History: The Cold War
Lesson 19 of 30
Worksheet:
What were the consequences of the
building of the Berlin Wall?
1
How was the Berlin Wall constructed?
At 2am on Sunday 13th August 1961, East Berliners were woken by the sound of soldiers
working on the streets of their city. Over the course of the night, a barbed wire fence
was hastily constructed, dividing communist East Berlin from the capitalist West. By
morning, the border with West Berlin was completely closed. All free movement from
East to West was ended and armed soldiers guarded checkpoints. All crossing
points from East to West Berlin were firmly sealed. They would remain shut to the
majority of East Berliners for the next 28 years. By the end of the summer, the
barbed wire was replaced by a thick concrete 3.6 m high wall that was heavily guarded
by armed soldiers, dogs and trip-wire machine guns. In total, the Berlin Wall
measured 165 km in length and 43km of this cut straight through the centre of
Berlin itself. Over 130 people were killed attempting to cross the Wall.
The Berlin Wall remained in place for the next 28 years. How did Germans on either side
learn to live with it? What were the consequences of the Wall for their lives? How did
the Wall affect superpower relations?
What were the consequences of the Berlin Wall for people in Germany?
The main consequence of the Berlin Wall for Germans was that movement, or indeed
escape, from East to West Germany was now very difficult. This does not mean East
Germans did not try. From jumping out of windows onto carefully placed mattresses, to
attempts to tunnel beneath the Wall, many East Germans devised ingenious ways to try
and overcome its shadow – and hundreds lost their lives in the process. Some East
Germans even went so far as to mount the Wall in broad daylight, their only hope being
that the East German soldiers who shot at them might have a poor aim. These escape
attempts were rarely successful. Consequently, many East Berliners learnt to live with
the Wall. They learnt less physical ways of transcending it, such as by secretly installing
Western television aerials into their attics so that they could tune in to their favourite
television programmes or see the uncensored news from the West. Others received care
packages from family in the West which contained goods and brands that were unavailable
in the East. Through little concessions such as these, and lots of adaptations to their lives,
many East Germans slowly learnt to rebuild and live their lives in the Wall’s shadow.
- Build what life was like in East Berlin vs. West Berlin. As if you were a citizen of the respective zones.
What were the consequences of the Berlin Wall for people in Germany?
Nonetheless, this slow adaptation did not mask the fact that the Wall had separated
families, caused people to lose their jobs and prevented East Germans from
travelling to the West until the 1980s. Instead, new-born babies were held up over the
wall to be shown to proud family members on the other side, relatives learnt to live
without physical contact with their loved ones and East Germans particularly had to
learn to adjust to a life largely without the Western luxuries that they could have easily
acquired before. Most of all, the Wall served as a constant reminder of the ongoing
Cold War and came to symbolise just how divided Europe had become.
Consequently, although the Berlin Wall meant that peace was maintained between East
and West Germany, the people of Germany and particularly Berlin paid a high price
for this peace and one that it was very hard not to resent.
What were the consequences of the Berlin Wall for the USA and USSR?
In many ways, the Wall could be seen as a defeat for both the USA and
the USSR. While the USA had been powerless to stop Khrushchev from
constructing the Wall, Khrushchev had felt forced to do so because he
had failed to convince the West to withdraw from Berlin. Khrushchev
also had to abandon his plans to unite Germany under Soviet control and,
particularly in Western propaganda, the Wall was used to symbolise the
unpopularity and inhumanity of communism – the fact that
Khrushchev had to ‘lock’ East Germans into their country suggested
that Capitalism was preferable to Communism and that communist
states practiced repressive and restrictive regimes.
What were the consequences of the Berlin Wall for the USA and USSR?
The building of the Berlin Wall also had several positive consequences for each
superpower. For example, most practically for the USSR, the Wall stopped East German
refugees from leaving and forced them to find work in East Germany. This slowly helped to
strengthen the East German economy. Also, the Wall sent a powerful symbol to the West
that East Germany and the USSR were prepared to do whatever it took to protect
Communism in Berlin and that any attempt to reunite Germany under Western control
would fail.
For the USA, the Wall also had many positive consequences. For instance, the fact that the
Wall existed showed that the USA had not given in to Khrushchev’s ultimatums and had
refused to leave West Berlin. This helped to portray the USA as strong and unwilling to give
in to Khrushchev’s bullying. West Berlin therefore became a powerful symbol of freedom
and defiance against Communism. When Kennedy visited the city in 1963, he was greeted
by crowds of 1.5 million people lining the streets and his famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech
was delivered to the rapturous applause of a crowd of 200,000. It was clear that Kennedy had
come out of this crisis a hero and, for a while at least, Cold War tension in Europe eased.
What were the consequences of the Berlin Wall for superpower relations?
In the initial weeks and months after the construction of the Wall, tensions
between the USA and the USSR remained high. These tensions reached
their height in October 1961 when the USA became angry that Soviet troops
were patrolling checkpoints along the Wall and were also demanding to
see the passports of American officials who passed through these
checkpoints. As a result, the Americans stationed their troops and tanks on
the Western side of the checkpoints which prompted the Soviets to do the
same with their tanks on the Eastern side of the checkpoints. It looked as
though the Cold War was about to become hot! However, keen to avoid direct
conflict, Kennedy compromised with Khrushchev and promised to remove
the tanks providing that Khrushchev did the same. This ended the stand-off
and tensions between the superpowers settled.
What were the consequences of the Berlin Wall for superpower relations?
Now that Berlin was divided, and the borders between East and West
Germany were sealed, there was actually less chance of direct confrontation
emerging between the superpowers over Berlin. Although the wall did
symbolise how far attempts to resolve the question of Berlin through
negotiation and summits had failed, the fact was that war had been avoided.
As Kennedy succinctly claimed to his aides in 1961, ‘a wall is a hell of a lot
better than a war’ and, in many ways, it was. For both the USA and the USSR,
the Wall seemed to have resolved their concerns over Berlin and after 1961,
tensions regarding Berlin began to reduce. Nonetheless, for the people of
Europe and particularly the people of East Berlin, the Wall remained as a
powerful symbol of the differences between East and West and the
extremes to which regimes sometimes had to travel to protect the continuity
of their existence.
Glossary
Barbed wire – wire with lots of short, sharp points on it that is often
used to make fences
Construct - to build
Checkpoints - a place where something is halted for inspection
Narrative account - a story of events that happened in the past
Comprehension Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What were the consequences of the building of the Berlin Wall for
Germans?
What were the consequences of the building of the Berlin Wall for
the USA and the USSR?
What were the negative consequences of the building of the Berlin
Wall for superpower relations?
What were the positive consequences of the building of the Berlin
Wall for superpower relations?
Challenge question: Write a narrative account to explain the key
events of the Berlin Crisis in the years 1958-1961.
Berlin Crisis in the years 1958-1961
1958
1959
Causes
1958 - 3 million
East Germans
moved West
East German
economy suffered
1960
Events
1958 - Berlin Ultimatum
1960 - U-2 spy plane
1960 - Paris Summit
cancelled
1961 - Vienna Summit
1961
1962
Consequences
Berlin Wall built
East Germans
could not leave
Separated from
friends and family