Jenny Beth Martin puts a photograph of the Berlin Wall under construction on the screen and brings in Torsten Trey, who grew up in West Germany and is married to one of the panelists. He was born after the wall went up, but he explains what the photograph shows. The wall was built by East Germany, not to keep West Germans out but to stop East Germans leaving for the West. It began in August 1961 with barbed wire, strung overnight. The famous photograph of a soldier leaping over that wire is Conrad Schumann, taken on August 15, two days after the wire went up; he saw his only chance before the real wall closed it.
After the Second World War, all of Germany was leveled, and Berlin and the country were divided between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies. That made the wall a historic experiment: one people starting from zero, a free-market society on one side and a communist society on the other. After thirty years anyone in West Germany could see the result. East Germany had not developed; it was twenty or thirty years behind, because there was no incentive to work harder, to do research, or to push for progress. When the wall came down in 1989 the experiment ended, and the direction people ran settled the argument: it was the East Germans who were eager to cross and experience the free world. He followed it on the news from West Germany; everyone was talking about it, and everyone could see that West Germany was so far ahead that East Germany did not even come close.
Guest: Torsten Trey, who grew up in West Germany and joins the Surviving Communism panel for the Berlin Wall.
In this segment:
• The photo: the Berlin Wall being built
• Why build a wall? To stop East Germans leaving
• August 1961: barbed wire overnight
• Conrad Schumann's leap, August 15
• Germany divided after the war; one leveled country
• A historic experiment: free market West, communist East
• Twenty or thirty years behind, because there was no incentive
• 1989: the experiment ended, and nobody ran east
• It doesn't even come close
Share this with a young person who has never heard of the Berlin Wall, then vote for liberty, for our constitutional system, and against communism. To help get out the vote: iwillsaveamerica.com. Watch the full panel, part two of the Surviving Communism series, on The Jenny Beth Show channel, and subscribe for daily analysis from Tea Party Patriots Action.
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00:00 — The photo: the Berlin Wall being built
00:21 — Why build a wall? To stop East Germans leaving
00:58 — August 1961: barbed wire overnight
01:10 — Conrad Schumann's leap, August 15
01:56 — Germany divided after the war; one leveled country
02:35 — A historic experiment: free market West, communist East
03:16 — Twenty or thirty years behind, because there was no incentive
04:09 — 1989: the experiment ended, and nobody ran east
04:45 — Were you in Germany when the wall came down?
05:16 — Much more advanced; it doesn't even come close
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