Cold War East & West Berlin Video | KS3 & GCSE History | History Bombs

7. Cold War

7.3 East and West Berlin


Lesson description

After World War Two, Berlin became a hotspot of tension between the US and USSR. Then, in 1961, the Soviet powers began to build what became the Berlin Wall – 100 miles of reinforced concrete dividing East Berlin from West Berlin. What must life have been like for residents?

This lesson contains:

  • An introduction to the reasons why the Berlin Wall was first built in 1961 and continued to stand until the collapse of the USSR in 1989.
  • An exploration of how lives differed between the residents of East Berlin and West Berlin, including real-life escape attempts from the east to the west.
  • The vocabulary and terminology necessary to study the history of the Berlin Wall and Cold War Germany with confidence.