Berlin Wall

East Berlin

Controlled by communist gov
Poor quality of goods and living
Media was controlled
Secret police
No unemployment and low costs

West Berln

Prosperity
Higher Wages and standard of living
No secret police or censorship
East Berliners knew about this

People leaving

first 7 months 1961 - 207000 people left EAST
by the end of 1961 - 10 000 left weekly
Brain Drain
Difficult to portray communism as succesful and popular

Reasons for people leaving

Walter Ubricht - hardline communist and unpopular
Standard of living
Hungarian Uprising- people realise dth eonly way to escape was leaving, not revolution

Building of it

began 13 August 1961 2 am

Effect on USA

Kennedy looked weak - could not stop construction
Looked good for capitalism
Made USA look more moral

Effect on USSR

Khrushchev looked strong and determined
Humiliating - had to physically keep people in
USSR kept educated workers

Effect on Germany

Unable to see friends, family or go to work
Anyone who trie do tleave was shot
Refugee crisis in East solved

Vienna Summit

3-4 June 1961
Kennedy met Khrushchev
treated him as inexperienced - set tone for superpwer relations