Escape to The West
A photograph as a icon and symbol
"Escape to the West"
- distributed worldwide by the AP
- Won the Overseas Press Club “Best Photograph Award” in 1961
- Taken by Peter Leibing (Photographer of Contipress in Hamburg)
The Berlin Wall
- May 1945 - Red Army captures Berlin
- 1949 -Federal Republic of Germany & The German Democratic Republic founded
- 1952 - Visitation regulations & border control
- August 13,1961 - Border between East & West Berlin is closed and barbed wire erected
- August 15, 1961 - building of the brick Berlin Wall begins
- October 1, 1973 - Stasi agents placed on border
- 1989 - East German government resigns
Peter Leibing's
Escape to the West
Symbols
The Cold War
- Berlin & The Berlin Wall
- symbol of the division worldwide
- "The Iron Curtain"
- The Wall = communism
- The Cold War
The Photograph
- freedom
- popularity of photograph
- Tensions between the US and their allies (NATO & Western Bloc) against USSR and their allies (Warsaw Pact & Eastern Bloc)
- Dated 1947-1991 officially, though tensions eased up in the late 1980's