1. 69. Why was the Berlin Wall built? (6)
BACKGROUND: 2I + 2E + 2EI + 2C = 6
By the late 1950s thousands were defecting (leaving).
Often highly skilled workers or well-qualified managers.
Between the years , East Germany suffered a "brain drain". During that period, 4,600 doctors, 15,885 teachers, 738 university teachers, 15,536 engineers and technicians moved from East to W. Ger.
The Communist government could not afford to lose these high-quality people - more importantly, from Khrushchev’s point of view, fleeing Communist rule for a better life under capitalism undermined Communism generally.
Khrushchev and the Communists worried that the USA and the West used Berlin as a “listening post” to spy on the East.
There was tension between the USA and the USSR because of Cuba and the U2 incident over the USSR in May, 1960 (Gary Powers).
In 1961 the USA had a new President, the young and inexperienced JFK. Khrushchev thought he could bully Kennedy (Bay of Pigs, April 1961) and chose to pick a fight over Berlin.
He insisted that Kennedy withdraw US troops but JFK refused – BW built in response to JFK’s refusal to hand over West Berlin to Communist control.
At two o’clock in the morning on Sunday 13 August 1961, East German soldiers erected a barbed-wire barrier along the entire frontier between East and West Berlin, ending all free movement from East to West. JFK / Americans were tested and did nothing to stop the wall.
It was quickly replaced by a concrete wall. All the crossing points from East to West Berlin were sealed, except for one. This became known as Checkpoint Charlie.