1961: The Berlin Wall

Additionally, most historians observe that other (more) legitimate reasons were that...

• West Germany was more prosperous than East Germany, West Germans had a better standard of living than those in the East and West Germany was an advertisement for the economic success of Western Europe. Therefore, it enticed East Germans to desire life in the democratic, capitalist countries and flee East Germany for the West.  

• East Germany was experiencing a 'brain drain'. Germans could move freely between East Germany and West Berlin, and from 1949 to 1960, 3 million East Germans fled to the West through Berlin. Many of these were young, talented and well-educated people. 

Did the Berlin Wall reduce Cold War tensions?

Successfully reduced Cold War tensions:

• It prevented a war because the US decided it was not worth fighting for and let the USSR have their privacy.

• The Wall also reassured the West German government that the USSR was unlikely to capture West Berlin by force, as they were investing resources and creating an elaborate border system to separate East and West Berlin.

• The wall gave the Soviets the safety and security they had wanted from Germany as a result of the Second World War.

Failed to reduce Cold War tensions:

• The West became more suspicious of the Soviets and was unaware about what was happening

• Germans in West and East Germany had begun to lose faith in the Western Countries because they were not standing up and fighting for their freedom.