The Berlin Wall, 1961

A barrier that gave the game away

In August 1961 a barrier went up across Berlin, wire first and then concrete, and it stayed until 1989. It is usually described as an act of aggression. It is more useful to see what it concedes. ⭐ A state that has to build a wall to stop its own people leaving has already lost the argument about which side people would rather live on. THE WALL WAS AN ADMISSION, NOT A THREAT. And it worked. The departures stopped, the eastern state kept the people it could not afford to lose, and Berlin stopped being the place where a war might begin. ⚠️ So this module is about something harder than success or failure. A thing can work perfectly and still be a defeat, and being able to say that clearly is what a top answer on the Wall does.

The open door, and what closed it

By the late 1950s the border between the two German states was closed and guarded. Berlin was the exception, and the exception was the whole problem. Understand what the city was before 1961 and the decision to build stops being mysterious.

Order the events of the crisis

Put these events in the order they happened.

• The blockade of the western sectors fails and two German states are founded
• The border between the two states is closed and guarded, but Berlin remains crossable
• Skilled and young people continue to leave through the city, year after year
• In August 1961 a barrier is built across the city within days
• Armoured vehicles from both sides face each other at a crossing point, then withdraw

Why nobody pulled it down

The Western powers objected to the Wall but made no attempt to demolish it. Applying the test from the previous crisis, what is the strongest explanation?

• It stood on the eastern side of the line, so removing it would have meant Western forces entering eastern territory and starting the fighting themselves
• Western forces in Berlin were too weak to do anything at all
• The Western powers had agreed in advance that a barrier could be built
• They privately welcomed it because it stopped refugees arriving

Words for writing about the Wall

Five terms that turn a description of a barrier into an argument about it.

Find the sentence that argues

A student writes about the Wall. Select the ONE sentence that makes an argument rather than describing or judging.

• The Berlin Wall was built in August 1961 and divided the city until 1989.
• It was a terrible thing to do to a city and to the families living in it.
• Building it admitted that people were leaving because they preferred the other side, which is why the West was able to point at it for the next twenty-eight years.
• The barrier was made of concrete and was guarded by watchtowers.
• Many people tried to cross it over the years that followed.

What the Wall actually achieved

Three of these five followed from the building of the Wall. Choose the three.

• The loss of skilled and young people through Berlin was brought to an end
• Berlin became less likely to produce a war, because the dispute it caused had been settled in fact
• The West gained an argument it could point to for as long as the barrier stood
• The two German states began negotiations towards reunification
• The Western powers withdrew their forces from Berlin

Two questions, one for each crisis

You met the first of these in the crisis of 1948. Keep both and this period study becomes much shorter. ⭐ After this move, who would have to fire first? ⭐ And what does this move ADMIT? The first explains why the Wall was not pulled down. The second explains why building it cost the side that built it so much. ⚠️ Both work again on the Cuban missile crisis, which is the next crisis in this period study. Do not learn three separate stories when two questions will open all of them.

Match each fact to what it explains

The club that changed its rules

Leave Berlin for a moment. A swimming club has used the same old pool for forty years, and a new one opens across town with better changing rooms and longer opening hours. Members start to drift across. Not everybody: the ones who go first are the young families and the competitive swimmers, which is to say the ones the club most needs. ⭐ The committee meets, and it has two kinds of answer available. It could make the old pool better, which is expensive and slow. Or it could change the membership rules, so that leaving requires three months notice in writing and the annual fee is non-refundable. It chooses the rules, and the rules work. The drift stops, the accounts recover, and the committee reports a successful year. ⚠️ But look at what has been said out loud. Everybody in that town now knows the club believes it cannot hold anybody by being the better place to swim. ⭐⭐ And the new pool never has to argue the point again. It just has to mention the rule.

Complete the Berlin Wall facts

After the wider frontier was sealed, people could still leave through Berlin, and those who went were disproportionately young and _____, which is why the loss mattered more than numbers alone. In August 1961 a _____ was built across the city, beginning as wire and becoming concrete. The Western powers protested but did not remove it, because it stood on the eastern side of the line and pulling it down would have meant _____. The barrier ended the departures and even _____ the city, since Berlin was no longer the place a war would start, but it was an _____ that people preferred the other side, and it gave the West _____ it could use for as long as the Wall stood.

Build the judgement on the Wall

Complete an assessment of the building of the Wall.

Berlin Wall quick-fire

Five quick decisions. Three lives.

Plan an answer on the Wall

A question asks how successful the building of the Berlin Wall was for the eastern state. Work through the plan.

• How should you frame an answer to a question about success?
• You want evidence that it succeeded. Which is strongest?
• Now the other side of the judgement. Which cost is the one that mattered longest?

Judge the building of the Wall

How successful was the building of the Berlin Wall for the eastern state? Explain your judgement.

• Explain the problem the Wall was built to solve, including who was leaving and why that mattered
• Give the evidence that it solved that problem
• Explain why the Western powers protested but did not remove it
• Explain what the decision to build it admitted, and why that was costly
• Reach a judgement that holds the success and the cost together rather than choosing one