The Berlin Wall Crisis

The open door

Between 1949 and 1961 around 2.7 million people left East Germany for the West, out of a population of around 18 million, and most of them went through Berlin, where a train ticket across the city was the whole journey. They were the people the East could least spare: by 1961 half the doctors trained in the German Democratic Republic since the war had gone, and so had a third of the engineers. In July 1961 alone 30,000 left. On 12 August 1961, a Saturday, 2,400 crossed in a single day. At one in the morning on Sunday 13 August East German troops and police began unrolling barbed wire along the 96 miles of boundary around West Berlin, and by dawn the crossings were closed. Concrete followed within days. Walter Ulbricht, the East German leader, had told a press conference two months earlier that nobody had any intention of building a wall. The Wall ended a crisis that had run since Khrushchev demanded in November 1958 that the West leave Berlin within six months, and it began one of its own, with American and Soviet tanks facing each other at Checkpoint Charlie in October. The exam asks why the refugees left, what the ultimatum and the summits were for, why the Wall was built and why the West let it stand, and what Kennedy meant in 1963 by Ich bin ein Berliner. This module gives you the dated evidence and the three question shapes.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the moment it mattered, because a bare definition earns nothing in an 8-mark answer.

The crisis, in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• Khrushchev issues the Berlin ultimatum, giving the West six months to leave the city
• The Paris summit collapses after an American U-2 spy plane is shot down over the Soviet Union
• Kennedy and Khrushchev meet at Vienna, and the ultimatum is renewed
• The border around West Berlin is closed overnight and the Wall goes up
• American and Soviet tanks face each other at Checkpoint Charlie
• Kennedy visits West Berlin and declares Ich bin ein Berliner

Why was the Wall built?

For twelve years the border in Berlin had been open. Which explanation best accounts for it being closed in August 1961?

• East Germany was bleeding to death through Berlin, losing 2.7 million people by 1961 and its skilled workers fastest, so that Ulbricht told Moscow the state could not survive an open border; Khrushchev had failed three times to get the West out by ultimatum, at the deadline of May 1959, at Paris in 1960 and at Vienna in June 1961, and needed a way to end the crisis that did not mean war; Kennedy had signalled on 25 July that he would fight for West Berlin but had said nothing about East Berlin, which told Khrushchev a wall would be tolerated; and closing the border stopped the refugees without touching a single Western right.
• The Wall was built to stop a Western invasion of East Germany.
• Kennedy asked Khrushchev to build it.
• The United Nations ordered Berlin divided.

What each side wanted from Berlin

The narrative and importance questions both reward knowing why Berlin was a crisis for both sides. Set the two columns side by side and the Wall is the answer that each could live with.

Impact of the Wall

Five statements about 1961 and after. Tap the TWO that give evidence of the impact of the Wall, as opposed to the reasons for it or the events of building it.

• The flow of refugees through Berlin stopped almost at once, from 2,400 in a single day on 12 August to a few hundred a month by escape, and the East German economy stabilised through the 1960s.
• At one in the morning on 13 August East German troops and factory militia began laying barbed wire along the sector boundary, and by dawn the 81 crossing points had been reduced to 13.
• Around 140 people were killed trying to cross the Wall between 1961 and 1989, among them Peter Fechter, an 18-year-old bricklayer shot on 17 August 1962 and left to bleed to death in the death strip in front of Western cameras.
• Ulbricht told a press conference on 15 June 1961 that nobody had any intention of building a wall.
• At Vienna Khrushchev told Kennedy that if the West did not accept a settlement by December, force would be met with force.

The summits, 1959 to 1961

Select the THREE statements that are true of the summit meetings between the ultimatum and the Wall.

• At Camp David in September 1959 Khrushchev and Eisenhower agreed to a further summit in Paris, and Khrushchev quietly let his six-month deadline lapse, so that the first ultimatum ended in a visit to an American farm rather than a war.
• The Paris summit of May 1960 collapsed on its first day because a U-2 spy plane had been shot down over the Soviet Union on 1 May and Eisenhower refused to apologise; Khrushchev walked out and cancelled the invitation for Eisenhower to visit Moscow.
• At Vienna on 3 and 4 June 1961 Khrushchev, judging Kennedy weak after the Bay of Pigs, renewed the ultimatum with a December deadline and threatened war; Kennedy refused to give ground and went home to prepare for a Berlin crisis.
• At Vienna the two leaders agreed a treaty making Berlin a free city.
• The Geneva summit of 1960 settled the Berlin question.
• Kennedy met Khrushchev at Camp David in 1959.

A wall is better than a war

The importance question on this bullet asks what the Wall meant for relations between the superpowers. The strong answer explains why both sides accepted it, and then says what it settled and what it did not. Why both sides accepted it. For Khrushchev the Wall solved the refugee problem without touching Western rights, and let him drop the ultimatum he had never meant to enforce. For Kennedy it was, in his own words to his aides, a hell of a lot better than a war: the three essentials of 25 July were untouched, and a wall that had to keep people in was a propaganda gift. The tanks at Checkpoint Charlie in October withdrew one at a time by agreement, which set the rule for the next 28 years. What it settled. Berlin stopped being the place where the Cold War might start. The ultimatums ended, the access routes stayed open, and the next crisis, in October 1962, was over Cuba, not Berlin. What it did not settle. Germany stayed divided, the Wall was a standing reproach that Kennedy exploited in June 1963 and Reagan in June 1987, and the settlement of Berlin was only ever a settlement of who held what, not of whether the division was just. This meant that the Wall stabilised the Cold War in Europe at the cost of making its central injustice permanent, and a judgement that says both, with the dates, reaches the top level.

In the shoes of Khrushchev and Kennedy

Four decisions between 1958 and 1961. Choose what was actually done, and notice what each choice led to.

• November 1958. You are Khrushchev. West Berlin is draining East Germany and advertising the West from inside your bloc, and the Americans have just put nuclear-capable forces into West Germany. What do you do?
• June 1961. You are Kennedy, back from Vienna, where Khrushchev threatened war unless the West leaves Berlin by December. What do you do?
• Early August 1961. You are Khrushchev. Ulbricht is begging for permission to close the border, 30,000 left in July, and Kennedy has drawn his line around West Berlin only. What do you do?
• 13 August 1961. You are Kennedy, told at breakfast that the border is closed. Your generals want to bulldoze the wire. West Berliners are demanding action. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because Berlin was the one place where an East German could walk into the West, around _____ million had left by 1961 and Ulbricht told Moscow the state could not survive. Because Khrushchev could not get the West out by threats, the deadlines of 1959, 1960 and 1961 all passed. Because Kennedy defined his three essentials around _____ Berlin only, Khrushchev saw that the eastern sector could be sealed without a war. Because the border was closed on _____ August 1961 without touching Western rights, Kennedy protested and did nothing more. And because the Wall ended the refugee flow and the ultimatums together, the next superpower crisis was over _____, not Berlin, and the Wall stood until _____.

The brain drain

Around 2.7 million people left East Germany between 1949 and 1961, out of a population of around 18 million. What percentage of the population had left?

The 8-mark consequences question

Question 1 might read: Explain two consequences of the building of the Berlin Wall. Each consequence is marked as a consequence plus supporting detail, for 4 marks. Which answer scores all four marks for ONE consequence?

• One consequence was that the refugee crisis ended and East Germany survived. Before 13 August 1961 around 2.7 million people had left through Berlin, 30,000 in July alone; after the border closed the flow fell to a few hundred a month, the skilled workers stayed because they had no choice, and the East German economy, which Ulbricht had said could not last another year with an open border, stabilised through the 1960s.
• One consequence was that people could not leave East Germany any more and some were shot.
• One consequence was that Khrushchev had failed to get the West out with his ultimatum.
• On 13 August the wire went up, concrete followed within days, and in October tanks faced each other at Checkpoint Charlie.

A narrative paragraph, marked

Question 2: Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Berlin crisis in the years 1958 to 1961. You may use: the Berlin ultimatum; the Vienna summit. The crisis began on 27 November 1958 when Khrushchev demanded that the Western powers leave Berlin within six months and make it a free city, because the open border was draining East Germany of skilled workers and West Berlin advertised the West from inside the Soviet bloc. The West refused, and this led to a round of summitry: Khrushchev let the deadline pass after Camp David in September 1959, but the Paris summit of May 1960 collapsed on its first day because a U-2 spy plane had been shot down over the Soviet Union on 1 May and Eisenhower would not apologise. As a result the crisis was still open when Kennedy took office, and at Vienna on 3 and 4 June 1961 Khrushchev, judging the new president weak after the Bay of Pigs, renewed the ultimatum with a December deadline. The turning point came on 25 July, because Kennedy answered with the three essentials, the garrisons, the access and the freedom of West Berlin, and said nothing about the eastern sector, which told Khrushchev that the border could be closed without a war. What earned the marks: events in sequence with dates; each event linked to the next by because, this led to and as a result, so that the account analyses rather than lists; and the turning point named. One more paragraph, from the 30,000 refugees of July through the closing of the border on 13 August to the tanks at Checkpoint Charlie in October, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the narrative account

Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Berlin crisis in the years 1958 to 1961. You may use the following in your answer: the Berlin ultimatum; the Vienna summit. You must also use information of your own.

• The span: from the ultimatum of November 1958 to the tanks at Checkpoint Charlie in October 1961
• Detail that counts: a name, a number or a place
• Events of your own: Camp David, the U-2 and Paris, the Kennedy speech of 25 July, the refugee figures of July and August, or the building of the Wall itself

The importance question

Question 3 might read: Explain the importance of the Berlin Wall for relations between the superpowers. Which answer best explains the importance, rather than describing the Wall?

• The Wall was important because it took Berlin off the list of places where the Cold War might begin: it ended the refugee crisis that had driven Khrushchev to three ultimatums, it left every Western right that Kennedy had promised to defend untouched, and the withdrawal of the tanks one at a time at Checkpoint Charlie in October 1961 showed both sides that the new line would be respected. This meant that the superpowers had a stable front in Europe from 1961 to 1989, and that the next confrontation, over Cuba a year later, was fought somewhere else.
• The Wall was important because it was 96 miles long, went up on 13 August 1961 and around 140 people died trying to cross it.
• The Wall was important because it separated families in Berlin for 28 years.
• The Wall was important because it nearly caused a nuclear war in 1961.