Why was the Berlin Wall built in 1961?
In 1958, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev demanded that the West remove all troops from West Berlin within six months. This led to three years of increasing tension and crisis in Berlin. The Vienna Summit between Khrushchev and Kennedy ended in chaos; tensions continued to rise. Seemingly overnight, in August 1961, the city of Berlin was split in two by a 96-mile long wall. East Berlin was split from West Berlin, and West Berlin was sealed from East Germany. There were few crossing points, and travel between the two was very restricted. Why did the GDR find it necessary to build this wall, in the words of Khrushchev, 'to guard the gates of the socialist paradise?' An initial barbed wire barrier was quickly replaced by a concrete wall, complete with watchtowers, killing zones and border patrols.
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Aims:
- Find out what life was like in East Germany in 1960/61
- Find out who ordered the Berlin Wall to be built
- Find out why the Berlin Wall was built
