Her statement that "It goes without saying that the infamous Iron Curtain was not as impenetrable as is often believed" (at humanexperience.stanford.edu/burnedbridge) is an insult to the several hundred people that were killed at the border while trying to escape!
Also her point at 7:05 is a complete distortion of reality! West Germans were not afraid of fleeing East Germans but of the Russian tanks and missiles stationed all over the GDR and therefore were grateful for US protection!
Prof. Sheffer's theory that "the wall in the head propelled the wall in the ground" (at 6:30) is absolute nonsense. Apparently she is not aware that the one and only reason the border was fortified by East Germany was the ever-increasing number of people fleeing from east to west. My dad needed two attempts and an experienced "escape agent" to flee from east to west - and that was over the "green border" in a rural area and before any wall had been built.
Nicely presented research. Fascinating topic -- that germans would change their ways of thinking about each other in the span of a few years.
Just one thought: At about 7:00 marker she talks about a phenomenon that she says is hard to understand -- that west germans lobbied American military for security against east germans. Why does she say she finds that hard to understand when that describes the mindset in her own backyard, California, when they talk about their neighbor Mexico?
This was a satisfying intellectual meal, but has only fueled my curiosity's hunger even more; I know that in America, we analyze our country's history as well as world history in public schools, and I desire to know if European countries teach their own national history as well, along with how they teach their national history. Does anybody here have any knowledge on the subject?
This has been flagged as spam show
Her statement that "It goes without saying that the infamous Iron Curtain was not as impenetrable as is often believed" (at humanexperience.stanford.edu/burnedbridge) is an insult to the several hundred people that were killed at the border while trying to escape!
Also her point at 7:05 is a complete distortion of reality! West Germans were not afraid of fleeing East Germans but of the Russian tanks and missiles stationed all over the GDR and therefore were grateful for US protection!
akeil 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Prof. Sheffer's theory that "the wall in the head propelled the wall in the ground" (at 6:30) is absolute nonsense. Apparently she is not aware that the one and only reason the border was fortified by East Germany was the ever-increasing number of people fleeing from east to west. My dad needed two attempts and an experienced "escape agent" to flee from east to west - and that was over the "green border" in a rural area and before any wall had been built.
akeil 1 month ago
"History is bunk."
Henery Ford
There is such pressure to avoid any moral or political bias that it appears to me too biased toward no bias.
sowcratees 2 months ago
Nicely presented research. Fascinating topic -- that germans would change their ways of thinking about each other in the span of a few years.
Just one thought: At about 7:00 marker she talks about a phenomenon that she says is hard to understand -- that west germans lobbied American military for security against east germans. Why does she say she finds that hard to understand when that describes the mindset in her own backyard, California, when they talk about their neighbor Mexico?
mcdonal3 2 months ago
This was a satisfying intellectual meal, but has only fueled my curiosity's hunger even more; I know that in America, we analyze our country's history as well as world history in public schools, and I desire to know if European countries teach their own national history as well, along with how they teach their national history. Does anybody here have any knowledge on the subject?
GoldXf 2 months ago
Wow
koalabearsarecute 2 months ago