The Berlin CrisisIGCSE History

L/O: To explain why the Berlin Wall was builtTo describe the effects of the Berlin Wall

Starter

•Events in order race: How well do you know your Cold War chronology?

•Your teacher will give you a list of events with your partner; race other groups to put them in order.

Question 1

• With an open border between East and West Berlin. By 1960 Nearly 2,000 refugees a day were fleeing to the West through west Berlin. What was the largest potential problem this created for the Soviet Union?

• A) It meant they would lose all the skilled workers

• B) It meant that the East German economy would suffer

• C) It meant that the Capitalist system was more attractive than the Communist one

• D) The open border allowed Berlin to be a center for espionage

• E) None of the above

Question 2• At the Vienna Summit of June 1961, therefore, Khrushchev

demanded that the US leave West Berlin within six months. Kennedy refused and instead guaranteed West Berlin's freedom. Which reason would increase tensions the most?

• A) Berlin would become a flashpoint

• B) Both sides had taken a public stand and would look weak if they backed down

• C) Berlin would become a capitalist island inside the hostile Iron Curtain

• D) A combination of factors of your choice

• E) Something else

Summing Up Pt1• West Berlin was a worry and an embarrassment for the Soviet Union in

1961:

• Nearly 2,000 refugees a day were fleeing to the West through west Berlin - hardly proof of the Soviet claim that the Communist way of life was better than capitalism!

• Many of those leaving were skilled and qualified workers.

• The Soviets believed (rightly) that West Berlin was a centre for US espionage.

• At the Vienna Summit of June 1961, therefore, Khrushchev demanded that the US leave West Berlin within six months. Kennedy refused and instead guaranteed West Berlin's freedom.

• On 13 August, Khrushchev closed the border between East and West Berlin and started building the Berlin Wall.

• At first, the Russians regarded it as a propaganda success, but as time went on, it became a propaganda disaster - a symbol of all that was bad about Soviet rule

Past Paper Question

•Explain why the Berlin Wall was built ?(7)

Effects of the Berlin Wall

What were the major effects of the Berlin

Wall?•A) suspicion between the two sides heightened

•B) the flow of immigrants to the West reduced dramatically

•C) anything else?

•D) A combination of factors? (which ones?)

Question 3

•What was the most important reason why the Berlin Wall was significant to the wider Cold War?

Question 4: Effects of the Wall

• It was a concrete version of the Iron Curtain.

• Families were divided.

• People died trying to cross the wall

• It symbolised the divided world.

• It showed that the difference was a real-life physical division.

• It showed that the difference was a military confrontation.

• It was a concrete symbol of the ideological divisions between the "free world" and the "communist world".

• It was concrete proof that capitalists could never work with communists.

Past Paper Question

•Describe the effects of the Berlin Wall (5)

Summing Up 2

•Who wants to summarise the main points about the effects of the Berlin Wall?