THE BERLIN WALL, 1961 term paper

The Berlin Wall, a major symbol of the Cold War for twenty-eight years, divided West Berlin, which the West viewed as an outpost of democracy, from East Berlin, which the Soviet bloc saw as the showcase for communism. In a sense, the Wall was an admission by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that communism could not compete successfully with democracy.

Between 1949 and 1961, several million Germans fled the GDR. Even after the border between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was closed, Berlin remained open and East Germans could use it as an escape route. In November 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev began the Berlin Crisis by demanding that the Western powers leave Berlin. He threatened to turn over control of Berlin to the GDR if the Western powers did not leave within six months.

The United States called Khrushchev’s bluff, but the question of Berlin continued to be a crucial issue in the Cold War. In the summer of 1961 the crisis flared up again. In part, it was based on Khrushchev’s appraisal of President John F. Kennedy. The two had met in Vienna in April for a summit conference. Khrushchev had decided Kennedy was weak.

Behind the question of Berlin was the larger issue of the viability of the GDR. It was losing skilled and well-educated people daily. Walter Ulbricht, the most powerful figure in the GDR, convinced the Soviets to allow construction of the Wall. The person actually in charge of the construction was Erich Honecker, the man who later replaced Ulbricht.

The operation was carried out with great secrecy. Troops, equipment, and workers were concentrated in East Berlin, but no one knew for what purpose. In the early morning hours of 13 August 1961, construction began. Within hours West Berlin was sealed off by barbed wire.

American reaction was muted. The Wall did not threaten American rights in Berlin as such. Kennedy responded with a few gestures, among them sending Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to Berlin. A more serious crisis came a few months later, in October, when a U.S. diplomat was not allowed to cross into East Berlin. General Lucius C. Clay, who had returned to Berlin to command the U.S. forces there, sent tanks to Checkpoint Charlie, one of the main crossing points between West Berlin and East Berlin, to test Soviet resolve. The Soviets also sent tanks, but late in October they withdrew. The Wall remained, but the Allies maintained right of access to East Berlin.

Over the next two decades, the Wall became an elaborate structure that featured concrete walls, barbed wire fences, and death strips of cleared ground. East Germans were often amazingly resourceful, but the Wall soon became virtually impregnable. With little possibility of leaving, people in the GDR tried to make the best of the situation. For a few years the system appeared remarkably successful. When the Wall fell on 9 November 1989, however, it revealed a deeply flawed system.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Write a comparative history of West Germany and East Germany in the 1950s. Why might citizens of East Germany be tempted to move to the West?
2. Assuming that you have access to film footage showing life in East and West Berlin before the Berlin Wall and also footage portraying the initial construction of the Wall, draft a script for a television documentary on the building of the Wall.
3. Determine why Nikita Khrushchev and other Soviet leaders were so concerned in the late 1950s with the division of Berlin and why they thought the Berlin Wall offered a solution.
4. A large part of President John F. Kennedy’s reputation rests on the speech he gave in 1963 in Berlin. Review the way he handled the Berlin Crisis and draw conclusions as to whether he was correct in not directly challenging the construction of the Berlin Wall.
5. Investigate the evolution of the Berlin Wall Construct a layout to scale that shows the most important features of what might be considered a representative section of the Wall.
6. Read about living with the Berlin Wall, particularly in the book edited by the Merritts and the novel by Schneider, and discuss the problems involved in living either in West or in East Berlin.

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Yalta Conference, 1945” (#36), “The Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948–1949” (#45), and “German Reunification, 1989–1990” (#90). Search under Cold War, Willy Brandt, Ostpolitik, East Berlin, West Berlin, East Germany, West Germany, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO).

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Brandt, Willy. People and Politics. Boston: Little, Brown, 1978. Brandt was mayor of West Berlin at the time the Berlin Wall was constructed. The Flights from the Soviet Zone and the Sealing-Off Measures of the Communist Regime of 13th August 1961 in Berlin. Bonn/Berlin: Federal Ministry for All-German Questions, 1962. The official West German comment on the construction of the Wall.

Honecker, Erich. From My Life. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1980. The memoirs of the person in charge of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Secondary Sources

Beschloss, Michael R. The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960–63. New York: Edward Burlingame Books, 1991. A good overview by a knowledgeable historian.

Cate, Curtis. The Ides of August: The Berlin Wall Crisis—1961. New York: M. Evans, 1978. A careful study of the Berlin Wall Crisis.

Gelb, Norman. The Berlin Wall: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and a Showdown in the Heart of Europe. New York: Dorset Press, 1990. A dependable and readable popular account.

Merritt Richard L., and Anna J. Merritt, eds. Living with the Wall: West Berlin, 1961–1985. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1985. Nonfiction accounts of life with the Wall.

Schneider, Peter. The Wall Jumper. New York: Pantheon, 1983. A fictional look at the surreal nature of the Berlin Wall.

Slusser, Robert M. The Berlin Crisis of 1961. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973. A careful discussion of the crisis.

Tusa, Ann. The Last Division: Berlin and the Wall. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1997. A recent account.

Wyden, Peter. Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. A panoramic popular history of the Berlin Wall that covers almost every aspect over the twenty-eight years of its existence.

World Wide Web

“The Wall, 1958–1963.” http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/09. Based on CNN’s Cold War documentary series, the Web site includes background, documents, a transcript of the program, and other features.