Key learning points

1. Escalating tensions after the Vienna Summit (June 1961) led to an increase in people attempting to leave East Germany.
2. In August 1961, to stop people leaving East Berlin, East Germany began to build what would become the Berlin Wall.
3. The Berlin Wall made it extremely difficult and dangerous to move between East Berlin and West Berlin.
4. The Berlin Wall confirmed the division of Berlin and Germany between East and West until it fell in 1989.
5. The Berlin Wall reduced the chance that the superpowers would go to war over Berlin and temporarily reduced tensions.

Keywords

• Summit - a meeting between leaders to discuss significant issues or make important decisions

• Refugee - someone who has been forced to leave their home country because of war, persecution, natural disaster, or violence, and seeks safety in another country

• Border guard - someone who makes sure that rules are followed when people and goods cross from one country to another; someone who protects the borders of a country

• Socialist - relating to a system of government where all property is owned by the community and resources are shared equally

• Symbol - something that is used to represent something else

Common misconception