Date of Award

5-2018

Degree Type

Creative Project

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Chair(s)

Tammy Proctor

Committee

Tammy Proctor

Committee

Jonathan Brunstedt

Committee

Dylan Burns

Abstract

I have grappled with my primary collection just as scholars and popular authors have with bringing these stories together with political histories. My goal is to create a digital map and analysis on specific themes like education and guard duty from the lives lived behind the Wall and their discourse with the government. I would like to explore how the divide impacted lives in 1961, created a GDR Society, and produced a division still felt in Germany today. The target audience of this project is U.S. students in high school and higher education. Students will be able to access timely personal stories behind the Wall as ways to better envision the Berlin Wall and to be able to compare and contrast it to current events like the Arab Spring or Communist regimes like North Korea. This venture will pull pieces from history, geography, sociology, and anthropology in creating a more personal understanding and reconstruction of the Berlin Wall. My hope is to create new discussion and excitement in the field, while putting a human face to the numbers lost and left behind the Wall.

Share

COinS