Cold War · 1961-1963

The Berlin Wall goes up

In the night of 12-13 August 1961 East German soldiers rolled out barbed wire through the middle of Berlin. Within days a wall cut the city in two. Students find Berlin inside East Germany, follow the border and hear how the Wall split families for 28 years.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1960
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In the night of 12-13 August 1961 East German soldiers rolled out barbed wire through the middle of Berlin. Within days a wall cut the city in two. Students find Berlin inside East Germany, follow the border and hear how the Wall split families for 28 years.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why East Germany built the Berlin Wall in August 1961.
  • Locate Berlin inside East Germany and the main crossings between East and West.
  • Describe how the Wall changed the lives of Berliners on both sides.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1960

Berlin in 1960

Open the map in 1960 and find Berlin inside East Germany. How far is it to the border with West Germany? Why was West Berlin called an island?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1960

A city split

Zoom in close on Berlin. Ask the atlas: "Where did the Berlin Wall run?" Find the Brandenburg Gate. Why did it become a symbol of the divided city?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1960

The long border

Zoom out and follow the border between East and West Germany from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia. Ask the atlas: "What was the inner German border like?"

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Before 1961 more than 2.5 million East Germans had moved to the West. Why was that a disaster for the East German state?
  2. In June 1961 East Germany's leader Walter Ulbricht said that nobody intended to build a wall. Two months later it went up. Why say that?
  3. Families and friends were cut apart overnight. What would that mean for you?
  4. At least 140 people died at the Berlin Wall, many of them trying to escape. What does this say about the East German state?
  5. President Kennedy said in West Berlin in 1963: "Ich bin ein Berliner." Why did his visit matter so much to West Berliners?
4

Game round

9 min

Play one round of Rule History as Frederick the Great, who made Berlin a royal capital. Then compare: in 1961 the leaders who shaped Berlin were Khrushchev, Ulbricht and Kennedy. What did each want, and who gained from the Wall?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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