May is also believed to have been the day when Hitler 's deputy Martin Bormann died , from the account of Artur Axmann who saw Bormann 's corpse in Berlin near the Lehrter Bahnhof railway station after encountering a Soviet Red Army patrol . Lehrter Bahnhof is close to where the remains of Bormann , confirmed as his by a DNA test in 1998 , were unearthed on 7 December 1972 .
Berlin Wall
It had the unintended result of drastically increasing the percentage of those leaving through West Berlin from 60 % to well over 90 % by the end of 1958 . Those caught trying to leave East Berlin were subjected to heavy penalties , but with no physical barrier and subway train access still available to West Berlin , such measures were ineffective . The Berlin sector border was essentially a `` loophole '' through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still escape . The 3.5 million East Germans who had left by 1961 totalled approximately 20 % of the entire East German population .
Berlin Wall
If an escapee was wounded in a crossing attempt and lay on the death strip , no matter how close they were to the Western wall , Westerners could not intervene for fear of triggering engaging fire from the ' Grepos ' , the East Berlin border guards . The guards often let fugitives bleed to death in the middle of this ground , as in the most notorious failed attempt , that of Peter Fechter ( aged 18 ) . He was shot and bled to death , in full view of the Western media , on 17 August 1962 . Fechter 's death created negative publicity worldwide that led the leaders of East Berlin to place more restrictions on shooting in public places , and provide medical care for possible `` would - be escapers '' . The last person to be shot and killed while trying to cross the border was Chris Gueffroy on 6 February 1989 , while the final person to die in an escape attempt was Winfried Freudenberg who was killed when his homemade natural gas - filled balloon crashed on 8 March 1989 .
Berlin Wall
After the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II , the majority of those living in the newly acquired areas of the Eastern Bloc aspired to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave . Taking advantage of the zonal border between occupied zones in Germany , the number of GDR citizens moving to West Germany totaled 187,000 in 1950 ; 165,000 in 1951 ; 182,000 in 1952 ; and 331,000 in 1953 . One reason for the sharp 1953 increase was fear of potential further Sovietization , given the increasingly paranoid actions of Joseph Stalin in late 1952 and early 1953 . 226,000 had fled in just the first six months of 1953 .
Berlin Wall
Over the years , there has been a repeated controversial debate as to whether 9 November would make a suitable German national holiday , often initiated by former members of political opposition in East Germany , such as Werner Schulz . Besides being the emotional apogee of East Germany 's peaceful revolution , 9 November is also the date of the 1918 abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and declaration of the Weimar Republic , the first German republic . However , 9 November is also the anniversary of the execution of Robert Blum in following the 1848 Vienna revolts , the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch and the infamous Kristallnacht pogroms of the Nazis in 1938 . Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel criticized the first euphoria , noting that `` they forgot that 9 November has already entered into history -- 51 years earlier it marked the Kristallnacht . '' As reunification was not official and complete until 3 October , that day was finally chosen as German Unity Day .
Cold War
In 1989 , Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan and by 1990 Gorbachev consented to German reunification , the only alternative being a Tiananmen Square scenario . When the Berlin Wall came down , Gorbachev 's `` Common European Home '' concept began to take shape .
Berlin Wall
In 1948 , following disagreements regarding reconstruction and a new German currency , Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade , preventing food , materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin . The United States , the United Kingdom , France , Canada , Australia , New Zealand and several other countries began a massive `` airlift '' , supplying West Berlin with food and other supplies . The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the Western policy change . Communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948 , preceding large losses therein , while 300,000 Berliners demonstrated for the international airlift to continue . In May 1949 , Stalin lifted the blockade , permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin .
Berlin Wall
Eastern Bloc Soviet Socialist Republics ( show ) Armenia Azerbaijan Byelorussia Estonia Georgia Kazakhstan Kirghizia Latvia Lithuania Moldavia Russian SFSR Tajikistan Turkmenia Ukraine Uzbekistan Allied states ( show ) Hungarian People 's Republic Polish People 's Republic Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Socialist Republic of Romania German Democratic Republic People 's Republic of Bulgaria Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( to 1948 ) People 's Socialist Republic of Albania ( to 1961 ) Republic of Cuba People 's Revolutionary Government of Grenada People 's Republic of Benin People 's Republic of the Congo People 's Republic of Angola People 's Republic of Mozambique People 's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Somali Democratic Republic ( to 1977 ) People 's Democratic Republic of Yemen Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Mongolian People 's Republic People 's Republic of China ( to 1961 ) Democratic People 's Republic of Korea Socialist Republic of Vietnam Lao People 's Democratic Republic People 's Republic of Kampuchea Related organizations ( show ) Cominform COMECON Warsaw Pact World Federation of Trade Unions ( WFTU ) World Federation of Democratic Youth ( WFDY ) Dissent and opposition ( show ) Forest Brothers in Lithuania in Latvia in Estonia Operation `` Jungle '' Ukrainian Insurgent Army Goryani movement ( Bulgaria ) Romanian anti-communism Polish Cursed Soldiers 1953 uprisings in Plzeň in East Germany 1956 protests in Georgia in Poznań Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Novocherkassk massacre ( Russia ) 1968 events Prague Spring Invasion of Czechoslovakia Red Square demonstration Charter 77 ( Czechoslovakia ) Solidarity ( Poland ) Jeltoqsan ( Kazakhstan ) Braşov Rebellion ( Romania ) January Events ( Lithuania ) The Barricades ( Latvia ) April 9 tragedy ( Georgia ) Black January ( Azerbaijan ) Cold War events ( show ) Marshall Plan 1948 Czechoslovak coup Tito -- Stalin split Berlin Blockade 1961 Berlin Wall crisis Cuban Missile Crisis 1980 Moscow Olympics Decline ( show ) Singing Revolution Polish Round Table Agreement Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall January 1991 in Lithuania in Latvia Breakup of Yugoslavia Yugoslav Wars End of the Soviet Union Fall of communism in Albania Satellite
Victory in Europe Day
The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944 , in anticipation of victory . On 30 April 1945 , Adolf Hitler , the Nazi leader , committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin . Germany 's surrender , therefore , was authorised by his successor , Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz . The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government . The preliminary act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims , France , and the final document was signed on 8 May in Berlin , Germany .
Berlin Wall
In response to the erection of the Berlin Wall , a retired general , Lucius D. Clay , was appointed by Kennedy as his special advisor and sent to Berlin with ambassadorial rank . Clay had been the Military Governor of the US Zone of Occupation in Germany during the period of the Berlin Blockade and had ordered the first measures in what became the Berlin Airlift . He was immensely popular with the residents of West Berlin , and his appointment was an unambiguous sign that Kennedy would not compromise on the status of West Berlin . Clay and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived at Tempelhof Airport on the afternoon of Saturday , 19 August 1961 .
Berlin Wall
Günter Schabowski , the party boss in East Berlin and the spokesman for the SED Politburo , had the task of announcing the new regulations . However , he had not been involved in the discussions about the new regulations and had not been fully updated . Shortly before a press conference on 9 November , he was handed a note announcing the changes , but given no further instructions on how to handle the information . These regulations had only been completed a few hours earlier and were to take effect the following day , so as to allow time to inform the border guards . But this starting time delay was not communicated to Schabowski .
Berlin Wall
It soon became clear that no one among the East German authorities would take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force , so the vastly outnumbered soldiers had no way to hold back the huge crowd of East German citizens . Finally , at 10 : 45 p.m. , Harald Jäger , the commander of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing yielded , allowing for the guards to open the checkpoints and allowing people through with little or no identity checking . As the Ossis swarmed through , they were greeted by Wessis waiting with flowers and champagne amid wild rejoicing . Soon afterward , a crowd of West Berliners jumped on top of the Wall , and were soon joined by East German youngsters . They danced together to celebrate their new freedom .
Berlin Wall
With the closing of the East - West sector boundary in Berlin , the vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or emigrate to West Germany . Berlin soon went from being the easiest place to make an unauthorized crossing between East and West Germany to being the most difficult . Many families were split , while East Berliners employed in the West were cut off from their jobs . West Berlin became an isolated exclave in a hostile land . West Berliners demonstrated against the Wall , led by their Mayor ( Oberbürgermeister ) Willy Brandt , who strongly criticized the United States for failing to respond . Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees , but the main candidate for its location was around the perimeter of the city . In 1961 , Secretary of State Dean Rusk proclaimed , `` The Wall certainly ought not to be a permanent feature of the European landscape . I see no reason why the Soviet Union should think it is -- it is to their advantage in any way to leave there that monument to communist failure . ''
Berlin Wall
They arrived in a city defended by three Allied brigades -- one each from the UK , the US , and France ( the Forces Françaises à Berlin ) . On 16 August , Kennedy had given the order for them to be reinforced . Early on 19 August , the 1st Battle Group , 18th Infantry ( commanded by Colonel Glover S. Johns Jr . ) was alerted .
Berlin Wall
Up until 1952 , the demarcation lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones could be easily crossed in most places . On 1 April 1952 , East German leaders met the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Moscow ; during the discussions Stalin 's foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov proposed that the East Germans should `` introduce a system of passes for visits of West Berlin residents to the territory of East Berlin ( so as to stop ) free movement of Western agents '' in the GDR . Stalin agreed , calling the situation `` intolerable '' . He advised the East Germans to build up their border defenses , telling them that `` The demarcation line between East and West Germany should be considered a border -- and not just any border , but a dangerous one ... The Germans will guard the line of defence with their lives . ''
Berlin Wall
After the fall of the Berlin Wall , French President François Mitterrand warned Thatcher that a unified Germany could make more ground than Adolf Hitler ever had and that Europe would have to bear the consequences .
Berlin Wall
At the end of the press conference , Schabowski read out loud the note he had been given . One of the reporters , ANSA 's Riccardo Ehrman , asked when the regulations would take effect . After a few seconds ' hesitation , Schabowski assumed it would be the same day based on the wording of the note and replied , `` As far as I know , it takes effect immediately , without delay '' . After further questions from journalists , he confirmed that the regulations included the border crossings through the Wall into West Berlin , which he had not mentioned until then .
British Empire in World War II
On 8 May 1945 , the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler 's Third Reich . The formal surrender of the occupying German forces in the Channel Islands was not until 9 May 1945 . On 30 April Hitler committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin , and so the surrender of Germany was authorized by his replacement , President of Germany Karl Dönitz . The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims , France , and ratified on 8 May in Berlin , Germany .
History of Germany (1945–90)
At the Potsdam Conference ( 17 July to 2 August 1945 ) , after Germany 's unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 , the Allies divided Germany into four military occupation zones -- France in the southwest , Britain in the northwest , the United States in the south , and the Soviet Union in the east , bounded eastwards by the Oder - Neisse line . At Potsdam these four zones in total were denoted as ' Germany as a whole ' , and the four Allied Powers exercised the sovereign authority they now claimed within Germany in agreeing ' in principle ' the future transfer of lands of the former German Reich east of ' Germany as a whole ' to Poland and the Soviet Union . These eastern areas were notionally placed under Polish and Soviet administration pending a final peace treaty ( which was not formalized until 1990 , 45 years later ) ; but in actuality were promptly reorganized as organic parts of their respective sovereign states .
Berlin Wall
Despite the East German government 's general policy of benign neglect , vandals were not unknown to have been pursued in the outer strip , and even arrested . In 1986 , defector and political activist Wolfram Hasch and four other defectors were standing inside the outer strip defacing the wall when East German personnel emerged from one of the hidden doors to apprehend them . All but Hasch escaped back into the western sector . Hasch himself was arrested , dragged through the door into the death strip , and later convicted of illegally crossing the de jure border outside the wall . Noted graffiti artist Thierry Noir has reported having often been perused there by East German soldiers . While some graffiti artists were chased off the outer strip , others , such as Keith Haring , were seemingly tolerated .
Berlin Wall
After the end of World War II in Europe , what remained of pre-war Germany west of the Oder - Neisse line was divided into four occupation zones ( as per the Potsdam Agreement ) , each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers : the United States , the United Kingdom , France and the Soviet Union . The capital of Berlin , as the seat of the Allied Control Council , was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the city 's location , which was fully within the Soviet zone .
Berlin Wall
Oberhavel : Mühlenbecker Land ( partially ) , Glienicke / Nordbahn , Hohen Neuendorf , Hennigsdorf Havelland : Schönwalde - Glien , Falkensee , Dallgow - Döberitz Potsdam ( urban district ) Potsdam - Mittelmark : Stahnsdorf , Kleinmachnow , Teltow Teltow - Fläming : Großbeeren , Blankenfelde - Mahlow Dahme - Spreewald : Schönefeld ( partially )
Cold War
Shortly thereafter , Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade ( 24 June 1948 -- 12 May 1949 ) , one of the first major crises of the Cold War , preventing food , materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin . The United States , Britain , France , Canada , Australia , New Zealand and several other countries began the massive `` Berlin airlift '' , supplying West Berlin with food and other provisions .
Cold War
The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major incident in the Cold War regarding the status of Berlin and post -- World War II Germany . By the early 1950s , the Soviet approach to restricting emigration movement was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc . However , hundreds of thousands of East Germans annually emigrated to West Germany through a `` loophole '' in the system that existed between East and West Berlin , where the four occupying World War II powers governed movement .
Berlin Wall
By 1960 , the combination of World War II and the massive emigration westward left East Germany with only 61 % of its population of working age , compared to 70.5 % before the war . The loss was disproportionately heavy among professionals : engineers , technicians , physicians , teachers , lawyers and skilled workers . The direct cost of manpower losses to East Germany ( and corresponding gain to the West ) has been estimated at $7 billion to $9 billion , with East German party leader Walter Ulbricht later claiming that West Germany owed him $17 billion in compensation , including reparations as well as manpower losses . In addition , the drain of East Germany 's young population potentially cost it over 22.5 billion marks in lost educational investment . The brain drain of professionals had become so damaging to the political credibility and economic viability of East Germany that the re-securing of the German communist frontier was imperative .
Cold War
The emigration resulted in a massive `` brain drain '' from East Germany to West Germany of younger educated professionals , such that nearly 20 % of East Germany 's population had migrated to West Germany by 1961 . That June , the Soviet Union issued a new ultimatum demanding the withdrawal of Allied forces from West Berlin . The request was rebuffed , and on 13 August , East Germany erected a barbed - wire barrier that would eventually be expanded through construction into the Berlin Wall , effectively closing the loophole .
Berlin Wall
The former leadership in the Schlesischen Busch in the vicinity of the Puschkinallee -- the listed , twelve - meter high watchtower stands in a piece of the wall strip , which has been turned into a park , near the Lohmühleninsel The former `` Kieler Eck '' ( Kieler Eck ) on Kieler Strasse in Mitte , close to the Berlin - Spandau Schifffahrtskanal -- the tower is protected as a historic monument and now surrounded on three sides by new buildings . It houses a memorial site named after the Wallopfer Günter Litfin , who was shot at Humboldthafen in August 1961 . The memorial site , which is run by the initiative of his brother Jürgen Liftin , can be viewed after registration . The former management office at Nieder Neuendorf , in the district of Hennigsdorf of the same name -- here is the permanent exhibition on the history of the border installations between the two German states . The former management station at Bergfelde , today the district of Hohen Neuendorf -- The tower is located in an already reforested area of the border strip and is used together with surrounding terrain as a nature protection tower by the Deutschen Waldjugend . The only one of the much slimmer observation towers ( BT - 11 ) in the Erna - Berger - Strasse also in Mitte -- however , was moved by a few meters for construction work and is no longer in the original location ; There is an exhibition about the wall in the area of the Potsdamer Platz in planning .
History of Germany (1945–90)
Government offices have been moving progressively to Berlin , and it became the formal seat of the federal government in 1999 . Berlin also is one of the Federal Republic 's 16 Länder .