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The Divider of Despair

Noor Chahal Ashmeet Goraya Samuel Vydro Addison Weil

This years theme of rights and responsibilities gave us a variety of options. Our group realized the potential behind this genre and began brainstorming the topic that would bring out true emotion from the public and would truly elaborate on the shadow of truth. We sat down and went through differing topics and we thought to ourselves, We want something that truly reflects the freedom of the semi-modern generation, something that hasnt been widely done. After a multitude of topics thrown out the window, we came across a speech by Ronald Reagan known as Tear Down This Wall and it enlightened us. We decided to then partake in the endeavor of exploring the rights and responsibilities of the Berlin Wall. We began our research by first collecting information on the events leading up to the building of the Berlin Wall. Although we all knew of the Berlin Wall, we wanted to expand our basic understanding of it. We started to go to our local library and found many online sources and books relating to the subjects. The majority of the beginning sources we found were secondary, and we found it very hard to locate primary sources. With a simple search on the internet though, we found a couple of credible online databases that only supplied their user with primary sources. We tried to stock our website with a range of sources, including interviews, audio files and videos to supplement the text. Before compiling our research, we previously decided that the format suitable for our project would be a website. We looked forward to taking advantage of all the technological possibilities, and believed that using a contemporary technique could correlate with the modern flair that exists in our topic. A website was also effective with our group of four, as well as us having prior experience in the field of website design.

Our topic personifies the ideas of this years theme because the establishment of the Berlin Wall suppressed the rights of East Berlin to freely pass across the border and trapped the East Berliners in a land of communism while their western counterparts were enjoying the comfort of democracy. Under communism the whole of East Berlin was a homogeneous society with no social classes, and all the money belonging to the government. With no opportunity and chance to become wealthy there was a conflict between communism and capitalism that led to the construction of the Berlin Wall. The history of the Berlin Wall correlates with the fall of communism and shows how democracy began to overtake the landscape of the European governments. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, not just Berlin, but all of Eastern Europe culminated into a melting pot of opportunity for its people.

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